Global Courant
Florida, United States.
With a goal by Honduran David Ruiz and with goalkeeper Drake Callender as life insurance between the sticks, Inter Miami took a valuable point in their visit to Orlando City (1-1) to maintain the dream of competing in the MLS Major League Soccer postseason .
Inter Miami arrived at the Florida derby without its big stars. Both Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba stayed at home with the aim of arriving in the best possible conditions for the grand final of the US Open Cup against the Houston Dynamo on September 27.
Orlando City had many chances to win but they were thwarted by goalkeeper Callender and the personality shown by the young Inter Miami players such as Honduran David Ruizscorer of the goal, or Benjamín Cremaschi and the Ecuadorian Leo Campana.
Other regular starters such as the Argentine Facundo Farías or the Canadian Kamal Miller, who waited their turn from the bench, were not in the game either.
Orlando City maintained its unbeaten streak at home against Inter Miami and extended its unbeaten streak at home to the last ten games.
The first minutes had a clear dominator, Orlando City, with multiple arrivals and high pressure that was a problem for Inter Miami to get the ball out. Despite this situation, little by little those of ‘Tata’ Martino managed to calm the intensity proposed by the locals.
Orlando gave up the pressure for a few minutes and that is when they obtained the clearest opportunities inside the area with the Colombian Iván Angulo and Duncan McGuire close to the goal.
In the first 25 minutes of the match, Miami barely entered Pedro Gallese’s area; the first dangerous chance came shortly after from Campana with a shot from the edge of the area that was cleared by the Peruvian goalkeeper.
It was a hot match, faithful to the rivalry that has been growing between both clubs, and referee Armando Villarreal had to make important decisions when it came to whether or not to show yellow cards for tactical fouls. It was one of the points on which they disagreed from the local bench with the Colombian coach, Óscar Pareja, in charge.
In the 28th minute McGuire had a face to face with Callender after a marking error by the pink defense. The response of the visiting goalkeeper was excellent, going big and clearing what could have been the first goal, deserved by the locals.
When Robert Taylor took a corner in the 42nd minute, Campana was once again the most dangerous with a header that hit the ball on goal and forced a magnificent reflex reaction from Gallese.
Inter Miami’s great success was surviving local dominance and going to the locker room without conceding a goal.
Orlando began with the same plan in the second half, and with Facundo Torres testing Callender without success. But at times the survival character of Inter Miami prevailed, taking another step.
A fabulous deep pass from Campana inside the area came from the Venezuelan Josef Martínez, who tried to beat Gallese with a cross shot, but the Peruvian’s response left the ball loose in the small area and, at will, David Ruiz scored the first goal of the night in the 53rd minute.
This made Orlando look more insistently for the goal, but always found the same response from the visitors, an unbeatable Callender. Angulo, Torres and the rest of the local attackers fell into despair as they found themselves unable to materialize the team’s good play.
The ball and the chances belonged to those in purple, and in a magnificent collective play they left McGuire for the second time against Callender, who this time hit him with everything, low, under the goalkeeper’s legs and against the opposition of Miller. It was celebrated like a title at the Exploria Stadium, because after 67 minutes of trying, they felt that justice was done.
With the tying goal the field became larger, both teams ran and were vertical. The intention to score was already visible in both teams and either of them could have taken the three points.
The final distribution of points does justice to what was seen in the final stretch of the match. Not even the entry of Argentines Ramiro Enrique and Facundo Farías for each of the two paintings could influence the lighting to change.
Inter Miami is fourteenth in the Eastern Conference standings with 32 points after 29 games while New York FC, which is ninth (the last place that gives access to the playoff), has 37 points, tied with CF Montral, after 30 games.
-DATA SHEET:
1 – ORLANDO CITY: 1. Pedro Gallese, 23. Dagur Dan Thorhallson (Halliday, m.77), 15. Rodrigo Schlegel, 6. Robin Jansson, 3. Rafael Santos, 10. Mauricio Pereyra (Urso, m.84), 16. Wilder Cartagena, 5. César Araújo (Ojeda, m.46), 77. Iván Ángulo (Enrique, m.73), 17. Facundo Torres and 13. Duncan McGuire (González, m.84).
Coach: Oscar Pareja.
1 – INTER MIAMI: Drake Callender, DeAndre Yedlin, Tomás Avilés (Sailor, m.46), Serhiy Kryvtsov (Miller, m.46), Noah Allen, Robert Taylor (Robinson, m.80), Dixon Arroyo, David Ruiz, Benjamín Cremaschi (Ulloa, m.93), Josef Martínez (Farías, m.71) and Leonardo Campana.
Coach: Gerardo Martino.
GOALS: 1-0, m.52: David Ruiz. 1-1, m.66: Duncan McGuire.
REFEREE: Armando Villarreal (United States). He showed yellow card to Schlegel (m.60) and Jansson (m.91) for the locals and to Avilés (m.23), Cremaschi (m.31), David Ruiz (m.54), Yedlin (m.55) and Arroyo (m.78) by the visitors.
INCIDENTS: MLS Regular League match played at the Exploria Stadium before around 23,000 spectators.
