Campana out for Inter Miami game at Montreal Saturday. Higuain 50-50. Here are details
Inter Miami, eager to climb above the playoff line as the MLS season hits the final stretch, will be without its top scorer for the road game Saturday against CF Montreal.
Forward Leo Campana, who leads Miami with eight goals, was sent home after Wednesday’s 1-0 road win at San Jose to have scans done on his left thigh. He left the game in the 20th minute. Coach Phil Neville said Campana “might be out for a period of time.”
Meanwhile, forward Gonzalo Higuain, in top form with five goals over the past five games, is “50-50” for Saturday after taking a knock to his jaw area during a corner kick against San Jose, Neville said. Higuain’s neck and jaw were still sore on Friday morning, and he was being evaluated later in the day.
Inter Miami is in the middle of a 7,600-mile road trip and trying to keep fresh legs after the long plane ride from San Jose. The team did not train Thursday and was working on recovery Friday.
Miami, which sits in eighth place in the East, even on points with seventh-place Charlotte, faces a Montreal team that is in third place and on a four-game unbeaten streak, including a come-from-behind win against Columbus on Wednesday.
Montreal coach Wilfried Nancy told his players they will likely need 14 or 15 wins to make the playoffs, and they have 12 with 11 games to go. They are 10 points clear of the playoff line, so probably a lock to make the postseason.
Midfielder Djordje Mihailovic is one of the best players in the league, forward Kei Kamara is one of the most prolific in MLS history and Romell Quioto has nine goals this season.
Miami is 8-10-5 and trying to break out of a pack of teams that are all still in contention. The difference between fifth place and 11th is just three points. The top seven make the playoffs.
“Montreal rested six players Wednesday night from the starting 11, because of their position in the table it enabled them to take that risk and then they brought players on at the end to win them the game,” Neville said. “We didn’t have that luxury. Our game went 97 minutes. But our squad is full of confidence. We took a major step winning on the road and [Saturday] is an even bigger step. We’ll have to be more ruthless and defend even better because Montreal has bigger threats and is a better team than San Jose.”
With Campana and Coco Jean (groin) out, and Higuain a question mark, Neville said he would turn to Ariel Lassiter, Indy Vassilev, Emerson, Alejandro Pozuelo and Bryce Duke to produce goals on Saturday (7:30 p.m., CBS4).
“When we made the moves in the last month, it was to give us depth in forward positions, and we’re going to need that,” Neville said, adding that the loss of Robbie Robinson for the rest of the season also hurts. “My thought is that Leo could be out for a period of time, and we need the others to be flexible and adaptable with their positions.”
Neville is impressed with what he has seen of Montreal.
“They’re really strong at home, they press really aggressively, they have a real fluid system and we’re going to have to be tactically astute,” he said. “Mihailovic is one of the most outstanding 10s in the league and they’re a real threat from crosses.”
Despite a pair of 3,000-miles flights and a game over four days, captain Gregore said he and his teammates have plenty of energy left.
“We are happy doing our jobs, we had a good game in San Jose and our staff is working with us to make sure we are fully recovered and have energy in our legs for Saturday,” Gregore said.
Note: Inter Miami announced Friday that it traded backup goalkeeper Clement Diop to the New England Revolution for $125,000 in general allocation money.
This story was originally published August 5, 2022 at 3:08 PM.