Recap: D.C. United harshly miss out on points in 3-1 loss to Inter Miami
D.C. United suffered their first loss of the season as they hosted Inter Miami at Audi Field Saturday afternoon. The much anticipated matchup that brought Messi mania to the DMV produced a game that was closer than the scoreline suggests.
While Inter Miami – and fans alike – were dealt with the big blow of Lionel Messi being ruled out through injury, Miami were able to get the job done without their main man, but not exactly convincingly as D.C. put in a great effort against the league’s hottest team.
United dominated the opening stages of the match, catching Inter Miami in possession high up the field on multiple occasions, and producing good passing movements that fluidly transitioned between central and wide players.
In the 14′ a great move in the aforementioned manner ended with Mateusz Klich playing a neat, line breaking pass to Jared Stroud who received on the turn and fired the ball into the top left corner. The new acquisition from St. Louis SC has looked bright so far this season and was able to open his United scoring account in style.
D.C. continued to pile on the pressure and create chances but failed to make the most of them. Star striker Christian Benteke was back from injury for the first time since his opening match hat trick but wasn’t at his best finishing wise, failing to capitalize on a several clearcut opportunities.
Soon after Stroud’s goal, Inter Miami were able to draw level in the 24′. A great ball into the box by Robert Taylor was headed on target by Leonardo Campana, but kept out by a tremendous save by Alex Bono. The relief wouldn’t last long though as Campana would net on his next attempt after an amazing bit of play from youngster Frederico Redondo (who was MOTM in my book). Redondo got to the ensuing clearance then proceed to dribble through a maze of D.C. defenders, hustling to win a duel for the reverse pass from a give and go to tee up his fellow Argentine. There were appeals for a foul in that challenge but watching at a quarter speed he seems to have gotten the ball.
D.C. started the second half strong, but the momentum shifted in Miami’s favor as they called in the cavalry. With the score level and the game up for grabs, Inter Miami brought on their top scorer, former Liverpool and Barcelona star, Luis Suarez. As he stepped on to replace Robert Taylor in the 62′, the stadium erupted with excited cheers.
Soon after entering the match, the former Premier League and La Liga top scorer put Miami ahead with a goal that would ultimately serve as a deathblow to D.C.
In a match where the officiating seemed in Miami’s favor, the Herons received aid once again as no penalty was awarded to United after a hand ball in the box in the lead up to the play. Instead, Miami netted on the counter when Redondo’s pass was dummied by Suarez – his back post run was found by Campana for a tap in.
The repeated frustration and confusion from the officiating understandably fatigued the United players, and while they kept pushing, Miami started to take a hold on the match.
In the 85′ a rough mistake by Mateusz Klich was pounced on by Diego Gomez who drove forward on a breakaway and squared the ball to Suarez who, after some unfortunate ricochets in the box, remained on the ball and got his shot off.
Suarez went for the chip with Alex Bono slightly off his line, and the fingertips Bono got to the ball weren’t quite enough to stop it from trickling in. Bono seemingly hesitated while the ball was already mid flight, causing the need for him to jump again to reach, but his momentum was already off. It was an unlucky lapse in concentration from the otherwise well performing keeper.
In the 90′, a front heavy D.C. United were split by a few passes, Busquets ultimately playing the incisive pass to Shanyder Borgelin. Borgelin went down after a challenge by Pedro Santos, and despite the distance from goal and fellow defensive support around him, the Portuguese defender was brandished a harsh red card.
Takeaways:
A great effort: Inter Miami are widely regarded as the most feared team in the league, and United put in an admirable performance, dominating certain spells of the 90′. In a matchup that ultimately produced a close and entertaining contest – one that Inter Miami were capable of winning on their own – it’s a shame that the questionable officiating soured the taste of the game a bit.
Drilling in the mindset: Right now, D.C. United look and feel like a team with identity. A team with eager, receptive, and united players (no pun intended). It’s telling that the coach, players, and supporters are all excited and optimistic even after earning just five points from the first four league matches. Head coach Troy Lesesne’s new philosophies and the reemphasis being placed on them are having a very positive impact on the squad, and that belief only looks set to be strengthened.
Following yesterday’s defeat, Lesesne had the following response when asked about how Messi’s availability affected the team’s preparation for the match.
“We’re focused on us, it sounds really unoriginal I get that,” Lesesne said. “But that’s the truth. If we put all our attention to Messi, Alba, Suarez, that’s a disservice to our team and where we are in our current build.”
“We’ve just been together two months in this identity, in this style of play, so for a large part of the first half, I’d say even to the momentum swing of the second goal, we were in a good way,” Lesesne said. “We’re going to keep building off of it,” he emphasized.
Watch the highlights from D.C. United vs. Inter Miami
Box Score
D.C. United: 1 Stroud 14’
Inter Miami: 3 Leonardo Campana 24’, Luis Suarez (72’, 85’)
Lineups
D.C. United: Alex Bono, Lucas Bartlett, Matti Peltola, Pedro Santos, Aaron Herrera, Christopher McVey, Jared Stroud (Martin Rodríguez 79′), Gabriel Pirani (Kristian Fletcher 65′), Mateusz Klich, Cristian Dájome (Jacob Murrell 75′), Christian Benteke
Inter Miami: Drake Callender, Tomas Aviles, Nicolas Freire (Sergii Kryvtsov 31′), Noah Allen, David Ruiz, Sergio Busquets, Diego Gomez, Julian Gressel (Jordi Alba 76′), Federico Redondo, Leo Campana (Shanyder Borgelin 75′), Robert Taylor (Luis Suarez 62′)
Misconduct Summary
D.C. United: Christopher McVey (yellow card) 21’, Gabriel Pirani (yellow card) 27’, Aaron Herrera (yellow card) 34’, Matti Peltola (yellow card) 68’, Mateusz Klich (yellow card) 74’, Pedro Santos (red card) 90’
Inter Miami: Tomas Aviles (yellow card) 28’, Sergio Busquets (yellow card) 55’, Diego Gomez (yellow card) 79’
I think Miami got a break on the PK no-call leading to the transition to Suarez’s second goal. Ironically on the third goal, if Suarez hits that harder I think Bono’s hand is enough to deflect it–it flies over the goal. Instead, it was a soft lob. My initial reaction is that our midfield was doing a fine job so Miami went longer and did more long switches of play to get the ball out of midfield and away from our strengths. We do need to finish a lot better.
Make no mistake. The refs were typical. DCU must not win.
Darth Garber is pleased.
An odd day at the park, in that it felt much more like baseball than soccer… the vibe was laid-back, and there were waaayyyy fewer people out and about on a cherry blossom weekend than I expected. A gorgeous day for early springtime.
I seem to be out of sync with most of the commentariat on this one, c’est la vie. It felt to me like we tailed off considerably after Stroud’s goal, and to my eye the difference between Miami’s defensive rotation and ours was night and day… our backline coordination was quite poor at times, while they pretty consistently got bodies into the lanes and made it hard for us to get the best shot option. TBF, it’s a hell of a lot easier to gum up the works on defense when the guy playing as the Busquets is Busquets.
I did not find the officiating biased. Very much too tight, yes, and I’m sure the ref understood from on high that his first priority was to make sure no Barca players were breathed on or even looked at funny, but he called it tight on both sides from the start, and frankly we did not adapt well. Now, I say all that without having seen any replays on the penalty non-call just before the second Miami goal, which I did not see clearly as it happened. That’s a game-deciding situation, and if they blew the call then somebody owes us a point in the standings. The VAR explanation that flashed up on the board was nonsensical… if it wasn’t a handball in the box, but rather a handball outside the box, then you still have a foul that stops play, and if VAR isn’t empowered to call that back, better to have no explanation at all IMO.
Good to see Bono get (almost) everything right again this week. Very good to see Martin Rodriguez out on the field and looking fit and mobile; Santos was once again a horrible liability on the left side, and we’re going to need Rodriguez to move up to starter minutes quickly if we want to keep our heads above water until the summer window. It’s going to be a tough row to hoe, team spirit and good coaching notwithstanding.
Going back looking at previous matches so far this season, it seems that Miami usually gets the yellow cards, contrary to my Garber hypothesis . So yes, our yellow cards were an indicator of our abilities, tied to Miami playing to the ref.
Also, I’ve been to games in Europe, but never saw security guarding an empty center circle. More show than substance?
I assume they must have had something in mind for halftime that got scotched after the security arrangements were already in place. The double-box formation was absurd overkill barring e.g. a world leader or Taylor Swift parachuting into the stadium.
The refs were in the tank for Garber’s toy.
I rarely rip refs. This was atrocious. Hand ball OUTSIDE the box review? WHAT????
[…] Recap: D.C. United harshly miss out on points in 3-1 loss to Inter Miami (DP) […]
Thinking back on the game and watching the highlights, I think the red didn’t do us any favors but none of the missed calls were clearly missed imo. Dajome shirt pull was the more egregious of the two in my opinion but to make that a pen you have to say that Dajome has a chance of getting to the ball without the pull and I’m not convinced he would.
Overall Miami just had good players and Martino threw in a curve ball with them playing more direct to beat the press. We need to learn from it and show more resilience/get Benteke back on form.
The most disappointing thing for me is that Klich seems to lose his cool once one or two 50/50 calls go against him. We really need him to be a calming influence on the kids but he’s too temperamental at times.
“In a match where the officiating seemed in Miami’s favor….”
A fine article, and thanks, but this is an understatement.