Intriguing storylines to follow in Inter Miami road game Saturday vs. Seattle Sounders
Inter Miami headed to Seattle for Saturday’s game against the Sounders with a boost of confidence after an inspired win over New England, but without the team’s marquee player.
Argentine forward Gonzalo Higuain, Miami’s highest-priced player, will miss his second game in a row due to what the club termed a slight knee injury. The team played its best game of the season without him against the Revolution, and his replacement Leo Campana scored all three goals in the 3-2 win, the first hat trick in club history.
Coach Phil Neville stressed that there is real competition for the center forward role, and that Campana “played freer” without Higuain in the lineup.
The absence of Higuain is just one of the intriguing storylines in Saturday’s match (10 p.m., FS1, Fox Deportes).
It will be a homecoming for Inter Miami defender DeAndre Yedlin, who was born and raised in Seattle, rose through the Sounders’ youth academy, and played for the first team before leaving on an eight-year career abroad playing for Tottenham, Sunderland, and Newcastle in England, and, most recently, with Galatasaray in Turkey.
He said he is looking forward to eating at his grandmother’s house and introducing friends and family to his infant daughter, who had never been to Seattle.
“Returning to Seattle is going to be amazing,” Yedlin said. “Most of my family is there. My daughter’s going to be in Seattle for the first time. To be back in the stadium, where I grew up, it will be a good feeling.”
It will also be a return home for former Sounders Sporting Director Chris Henderson, who joined Miami before the 2021 season, and for former Sounders defender Damion Lowe, who was on the roster from 2014-16 but struggled to break into the lineup.
The two-time MLS Cup champion Sounders, who won titles in 2016 and 2019, enter the weekend on an emotional high after advancing to their first CONCACAF Champions League Final in club history. Seattle tied New York City FC 1-1 on the road to advance 4-2 on aggregate. The Sounders will face Mexican club Pumas UNAM in a two-leg final in late-April.
After a slow start to the season while juggling Champions League and dealing with injuries, the Sounders are unbeaten in their last seven matches (4-0-3) in all competitions. They are 2-2-1 in MLS, while Miami is 1-4-1.
It remains to be seen what lineup Seattle coach Brian Schmetzer goes with, as the Sounders will have just three days’ rest from the NYCFC game. He suggested after that game that some young players would get minutes.
Peruvian forward Raul Ruidiaz played 83 minutes against New York, so Will Bruin or Fredy Montero could get the nod.
No matter who lines up for Seattle at Lumen field, the match will be a tall task for Miami, which is tied for last in MLS in goals allowed this season with 15 through six matches and is last in goal differential at minus-nine.
The Sounders’ offense features Ruidiaz, creative Uruguayan midfielder Nico Lodeiro, Slovakian winger Albert Rusnak, Brazilian midfielder Joao Paulo and U.S. national team players Cristian Roldan and Jordan Morris.
“They’re serial winners, great experience, brilliant players, outstanding coach,” Neville said.
“Before I joined MLS, from the outside, they were always the standard bearer. When we used to come here on preseason tours, Seattle was a team most Premier League teams wanted to play. Why? Because they were the best.”
Yedlin has kept tabs on the Sounders since he left and knows how dangerous they are.
“One thing I know about them is that they’re a very honest team, a team full of workers and you add the talent they have and it makes them a very good team,” Yedlin said. “That’s why they’re challenging for titles every year. It will be a very difficult game, especially playing away, and playing on turf.”
Yedlin and Inter Miami defender Aime Mabika both said the key will be to stay compact, try to force the Sounders to play wide, and not let them get space in the middle of the field.
Miami midfielder Bryce Duke, who previously played for Los Angeles FC, is quite familiar with the Sounders and echoed what Yedlin and Mabika said.
“Definitely a team with a tremendous amount of quality,” Duke said. “And then Jordan Morris, a guy who runs behind the back line and threatens, so we’re constantly going to have to be aware of that. Overall, a good team, same group that’s been around for a while, so they have chemistry. We have to go with mindset they’re going to play their best guys.”