Push for a playoff spot continues against Houston
Team is expected to get a few key pieces back from injury on Saturday
Inter Miami CF enter their matchup against the Houston Dynamo on Saturday looking to carry themomentumthey created after a short-handed version of the team ended a three-game losing streakWednesday.
Gonzalo Higuain, Inter Miami’s new captain after Luis Robles’ injury lastweek, scored his first goal with the team in the 81st minute to seal a 2-1comeback victory against the New York Red Bulls despite Inter Miami missing five starters.
“The result helped us emotionally,” Inter Miami coach Diego Alonso said about the win. “Losses and victories — you have to forget them 24 hours after they happen.
Now, we have to try to win again.”
Luckily for Inter Miami, they won’t be as shorthanded versus the Dynamo thisweekend at Inter Miami CF Stadium.
Center back Leandro Gonzalez
Pirez is expected to rejoin the team’s starting lineup Saturday at Inter Miami CF Stadium (5 p.m. kickoff with the game broadcasting on Unimas) after serving a one-game yellow-card-accumulation suspension against the Red Bulls.
Forward/winger Juan Agudelo could return to the game-day roster versus the Dynamo, according to Alonso, after missing the team’s last two games due to injury.
Robles (fractured arm) and Rodolfo Pizarro (Mexico national team obligations) will remain out for Saturday’smatch.
Alonso added center back Andres Reyes will miss Saturday’s match — and the next two weeks — after fracturing a bone in his face against the Philadelphia Union on Sept. 27 as Inter Miami (4-10-2, 14 points) continue their push for a spot in the MLS Cup playoffs.
InterMiamiwill face aDynamo (4-5-7, 19 points) team that is on the brink of a playoff spot itself.
Houston is tied with the Colorado Rapids (5-4-4, 19 points) for eighth place in the Western Conference standings, which is the last playoff position in the conference. The Dynamo snapped a sixmatch winless streak of their own in a 2-0 victory against FCDallas
Inter Miami midfielder Wil Trapp is familiar with Houston coach Tab Ramos due to Ramos’ time coaching the U.S. men’s national under-20 soccer team, which Trapp played for from 2012-13. Trapp mentioned the Dynamo’s struggles with defending in transition as a part of the game Inter Miami can exploit.
“They’re very expansive in how they want to play,” Trapp said. “They want to keep the ball and dominate possession. In doing that, they leave themselves at times open for counterattacks. For us, that’s something we’ve been very good at this year — creating chances on the counter.”
With seven games left in the regular season, Trapp said he feels good about Inter Miami’s chances to make the playoffs.
They’re 12th place in the 14-team Eastern Conference standings and are three points outside of a playoff spot, with Nashville (4-5-5, 17 points) currently in 10th place (the last playoff position in the conference)
“What I think the most important thing for us is to look at it one game at a time,” Trapp said. “If we’re looking at it bite by bite, we’ll find the results will take care of themselves. There are 21 points available — we want to obviously take 21 points — but you can only that game by game and looking at these three points as the one we have to capitalize on.”