Jordi Alba for the win! 2-1 over Chicago Fire in a 80’s night in Miami

An 80’s night at chase stadium where Miami’s third kit was presented to society. A gorgeous kit inspired by the teal and orange of our own Miami Dolphins was the center of the attention. This kit soon became secondary when 15 minutes prior kick off, a spectacular event took place. In the center inter Miami cadets got together holding 45 signs, one for each trophy won by our captain and soccer legend Leo Messi. A few minutes later, Leo was invited to the center of the field and an emotional video played in the jumbo screens of the Chase Stadium showing one by one all the 45 silverwares won by the Argentinean super start.

When referee Marcos De Olivera whistle the kickoff, Inter Miami took immediate control of the ball. The young midfield constituted by Matias Rojas, Fede Redondo and the super draft first round pick from New Hampshire university, the Italian Yannick Bright owned the ball and dictated the rhythm of the game. Luis Suarez was back at the front of Tata’s attack and our quarter back Sergio Busquets was pushed back to replace injured Sergei Kristov.

The first special guest of the night took only 6 minutes to appear. Center Back “Toto” Aviles cross the ball to Finland’s Robert Taylor, who dribbled a defender and placed a precise pass to the heart of the PK spot where the Paraguayan young star Mathias Rojas emerged with a clinical touch with his left foot to beat the goalkeeper Chris Brady to open the score for the night.

The rest of the first half remained the same, the Herons controlled the ball, a very participative Luis Suarez dropped back and transformed into an attacking midfielder and became everyone’s best friend controlling the ball and making the others play.

The second half started with more of the same, inter Miami controlling the ball and creating the best attacking plays of the match, Chicago was not able to hold the ball in the midfield and the strikers were simply VIP guests in the night, as they were not touching the ball.

Around min 60, inter Miami physical condition started to decrease and Chicago Fire started to control the center of the pitch and the ball. It was until min 72 that Fire’s Center back Rafael Czichos, picked up the ball behind Aviles and with a strong right foot kick, broke Callander’s goal and marked the first goal for the visitors.

The happiness of Chicago only lasted 2 minutes, because on min 74, a bad Clarence from the goalkeeper that was captures by our left back Jordi Alba that without dropping the back, gave a great pass to the back of the net and set the second of the match for the herons and the victory for Messi’s team.

The last 15 minutes of the game were intense, Inter Miami made substitutions and ended up defending with 6 players and 3 in the midfield. Chicago went full frontal in search for the equalizer, but the great hand of Drake saves us a couple of time and after 6 added minutes, gave us the victory, 3 more points and to continue one more week as the top seed in the content for the MLS Shield.

Miami is more leader than ever, tonight two of the contenders for the shield lost their matches, giving Miami even bigger lead on top of the table.

Now Miami will face a pause in the MLS competition and the start of a tournament in which Tata Martino is the first and only coach to lift the trophy. Leagues cup is our next challenge.