Inter Miami stay below playoff line
Inter Miami CF entered Saturday needing a victory to jump above the playoff line in the Eastern Conference standings for the first time in their inaugural season.
Instead, they left Red Bull Arena in Harrison, N.J., without a point, losing to the Montreal Impact 2-1 after giving up a deciding goal to Maximiliano Urruti in the 80thminute.
The loss kept Inter Miami (5-11-3, 18 points) just outside the playoff standings at 12th place in the 14-team East, with the top 10 teams in the conference making the playoffs.
But the gap between them and the last playoff spot in the East widened a little bit, with Inter Miami now two points outside of 10th place instead of one.
“We’re disappointed with the result,” Inter Miami midfielder Victor Ullo a said. “We missed a great opportunity to get into the run for the playoffs. Two goals, two mistakes. At this point of the season, those mistakes are costly and you saw that [Saturday].”
Saturday’s loss ended their unbeaten streak at three matches.
Their attack once again left plenty to be desired. Inter Miami only recorded two shots (one on target) in the first half before finishing the match with 13 shots (four on target), with Montreal goalkeeper James Pantemis only making three saves.
Inter Miami entered Saturday coming off a 1-1 draw with Atlanta United FC where only six of their 21 shots were on target.
They’ve scored 19 goals through their 19 games, which is tied for the fourth-fewest goals scored per game out of all 26 teams in Major League Soccer. Inter Miami entered Saturday with thesix-fewest goals per shot.
“Offensively is the hardest part to dissect,” Ulloa said. “We’re missing that last final pass. We’ re creating opportunities and getting into that last third. We’re missing that last final pass and the confidence tomake it.
Inter Miami had a sloppy start to the game, consistently losing one-on-one battles and 50-50 balls all over the field. The defense had a hard time tracking Montreal’s Bojan early on and the Spanish midfielder made them pay for it.
After an Inter Miami give away in the sixth minute, Bojan slipped through the defense and hit a strike from several yards outside Inter Miami’s box into their goal. John McCarthy misread the bounce the ball took before it went into the back of the net to give Montreal an early 1-0 lead.
“In the first 25 minutes,” Inter Miami coach Diego Alonso said, “we struggled to understand the game. Itwas structured in a way where we should’ve been attacking with crosses from the outside. We struggled with the timing of the match.”
Brek Shea scored in the 33rd minute to give Inter Miami the break they needed.
Leandro Gonzalez Pirez crossed the ball to Shea outside Montreal’ s box, with Shea taking a touch before hitting a left-footed shot that deflected off Pantemis into the back of Montreal’s goal to tie the match at 1.
Shea’s four goals on the season are the second-most on the team behind Lewis Morgan (five).
Urruti scored the game-winner after Bojan snuck behind Inter Miami’s backline and assisted the Argentine forward for the goal.
Inter Miami tried to become a more dangerous team on the attack in the second half by subbing in Julian Carranza (71st minute), Federico Higuain and Matias Pellegrini (82nd minute), but they didn’t find the equalizer.
“Mentally, we have to be queued in from the get-go,” Ulloa said. “I can’t really come up with any excuses. It just wasn’t good enough fromthe get-go.”
Inter Miami’s schedule to close out the regular season is significantly tougher after Saturday.
Before they close out the season Nov. 8 at home versus an FC Cincinnati (4-10-4, 16 points) team with the third-fewest points in the league, Inter Miami will face Orlando City SC (8-2-7, 31 points) on Oct. 24at Inter Miami CF Stadium in the fourth matchup between the in-state rivals.
Orlando is No. 4 in the East, is on an 11-game unbeaten streak and has a 2-1 advantage in the season series.
Inter Miami also will match up against FC Dallas (6-4-6, 24 points — No. 5 in the West) on Oct. 28 at Toyota Stadium and Toronto FC (11-2-5, 38 points — No. 1 in the East) on Nov. 1 at Rentschler Field before facing Cincinnati.
“[Saturday], we weren’t good enough and needed to create more opportunities,” Ulloa said. “That’s kind of how our season has been. The ball hasn’t really bounced our way. We have four games left and we’re going tomake a playoff run.”