The last of the Leagues Cup in between between miami and Nashville It played out again this Wednesday at the DRV PNK Stadium with no goals in a draw that didn’t help either team in their goals to climb the table. It was also the first clash in which Argentine coach Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino’s men failed to score since the arrival of Leo Messi.
This goalless draw, along with the victory of Torontomaking Inter Miami once again the last team in the East to be tied at 22 points with the Canadians.
Nashville’s excellent defensive strategy bears a lot of responsibility for this result, being very strong on defense and able to nullify all the offensive talent of the locals. Gerardo Martino lined up regular starters from scratch, including Leo Messi, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba and Josef Martínez.
Nashville applied high pressure from the first minutes. Inter Miami tried to play it without much success, reducing the fluidity of their attack and barely connecting with their most advanced men.
As the minutes passed, Martino’s men found the formula and began to step into Panicco’s place. Fouls are another resource in Nashville’s defense, but measured, at a distance far enough to not experience Messi’s effectiveness from set pieces.
Messi entered the area with the ball for the first time in the 24th minute, but Canadian MacNaughton countered. Jordi Alba also began to predict the corridors in the middle of the rival area. The game changed and Nashville was at the mercy of the locals who saved one action after another.
It was in an action initiated by Messi in the 34th minute that Robert Taylor looked for luck from outside the area with his right foot, but it went wide. Due to the lack of success to reach the place, the Finn wants to surprise.
Despite this, Gary Smith’s side seemed to have the game where they wanted it, with solid defense as a priority. They managed to make it to the locker room without scoring any goals.
Entering halftime German Hany Mukhtar and Canadian Jacob Shaffelburg suggested Nashville would be more offensive and take more risks. But the dominance of the locals remained and so Messi fired a free kick on the edge of the area fourteen minutes into the second half.
The Argentine placed the ball with care, the launch area could not have been better for his left foot, and it was expected by thousands of cell phones that wanted to immortalize the launch, but it was centered and half for Panicco’s breathing.
The 65th minute was heart-pounding, a runner both ways with Panicco parrying first from a powerful shot from Farías, and then Callender from another from Shaffelburg on the counter. Fear reached the DRV PNK stand when a run by Mukhtar ended in a goal celebration, but short, as his starting position was advanced.
Martino was full as he entered the Honduran David Ruiz, the Argentine Benjamin Cremaschi and the Ecuadorian Leonardo Campana. Among them, Inter Miami had more depth. In the 80th minute, the favorite play of Inter Miami fans was repeated, with a foul on Messi in front and execution, before the ritual of preparing for the launch. This time, about nine meters from the front, and crashed into the barrier, not a good day for the epic.
Mukhtar’s pace on the counter was the big danger for the locals, and thus he also managed to cause another front line foul for them. He did it himself with the same result, ball in the hurdle.
In the last breath of the match, the teenagers showed their connection, where Cremaschi found Ruiz inside the area with a good pass, which he finished from a high angle and found the goal, but also Panicco’s hands too.
Controversy had already arrived at the discount, with a VAR check of a possible handball by Yedlin inside the area silencing the stadium to make way for a celebration when it was ultimately ruled out.
Inter Miami finished the game inside the Nashville area but had no way to convert. The epic of other occasions did not appear, and for Martino’s men it was a good opportunity to add three to play the postseason escapes.
In the minutes before kick-off, Inter Miami offered the Leagues Cup title won last week to all the fans. The calendar and fate would have it that Nashville SC was there, the team they beat in the final.
DATA SHEET
0 – InterMiami: Callender; Yedlin, Aviles, Miller, Alba; Arroyo (Farias, m.46), Busquets, Gómez (Cremaschi, m.70); Messi, Martínez (Campana, m.70) and Taylor (Ruiz, m.70)
0 – Nashville SC: Panic; Moore, MacNaughton, Maher, Lovitz; Aunga, McCarty (Godoy, m.65); Picault (Davis, m.85), Leal (Shaffelburg, m.46), Muyl (Haakenson, m.65); Bunbury (Mukhtar, d.46)
Referee: Chris Penso (United States). He showed yellow cards to Diego Gómez (m. 45+1), Busquets (m. 45+2), Robert Taylor (m. 50) and Avilés (m.77) for the locals, and to McCarty (m . 59) and Maher (m. 81) of the visitors
Incidents: The MLS Regular League match was played at the DRV PNK Stadium in front of nearly 20,000 spectators and in the presence of FIFA President Gianni Infantino
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Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
