Inter Miami plays at D.C. United on Saturday. Here’s what you need to know
Inter Miami and D.C. United meet for the second time in five weeks on Saturday, but the circumstances will be quite different. A lot has changed since their last game, a 2-1 Miami home loss on June 3.
Four days after that game, Lionel Messi announced his plans to join Inter Miami this summer, setting off a frenzy of excitement around the team. Within a few weeks, his former FC Barcelona teammates Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba were finalizing deals to join him.
All three are expected to sign contracts in the coming days and be introduced at a July 16 event at DRV PNK Stadium. The team also hired a new coach, Tata Martino, who coached all three players at Barcelona and won the 2018 MLS Cup with Atlanta United.
Martino, a native of Argentina, obtained his work visa late this week, oversaw his first Miami practice on Thursday and will be at Audi Field on Saturday night, but is leaving the sideline work to interim coach Javi Morales. Martino will take full charge on Monday, and Morales will stay on as an assistant.
D.C. players are preparing for an energized Miami team that recorded back-to-back ties the last two games after losing seven in a row.
“Miami has a lot of hype behind it now,” D.C. United midfielder Chris Durkin said. “They are all excited and on the same page for Messi’s arrival, so they’ll be flying.”
Miami is desperate to end its nine-game winless skid. With 14 games remaining in the regular season, Miami is in last place in the Eastern Conference with a 5-13-2 record, nine points shy of the playoff line. D.C. is in eighth place at 8-9-5 and has already surpassed last season’s point total. The top nine earn playoff berths. United has not made the playoffs since 2019.
United is coming off a 1-0 road victory against Dallas.
“This is a huge game for us because a win would put us in a very good place with just one game before the (Leagues Cup) break,” said D.C. coach Wayne Rooney.
The other big difference between the June 3 game and this one (7:30 p.m., AppleTV) is that Miami is unlikely to lose a player to a red card in the seventh minute. Defender Kamal Miller was ejected in the seventh-minute and Miami was forced to play the rest of the game a man down. D.C. dominated with 23 total shots and six on goal, compared to four Miami shots and just one on frame, which resulted in Ian Fray’s goal.
D.C. held a 69 percent to 31 percent edge in ball possession that night.
“They don’t have their new players yet, but it will still be a bit different, and tactically we will have to make some adjustments because they got an early red card last time,” Durkin said. “They have a new coach, and are a bit more aggressive now, got a couple of results together, so we have to make our home field our fortress.”
Miami will be missing starting defenders DeAndre Yedlin (USA) and Miller (Canada), who are facing each other in the Gold Cup quarterfinals on Sunday, and Franco Negri, who suffered a season-ending knee injury a few weeks ago. Forward Robbie Robinson (hamstring) is also expected to be out.
“It’s going to be a tough game, they are very strong at home, but my feelings are good about the Saturday game because of the way we played the last two games,” Morales said. “That gave me a lot of hope. We are going into D.C. with the mentality to get the three points. Right now, we are in a transition, a lot of changes are coming for the club. But we’re going in the right direction.”
Defender Noah Allen, who stepped into the starting role in place of the missing players, agreed that the team is united and on an upward trend as it awaits its much-hyped new players.
“If we all stay focused, we can block out the other stuff,” he said. “There’s exciting times to look forward to. We’re looking forward to the future and just have to battle it out now with missing players, big injuries to our captain and other players, so we have perform now, because we know the future could be much better.”
This story was originally published July 7, 2023 at 3:35 PM.