DRV PNK Stadium will be packed for match vs. Barcelona
DRV PNK Stadium will host its largest crowd ever Tuesday when Inter Miami CF takes on European powerhouse Barcelona for a friendly match.
The sold-out 8 p.m. match is set to smash the club’s previous attendance record, which was set June 21, 2021, when rivals Orlando City SC were in Fort Lauderdale.
Head coach Phil Neville sees Tuesday night as a potential turning point not only for the club as a whole, but also it’s fan base.
“I think this game probably suits the direction in which we want to take the club,” Neville said Monday evening. “We see ourselves as someone that wants to make inroads in terms of the world knowing about Inter Miami. ... We’ve got some great sporting teams in this area and we want football and soccer to be at the forefront of everybody’s mind tomorrow night.
“And then what that will give us hopefully is that people that come to the stadium to say, ‘You know what, we’re going to come more to this stadium, we’re going to fill out when we play Cincinnati and Columbus and Toronto . ... The next step of this football club is to have more night[s] like against Barcelona, filling out stadiums, big crowds, big games.”
While it’s been advertised as a friendly, Neville sees the match as anything but.
His squad’s entire focus has been on Barça since Inter Miami’s dramatic 3-2 win over Charlotte on Saturday.
“There are no friendlies, we want to compete,” Neville said. “We want to make sure that we give Barcelona a good game. We want to test ourselves against the best, the best players, the best teams, the best coaches and tomorrow night I want my team to be competitive.”
Barcelona, winners of 26 La Liga titles and five UEFA Champions Leagues, are kicking off their two-week preseason American tour in Fort Lauderdale before playing matches in Las Vegas, Dallas and New York.
The Spanish side, which had its first U.S. training session at Inter Miami’s training facility Sunday, comes in with a revamped squad that includes freshly signed forward Robert Lewandowski, who was brought on a $50.4 million transfer from Bayern Munich.
Lewandowski scored 344 goals in 375 games over eight seasons in Germany and won two FIFA Men’s Player of the Year awards in that time.
Barcelona also boasts several other world-class players that could potentially be on display for its South Florida soccer fans.
“We’re very happy to be able to travel the world throughout the year representing Barcelona,” team captain Sergio Busquets said. “We know that we’re here to represent the club at the international level and that we have fans all over the world. So, to be able to be here in Miami and be closer to our fans is a pleasure.”
Tuesday will be the second time in Inter Miami’s short history that the team hosts an international friendly at DRV PNK Stadium, the other occasion came against Peru-based Club Universitario de Deportes on Jan. 26, a game Miami won 4-0.
Neville and his team will have an opportunity to play against some top notch competition while preparing for its final push for an MLS playoff spot. Inter Miami currently sits in ninth place in the Eastern Conference, two points behind a playoff berth and seventhplaced FC Cincinnati.