Everything you need to know about Inter Miami’s road game vs. CF Montreal on Saturday
Desperate for a win after four consecutive losses, Inter Miami heads to Harrison, New Jersey, for a Saturday matchup against CF Montreal.
Due to COVID-19 border restrictions imposed by the Canadian government, Montreal is playing its “home” games in the United States this season and has been sharing Inter Miami’s training facility in Fort Lauderdale. Saturday’s game (7:30 p.m., My33, UniMas) would have been played at DRV PNK Stadium, but Gold Cup matches are being held there all weekend, so the game was moved to Red Bull Arena.
Miami has just two wins through 10 games and sits in 12th place in the 14-team Eastern Conference with eight points. Montreal is in ninth place with three wins, three losses, four ties and 13 points.
Despite having the league’s most expensive payroll and the third-highest paid player, Argentine forward Gonzalo Higuain, Miami has struggled to find the back of the net with a total of nine goals. Only the Chicago Fire (seven) and expansion team Austin (six) have scored fewer.
Miami’s lone goal the past four games was scored by Higuain, who came off the bench to give Miami a 1-0 lead over Orlando City at home last Friday. It was not enough. The visitors scored twice in 17 minutes to take a 2-1 win and crush the sellout home crowd.
Higuain leads the team with five goals but is playing limited minutes until he reaches peak fitness. He will likely come off the bench again against Montreal.
“I’ve got to say the last few games we’ve been really fantastic in terms of our energy, aggression, pressing in that position [forward, winger],” coach Phil Neville said, praising the play of Julian Carranza, Jay Chapman, Lewis Morgan and Brek Shea. “So, we’ve just got to make sure when Gonzalo comes back into the team it’s the right moment for him to perform at his best level.”
The coach was pleased with the cohesion and urgency with which his team played last weekend. The midfielders connected more passes, had fewer turnovers, defended better and were able to free the wingers and forwards to find open spaces.
Although they were rewarded with just one goal, a solo effort by Higuain, Neville said he saw encouraging “building blocks” that will eventually lead to goals when creative players such as Higuain and Rodolfo Pizarro get back to full fitness.
Miami is catching Montreal in a bit of a slump.
After scoring six goals in its opening two games, Montreal has scored just five times in its last eight matches and is coming off a 1-1 tie with Nashville. Miami lost 2-0 to Montreal when the teams played in Fort Lauderdale in mid-May. Neville called the Canadian club “the surprise” of the MLS season.
“They’ve had an outstanding season, play a really attractive style of football with a good system,” Neville said. “We’re under no illusions. This is a really difficult game, especially after the result we had at our place. We know it’s going to be a tough game, and we feel we are ready for it.”
No player in the Miami locker room knows Montreal’s team better than Chapman, a Canadian who previously played for Toronto FC.
“I definitely have more experience against Montreal than most guys on our team, being from Toronto and the amount of rivalry games I’ve played against them,” Chapman said. “I know them well and know some guys from the national team. They have a good team this year. They have a little more quality than in years past, and they have an identity about them. They’re a hard-working team. Not going to make a ton of mistakes.”
Chapman said Montreal players and fans take special pride in representing their global city.
“They have a little of that European essence to them, they are their own kind of place in Canada,” he said. “They always give 100 percent.”
According to Neville and Chapman, Miami plans to be the aggressor from the start rather than sit back and absorb pressure as it did when they last met.
“Last time we didn’t approach it the right way,” Chapman said. “In the Orlando game we saw new desire from our team, saw that we can go in against good teams and dictate, so the guys are excited about that and we will take the same approach on Saturday.”