Messi, Suarez, Alba rest as Inter Miami squanders 3-1 lead, loses 4-3 to FC Dallas
A dejected Lionel Messi was caught on camera shaking his head in a Chase Stadium suite early Sunday evening as he watched his Inter Miami teammates give up a third unanswered goal to FC Dallas, resulting in a crushing 4-3 loss.
The Argentine legend, who was rested for the game along with other key starters amid a high-stakes Champions Cup week, surely was thinking the same thing everyone in the stunned crowd was thinking: How could the team have squandered a 3-1 second half lead? How could the team that was celebrating its third goal and a seemingly safe lead just 30 minutes earlier find itself trudging to its home locker room empty handed and brokenhearted?
What went wrong?
Coach Javier Mascherano offered a simple answer: 'For 60 to 65 minutes we played a very good game, during which we fell behind and rallied, which isn't easy. Regrettably, as I told the players, I am responsible. I made a mistake reading the game and I was unable to help them.'
He went on to explain that when Miami was was ahead 3-2, and he was preparing to make substitutions, Dallas went to a five-man attack and in wanting to match those numbers, he made some changes that did not go well. The team seemed disorganized and began to unravel at that point, and the visitors took advantage.
'Sometimes those things happen, and you have to take the blame,' Mascherano said.
It was Miami's first loss in league play this season, and the team drops to 5-1-3 for fifth place in the Eastern Conference.
Messi, Luis Suarez, Jordi Alba, and Oscar Ustari were not on the Inter Miami game roster for the Sunday match, and Sergio Busquets was on the bench. The veteran quartet was given a break, was expected, as Miami was coming off a 2-0 loss on the road against the Vancouver Whitecaps late Thursday night in the first leg of the Concacaf Champions Cup semifinal. The second and decisive leg of the series looms Wednesday in Fort Lauderdale.
The roster shakeup opened up opportunities for some of the team's lesser-used players, such as defenders Ian Fray and David Martinez, and forwards Leo Afonso and Allen Obando, the 18-year-old Ecuadorean forward, who made his first MLS start.
Fray and Obando made an impact early on in the game, and were a big reason Inter Miami held a 2-1 lead at halftime.
Miami fell behind in the eighth minute on a goal by Dallas right back Shaq Moore, who grew up in nearby Lauderhill and got his start with the Lauderhill Lions. Moore blasted a shot from the right side after the ball bounced around and through four Miami defenders. The boisterous Chase Stadium crowd of 20,727 was deflated, but the home team got on the scoreboard eight minutes later.
Fray, the Coconut Creek native, collected a long diagonal cross from David Martinez, made a slick move to get around a Dallas defender and sent a perfect cross to the center of the area, where Afonso took a shot, which was saved by Dallas goalkeeper Maarten Paes. Another South Florida local, Fafa Picault of Palmetto Bay, pounced on the rebound and scored the equalizer for Miami.
Then, it was Obando's turn to make his mark. Fray once again delivered a well-timed cross and the Ecuadorean finished to push Miami ahead to the delight of the pink-clad crowd.
'I am happy for scoring my first goal, it wasn't the result we wanted, but we have to keep working,' Obando said. 'This is futbol, and anything can happen.'
Miami center back David Martinez made it 3-1 at the 56-minute mark after sprinting into the penalty area and taking control of a loose ball as his teammate Benja Cremaschi battled a Dallas defender. It seemed Inter Miami had the game well in hand, but then everything began to unravel for the home team.
'I was happy to score that goal, Benja made a great effort and I was able to score, but we got a result we did not expect and we leave in a bad mood,' Martinez said.
Dallas scored a pair of goals over a five minute span, the first by Osaze Urhoghide in the 64th minute and the equalizer by Anderson Julio in the 69th. And things would only get worse for Inter Miami, as Pedrinho got behind the Miami back line and gave Dallas a 4-3 lead at the 81-minute mark.
Three unanswered Dallas goals. A 3-1 Miami lead squandered. Chants of 'Messi! Messi!' could be heard from the stunned crowd. But on this day, Messi could not come to the rescue. He watched with his family from a field level suite.
Unlike recent games, in which Miami had trouble scoring, tying Chicago 0-0, beating Columbus 1-0 and being shut out by Vancouver, the men in pink scored three goals on Sunday. But it wasn't enough.
'[Sunday] we scored three goals, and went home empty handed,' Mascherano said. 'The offensive part worked, but clearly the defensive part did not.'
Mascherano indicated on Friday that there would be roster changes for the Dallas game as he and the staff balance league play and the Champions Cup.
The loss to Vancouver left Miami in a precarious position and on the verge of elimination.
Champions Cup uses aggregate scoring, and the tiebreaker is away goals, so Inter Miami must score at least two goals and concede none on Wednesday to force extra time for a shot at the championship game. The team was in a similar situation in the quarterfinals against Los Angeles FC and rallied from down 2-0 with a pair of Messi goals to win the series 3-2.
This time, a spot in the final is on the line. The winner of the Champions Cup will earn $5 million and qualify for the 2025 FIFA Intercontinental Cup and 2029 FIFA Club World Cup. With such a high stakes game on the horizon, and such little time to recover from the Vancouver trip, Mascherano rested many of the starters.
The Miami starting lineup on Sunday included: Drake Callender (captain), Fray, Gonzalo Lujan, Maxi Falcon, Martinez, Picault, Toto Aviles, Yannick Bright, Cremaschi, Afonso and Obando.
'I told the players they had nothing to feel bad about, there were a lot of players in the lineup who had not played many minutes this season; it's not easy to come in like that, a bunch of players who had not played together,'' Mascherano said. 'They gave their maximum and for 65 minutes the team was doing well. Unfortunately, at 3-2, when everything was in our favor, I made mistakes and I take the blame.'
On the bench for Miami were Rocco Rios Novo, Ryan Sailor, Marcelo Weigandt, Noah Allen, Fede Redondo, Busquets, Telasco Segovia, Santi Morales and Tadeo Allende.
Inter Miami returns to Chase Stadium Wednesday night for the highly anticipated second leg of the Champions Cup semifinal against Vancouver. The game is at 8 p.m. and fans can watch on FS1 in English and TUDN in Spanish.
'Vancouver comes into the game with a 2-0 lead, so we have to show up with the feeling that we have nothing to lose and everything to gain,' Mascherano said. 'We have to take control of the game from the start, try not to think too much about the situation and try focus on what we can do and score the first goal and go from there.'
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