F1 crossover fans may energize Messi, Inter Miami in rematch vs. Red Bulls on Saturday
Inter Miami forward Luis Suarez was in the paddock at the Miami Grand Prix on Thursday afternoon, drawing a crowd of photographers and TV cameras as he played a friendly soccer juggling game with Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz.
The world’s best F1 race car drivers are in town this weekend, Suarez and Sainz are both sponsored by Puma and are friends.
There is much crossover between international soccer stars and race car drivers, and there is a chance some racers and/or celebrities in town for the race will be at Chase Stadium Saturday night when Inter Miami plays the New York Red Bulls in a rematch of Miami’s biggest loss of the year, a 4-0 drubbing on the road six weeks ago.
It was cold and stormy that day, and several key players were missing from both teams, including Miami captain Lionel Messi, who missed four games with a hamstring injury. To make matters worse, it was a former Inter Miami player, Lewis Morgan, who led the Red Bulls with a hat trick.
“It was a poor game, we have analyzed it a lot, independent of the absences, and it was our worst match of the past year,” said Inter Miami coach Tata Martino. “We expect an equally intense game Saturday, they have all their players also available. It will be a good test for us.”
Miami has not lost a league game since that defeat and is riding a three-game win streak during which it outscored opponents 10-4.
Messi is a big reason for the turnaround and for the team’s surge to the top of the Supporters Shield race with 21 points. The Argentine scored five goals over the past three games and added three assists. He has a league-high nine goals with seven assists over seven games and on Tuesday was named MLS Player of the Month for April.
He is coming off a two-goal, one-assist performance in a 4-1 win over the New England Revolution in front of a historic crowd of 65,600 at Gillette Stadium.
He shifted at times from the traditional No. 10 playmaker spot to more of a No. 9 striker position. Martino said Messi may be employed in different spots as the season progresses.
“To have Leo in those spaces is good news for us so he doesn’t have to expend so much energy…it’s not that he can’t do it, he is moving well on any part of the field, but we should not deny that in addition to being the best soccer player in the world who creates goals, he’s also a great finisher, “Martino said. “So, we have to find places for him in different facets of the game.”
Inter Miami has also been strengthened by the return of Benjamin Cremaschi, Robert Taylor and Leo Campana, all of whom missed significant time with injuries.
Cremaschi, the Key Biscayne teen, missed the first eight games of the season after sports hernia surgery, but showed no signs of rust upon his return. The energetic midfielder scored against New England shortly after coming on as a sub for Julian Gressel in the 75th minute. Cremaschi will push Gressel for the starting job.
Diego Gomez, Fede Redondo, and Jordi Alba are still out injured. Sergiy Kryvtsov is back.
Miami is unbeaten during the past four league games. Third-place New York is unbeaten over six, led by Emil Forsberg and Morgan, who has seven goals and one assist in 10 games.
“We have recovered from a difficult, painful stretch,” Martino said. “We aspired to be the Columbus of (Wednesday) night (the Crew beat Monterrey to advance to the Champions Cup final). We were unable to do that, but we regrouped with a road win at Kansas City and have had three wins now, including two on the road. That gives us strength. We are in a good stretch and want to keep it going.”
The only glaring problem has been conceding early goals. In the past three games Miami allowed goals in the sixth minute, second minute and first minute.
“We talk about that every week, in our coaches’ meetings, one minute before going on the field, and they keep doing it to us the same way,” Martino said. “That’s the bad part. The good part is we know how to turn things around, not panic, and keep looking for goals. But it is a topic we are trying to resolve, we talk about it extremely often, but until now we have not found the solution.”
The men in pink are determined to start strong on Saturday and avenge the loss to the Red Bulls.
“It’s time for us to show them how good we really are,” Taylor said. “When we went there, we were not ourselves at all. Now it’s redemption for us.”
How to Watch:
Inter Miami vs. New York Red Bulls kicks off at 7:30 p.m. at Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale. The game will be shown for free on Apple TV. Tickets are on sale through TicketMaster and secondary market. As of Saturday morning they were listed for $150 through $750.
This story was originally published May 3, 2024 at 4:01 PM.