Lionel Messi will again be watching from the sideline when Inter Miami CF face the Chicago Fire on Saturday night at Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Messi is dealing with a ligament injury in his right ankle, sustained in the Copa America championship game Sunday when his Argentina side defeated Colombia.
Inter Miami haven’t forecast a return date but Messi isn’t expected to play again this month.
Miami (15-4-5, MLS-best 50 points) got along fine without him during Wednesday’s 3-1 home win over Toronto FC. Federico Redondo scored two goals and fellow youngster Diego Gomez scored the other.
“Every team (loses their) most important players sometime or another,” Miami coach Tata Martino said after the match. “Those who are going to have to play are going to have to say ‘I have to be the one who performs,’ and that’s what they’ve done.”
Messi and Luis Suarez share the team lead of 12 goals. Suarez played 29 minutes off the bench against Toronto. He helped Uruguay finish third at Copa America.
Miami is 5-1-1 in its last seven matches but the setback during the streak was glaring — a 6-1 road loss to FC Cincinnati.
The Herons are 7-2-3 at home, while the Fire are 2-6-4 on the road.
Chicago has won three straight meetings and is unbeaten in its last four matches against Miami.
The Fire (6-11-7, 25 points) are tied for 12th in the East but have displayed improvement while going 2-1-1 in July.
Chicago has pitched shutouts in its last two matches — a scoreless home draw against New York City FC on July 13 and a 1-0 road victory over Cincinnati on Wednesday.
Brian Gutierrez scored his fifth goal of the season in the win over Cincinnati while Chris Brady had nine saves while earning his fourth clean sheet of the season.
“I think everything starts from there for us,” Fire coach Frank Klopas said. “The guys worked extremely hard. (Cincinnati) had chances and Chris came up with some big saves. And you need that in order to come up with wins on the road against a very good team.”
Hugo Cuypers has a team-best nine goals for the Fire.
–Field Level Media
