Beating Revolution a tall task for Miami
The playoffs are out of reach for Inter Miami, but the team would love to end its disappointing season on a high with a road upset — or at least a good performance — against first-place New England Revolution on Sunday afternoon.
It is a tall task.
New England is in a class all its own this season. The Revs recently set a league record for points in a single season with 73. They have a 20-point lead over second-place Philadelphia in the Eastern Conference.
A win Sunday would see the Revolution set a new league mark with 23 regulation season victories and give coach Bruce Arena an MLS-record 241 regular season wins. The record (240) is held by the late Sigi Schmid.
The Revolution is unbeaten over its past 10 matches and beat Miami 5-0 in Fort Lauderdale on July 21.
Miami is out of the playoff race, so coach Phil Neville tried to motivate his players this week by reminding them that the season finale (3:30 p.m., My33, CW34) is a chance to play for pride and test themselves against the best.
“We’re playing against the best manager and the best team in the league; so, for me, from an individual point of view you’re talking about how can I as a manager pit myself against the best manager, our technical staff versus the best technical staff and our players versus best players of the year?” Neville said.
Neville is friends with Arena and a longtime admirer of his team, which features Adam Buksa (16 goals), Gustavo Bou (15 goals, nine assists) and league MVP candidate Carles Gil with 18 assists.
“I’ve watched New England a lot. I was a footballer and if I were playing on Sunday, I’d be thinking I want to pit myself against the best, see what they’re like, see what they’re doing that I’m not doing, see what they’re doing that I need to improve on,” Neville said. “I want to see what it takes to become champions and have that gap on top of the league they have.”
Miami will be without goalkeeper Nick Marsman, who suffered a deep leg contusion against New York. Forward Gonzalo Higuian, Miami’s leading scorer, may be out with plantar fasciitis.
Miami defender Leandro Gonzalez Pirez is looking forward to the challenge.
“We are playing the best team right now in the country, but we believe in ourselves, we play for our pride so we play for ourselves, for the fans, for the city,” he said. “We have to go there and play our best.”
Gonzalez Pirez, asked what went wrong with the team this season, said there were close games in which they deserved more than they got, and they had themselves to blame in many cases.
He said they must work hard on being more efficient because oftentimes the other teams don’t get many chances, but they convert the chances they get. Meanwhile, last weekend against New York City FC, Miami “had three clear chances and couldn’t convert and we made one mistake and they scored on us.”
He said they aren’t excuses but feels those are the reasons Inter Miami finds itself in 11th place in the Eastern Conference.
“We all have to take the blame, from the coach to the last player on the roster because we are all Inter Miami,” Gonzalez Pirez said. “We have to find that unity we had during the win streak in the middle of the season and try to turn things around and make the playoffs next season.”
Neville said a major roster shakeup can be expected.
Player exit interviews begin Monday.
“I think we’re in a real good position to put the jigsaw together to attack next season,” Neville said. “The emptiness we have now we’ve got to bottle because we don’t want to feel that again.”
Michelle Kaufman: 305-376-3438, @kaufsports