Inter Miami CF seek to end a two-game slide by denying the visiting Chicago Fire their first win of the season on Saturday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Inter Miami (2-2-0, six points) are coming off consecutive shutout losses, the most recent a 2-0 setback at Toronto FC on Saturday after being blanked 1-0 by New York City FC on March 11. The Herons haven’t scored since Robert Taylor’s goal in the 77th minute of a 2-0 win over the Philadelphia Union on March 4.
Chicago (0-1-2, two points), the Eastern Conference’s lone winless team, has scored just four goals in its three games so far, with three coming in a 3-3 draw against visiting FC Cincinnati on Saturday.
Miami maintained possession for 51.8 percent of the match against Toronto, but the Herons mustered just nine shots, none on target in the second half.
“I thought we were in the game and controlling possession and we lacked something in the final third and the commitment in the final third to score goals,” Inter Miami coach Phil Neville said. “This is the next stage of our development. … We need to learn very fast, particularly in the MLS where away games are brutally tough and you cannot make individual errors.”
The Fire squandered a golden opportunity to earn their first win against Cincinnati by allowing two goals in a three-minute span late in the second half.
“(Chicago is) a very good team, just one of the teams that’s picked to finish, you know, in the top half, at least one, two or three (in the) conference,” Chicago coach Ezra Hendrickson said. “And we have them on the ropes like that and we don’t finish the job.”
Chicago took a 2-1 lead when Rafael Czichos converted a penalty shot in the 45th minute. The Fire extended their lead a minute later when Chris Mueller slotted Arnaud Souquet’s pass into the top of the net from just above the penalty spot.
After Sergio Santos pulled Cincinnati to within 3-2 in the 84th minute, Junior Moreno scored his second goal of the game three minutes later when he banked a shot off the right post into the net.
It marked the second straight late collapse for the Fire, who gave up the decisive goal in the 90th minute in a 1-0 loss to Philadelphia a week earlier.
“We’re not happy about this tonight. We felt like we lost two points tonight, not gained one,” Hendrickson said. “Tonight, we played probably our best game of the three and we still didn’t get the result that we want.”
–Field Level Media
