After crashing out of the Concacaf Champions Cup midweek, Inter Miami were able to break out of their mini funk while dispatching the New York Red Bulls 4-1. The Herons would get to a 3-1 lead by halftime thanks to Fafa Picault and Luis Suarez finding the back of the net. For Suarez, this ends a nine-match scoreless run for him, which will be quite important moving forward for the Herons. Prior to the match, manager Javier Mascherano stated that this team needs to be more than Lionel Messi, and he got that immediately, but that didn’t mean that the Argentine wouldn’t make his presence felt as well.
In the second half, Messi and Telasco Segovia combined for Miami’s fourth goal of the match, and while it included some bad defending by the Red Bulls, that can’t take away from the interplay between the duo. Segovia got the ball just outside the box, immediately playing it back to Messi. The Argentine deftly moved a little, playing it back to Segovia while continuing his run into the box. This is where understanding between the two comes into play as Segovia did a first-time flick back to Messi, and there was nothing that Carlos Coronel could do to stop the ball from going into the net.
Messi will make plenty of defenses look silly but this is a great example of how Miami want to play. With freedom and pushing the pace of the attack. They weren’t able to do that against Vancouver or the Columbus Crew, and while the Red Bulls aren’t currently on the level of those teams, it’s still important to get back on the right track Saturday. Now the goal will be to repeat this kind of performance when they face Minnesota United, one of the best teams in the Western Conference, on May 10.