Gerardo Martino regretted the lack of effectiveness of Inter Miami who fell 2-1 against Atlanta Unitedon Saturday night at Mercedes Benz Stadium before 68,455 spectators, in the second leg of the first round of the MLS playoffs.
Because of this, the rosanegros will have to play a third and final match against Atlanta next Saturday (8 pm) at Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, to advance to the semifinals.
To make matters worse, this life or death clash is one more burden for star Lionel Messi, who must join the Argentine team without pause for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.
The Albiceleste will visit Paraguay in Asunción on November 14 and will host Peru in Buenos Aires five days later.
After Inter Miami’s loss against Atlanta United, Martino confessed his frustration with his team’s lack of effectiveness.
In the regular season, the Surflorida squad became the top scorer with 79 goals in 34 games, with an average of more than two goals per game.
“In light of what happened with Atlanta, we will have to talk a lot about the effectiveness of our team, so I see that we have failed,” said the strategist.
“The tranquility is that we created several attacking plays, which makes the goal we scored seem like a joke.”
In fact, near the end of the first half (40 minutes) United goalkeeper Brad Guzan was going to take the ball and Federico Redondo faked it.
Guzan dropped the ball, Redondo took it, passed it to center back David Martínez, who made a hat to overcome the defenders who were trying to guard the empty goal.
That seemed like it was enough to ensure qualification, because in the first leg the rosanegros had won 2-1.
It wasn’t like that. At 58 minutes, Derrick Williams took advantage of an aerial ball served diagonally and connected with a header to beat Drake Callender.
Then the bucket of cold water fell on the rosanegros in replacement time (90’+4) when in a great play Xande Silva scored the winning goal.
“We did a lot to win the game,” said Martino.
“The last 10 minutes we had four attackers; We were not good in front of the goal. We were optimistic even in the penalties, due to the quality of players who were on the field, beyond the fact that the search was to win in the 90 minutes.”
At all costs, Inter Miami wanted to avoid a third game. This way he wasn’t going to exhaust Messi. It couldn’t be. On the positive side, Martino will be able to face Sergio Busquets on Saturday.
“When you are missing a player like Busquets, any team feels it,” Martino commented.
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“Busquets suffered a blow in the previous game and also had the beginnings of pneumonia. He didn’t train all week. Today [sábado] He was better and needs to recover. We can probably have him on November 9.”
Inter Miami is going to need the best it has in the glass because Atlanta has already tasted blood and its players are convinced that they can achieve the feat of leaving the best team of the regular season behind.
“We’re playing without fear,” said Atlanta midfielder Dax McCarty.
“We played as if we had nothing to lose. And we like that. “We have confidence in each other and we feel like we can go to their house and beat them.”
Nothing will be easy for either of them, although the pressure has now shifted to Inter Miami. If one compares the squads, however, the balance leans towards the South Florida club.
“We have the advantage of having a lot of hierarchy in the team,” said Martino.
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“Many of our players have played games of enormous importance. We have a way of playing that we have not changed. I am very satisfied with what they did [el sábado]beyond the frustration of the defeat.”
Indeed, Inter Miami has world champions like Messi and Busquets and players who have won the Champions League like Jorgi Alba and Luis Suárez, in addition to having a cast full of talent and hunger for success.
They just have to pocket the ball and avoid the suffering of Saturday night.
“They were more effective than us,” Martino summarized. “They came less and scored two goals.”
