For a team with Gonzalo Higuain, Blaise Matuidi, Rodolfo Pizarro and high expectations for their inaugural season, the losses continue to mount for Inter Miami CF (four losses in their last five, including three straight).
After their latest loss to NYCFC in Week 15, a 3-2 home setback, the playoff zone is drifting further away. The gap from that final postseason berth is now six points with just eight matches remaining in the season.
So what are the issues at play for the expansion team? The same that have been plaguing them all season long: individual errors.
“We seem to be making mistakes that are costly,” Matuidi said postgame. “We are in a moment that’s difficult. I believe tonight showed us that there is hope and that we can get this turned around. But it is definitely difficult to accept.”
“It seems that when we give up that many goals, it is a concentration issues,” Matuidi continued. “It seems that our confidence seems to dip. We have to work to find that path. This is definitely something we can fix quickly. We seem to have started with a bit more challenges offensively. Now we’re good when we have the ball, but we’re not quite there yet on the small details. That’s what we’re going to have to work on at training.”
Highlights: Inter Miami 2, NYCFC 3
“We can’t give away the goals we’re giving away and expect to win games,” said Lewis Morgan, who scored two goals but raised his hand as being at fault on the first NYCFC goal which came on the heels of a clearance of an NYCFC set piece.
“That’s down to the players. That’s something we need to look at. You can coach all you want, do drills, whatever. Blaise has probably hit the nail on the head on concentration. The last few games have been slack, conceded goals … We made the individual mistakes tonight and were punished. That’s what happens at this level.”
“On one side it’s hard to understand and easy to explain,” head coach Diego Alonso said. “We’re clearly committing mistakes that allow the opponent to score. We generally do things better than the opponent. We have better possession, we have more shots on goal, more crosses, more duels won, more attacks than the opponent. We defend well and we press well. That’s why I say it’s easy to explain, but it’s tough to understand: How could we do everything we’re doing and make these mistakes.
“[The mistakes] have cost us wins in Orlando [at the MLS is Back Tournament] and also before that when the league season started. I think it’s about concentration, being focused and individual errors that we have to try to work on and keep giving [the players] confidence because I repeat, I think the team plays well. We always do enough to deserve to win the game, but to win the games we have to be infinitely better. That’s what we have to correct. We have to reduce the number of mistakes we’re committing. If not, it’s tough to compete in any league at any level.”
It won’t help that they’re set to lose one of their most talented players to international duty. Alonso revealed that Pizarro will be joining the Mexican national team for two friendly matches in October and will miss 4-5 MLS matches: “If you ask me if I’m in agreement,” Alonso said. “I’d say no.”
Morgan still believes that the team has what it takes to aim for the postseason, despite being tied for the worst point total in MLS with D.C. United (11) at the bottom of the Eastern Conference.
“Six points isn’t a huge gap. We’ve got a really talented group. We can definitely do that. We can close that. We can go on a winning run,” Morgan said. “It’s tough to turn the momentum around. But it’s something that once you get that first win anything can happen. We just need to get into the playoffs and then it’s one-off knockout games … Definitely confident we can get there but also there’s the realization that we won’t get there if we play like we’re playing at the moment.”
