Miami faces critical challenges against MLS’ best this week
The Herons play a regular-season match at unbeaten East leaders Columbus on Saturday; Thursday, they play the red-hot and West-leading Whitecaps in a Champions Cup semifinal at Vancouver.
Lionel Messi dribbles through the Columbus defense during a match last season. Credit: Joseph Maiorana/USA TODAY Sports/Reuters
To be the best…beat the best
Inter Miami CF wants to be the best team in North America, the Western Hemisphere and, one day, maybe … the world? But to be the best, they must beat the best. This week, that means the undefeated, Eastern Conference-leading Columbus Crew and the Supporters Shield front-running and Western Conference-leadingVancouver Whitecaps.
The most recent Major League Soccer power rankings, compiled by a panel of MLSsoccer.com contributors, provide added drama to Miami’s matches this week. After the Herons’ lackluster 0-0 tie Sunday against the Chicago Fire, Vancouver (ranked first this week) and Columbus (second) leap-frogged former No. 1 Inter Miami. While there’s more at stake than an opinion poll rating, it’s one more bit of motivation for the Pink & Black.
Battle of the unbeaten
Graphic above by MLSsoccer.com
• WHO: Inter Miami CF (4-0-3, 15 points) vs. Columbus Crew (5-0-3, 18 points)
• WHAT: MLS regular season
• WHEN: 4:30 p.m. ET, Saturday, April 19
• WHERE: Huntington Bank Field, Cleveland
• TV: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV+
• RADIO: Inter Miami — ESPN 106.3 FM (English), Deportes Radio 760 AM (Spanish)
• RADIO: Columbus — Alt 105.7 FM and the iHeartRadio app (English), 102.5 FM and La Grande app (Spanish)
Herons to play Crew in Cleveland
For the second straight weekend, Inter Miami will play in an American football stadium. On Sunday, the Men in Pink played the Chicago Fire to a scoreless draw in front of more than 62,000 fans at venerable Soldier Field, home of the NFL’s Chicago Bears.
On Saturday, the Herons will play at 67,431-seat Huntington Bank Field in Cleveland, home of the Browns. The FanSided site MLS Multiplex explained why the Crew moved a home match out of its own metropolitan area, but obviously the key reason is readily apparent: money. Columbus’ Lower.com Field holds 20,371 fans.
Inter Miami, with 15 points, could catch table-topping Columbus (18 points) with a win Saturday, but the Herons — who have been inconsistent of late because of their squeaky-tight match schedule — will have to be at their best to outscore the Crew.
Cucho Hernandez, arguably the most talented player ever to play for the Columbus Crew, was sold to Real Betis of Spain’s La Liga in February. Photo: Barbara J. Perenic/Columbus Dispatch
No Cucho, no problem
In February, Columbus traded Colombian footballer Juan Camilo Hernández Suárez — better known as “Cucho” — to Spanish side Real Betis. In 71 appearances for the Yellow & Black, the 25-year-old tallied 63 goal contributions (44 goals and 19 assists) and helped Columbus lift the 2023 MLS Cup and 2024 Leagues Cup trophies, earning Man of the Match honors in both finals.
Some observers wondered how 2024 MLS Coach of the Year Wilfred Nancy and the Crew would fare without Cucho’s production; the answer, at least so far, has been, “Just fine, thank you.”
Wilfried Nancy led the Columbus Crew to the 2023 MLS Cup championship and earned the 2024 MLS Coach of the Year award after winning the Leagues Cup and losing to Pachuca in the Concacaf Champions Cup final. Photo: USA TODAY USPW / Reuters
The Crew have adjusted well to Cucho’s absence. Columbus (5-0-3, 18 points) is one of just two still-unbeaten MLS teams — Inter Miami (4-0-3, 15 points) is the other — and is one of five teams sporting a +6 goal differential. Only the Whitecaps (remember them? Miami’s midweek matchup?) have a wider gap (+11) between goals scored (17) and allowed (6).
Coincidentally, the Herons and Crew each have scored 12 goals and allowed six, although Columbus has played one game more than Inter Miami.
Rossi to the rescue
Diego Rossi, 27, has five goals and an assist through eight matches, and Javen Russell-Rowe, 22, has pitched in with four goal contributions (3 goals, 1 assist). Striker Daniel Gazdag, recently acquired from Philadelphia, played 45 minutes for the Crew in a 2-1 win Sunday at Saint Louis City and likely will help share the scoring burden with Rossi and Russell-Rowe going forward. Gazdag scored 72 goals in all competitions (59 in MLS play) over five years in Philadelphia.
“Columbus is one of the best teams in the league, with a very clear identity….”
— Javier Mascherano, IMCF coach
First-year Inter Miami coach Javier Mascherano said facing Nancy’s team will be “a challenge.”
“Columbus is one of the best teams in the league, with a very clear identity, which was instilled by their coach, a coach who has won the MLS title and other important titles,” Mascherano was quoted by Michelle Kaufman as saying in a Miami Herald article. “For us, this is a challenge, and for me as a coach, facing a coach who will try to make things difficult. We accept that challenge, knowing this will be a difficult match.”
Inter Miami in a sneaky slump
Inter Miami has settled for draws in each of its last two league matches, salvaging a 1-1 tie against struggling Toronto FC two weeks ago and settling for a nil-nil score against Chicago.
The Herons have won just once in their last four matches overall. The Pink suffered its first loss of the season, an 0-1 final at LAFC in the first leg of the Champions Cup quarterfinals, but bounced back for an iconic 3-1 come-from-behind victory against LAFC at Chase Stadium, earning their first-ever Champions Cup semifinal berth.
Matt Doyle mentioned the Herons’ lack of energy in a preview for MLSsoccer.com:
“It’s somehow come quietly – weird, when you consider how much hoopla there’s been around Miami for the past two years – but the Herons have hit something of a rough patch in April,” Doyle wrote, later adding that the Herons have “looked vulnerable in a way they just didn’t over the first six weeks of the season.”
“They’ve logged a lot of miles and…their legs are looking a little heavy.”
— Matt Doyle, writing for MLSsoccer.com
He attributes the drop off to exhaustion, a good bet for a squad that’s played competitive matches every four days for two months with very little rotation of its most important — and oldest — players.
“They’ve logged a lot of miles and haven’t done a ton of squad rotation, so their legs are looking a little heavy. That’s hurt them in attack (just four goals in four games), but also in defense, where they’ve been gappier and easier to play through than in February and March,” Doyle wrote.
Inter Miami acquired 18-year-old Ecuadorian striker Allen Obando on loan from Barcelona de Guayaquil of Ecuador’s Serie A to relieve 38-year-old icon Luis Suarez. Look for the lanky, 6-foot-2 newcomer to see action against Columbus, as a starter or second-half replacement. I’d love to see Miami’s Forgotten Man, Julian Gressel, start on the right wing to lob his pinpoint crosses into the box for the young guy, but it seems apparent Mascherano doesn’t see Gressel fitting his vision for the Herons. For the players’ sake, I hope he’s traded before this transfer window closes.
Projected starters
COLUMBUS — Schulte; Amundsen, Cheberko, Moreira; Arfsten, Chambost, Nagbe, Farsi; Gazdag, Rossi; Russell/Rowe.
INTER MIAMI — Ustari; Alba, Falcon, Aviles, Fray; Busquets, Redondo; Taylor, Messi, Allende; Obando.
No, I HAVEN’T forgotten Thursday’s Champions Cup clash on the West Coast. I’ll have more on the Whitecaps before the semifinals start, but this weekend let’s enjoy the Herons’ league game. Both teams can play beautiful football when motivated, and it’s hard to imagine a more motivating matchup.