Lionel Messi and Inter Miami make a fourth attempt at earning their first win in their new stadium on Saturday night when they welcome an Orlando City squad managing an unusually busy recent schedule.
The Herons (5-1-4, 19 points) earned consecutive away wins in their first two matches following the resignation of manager Javier Mascherano in early April and the takeover of Guillermo Hoyos on an interim basis.
But they settled for a 1-1 home draw to New England on Saturday, which marked the third time in as many matches at the freshly unveiled Nu Stadium that honors have finished even.
Versatile defensive midfielder Facundo Mura thinks there have been noticeable, positive changes under Hoyos, who previously was serving as the club’s sporting director.
“Even though we couldn’t win in the last round, we’ve taken seven of the last nine points, and we feel we’ve improved, especially mentally,” Mura said. “So I think we’ll arrive in good shape for the next game.”
Messi has not added to his team-best total of seven goals in Miami’s last two league matches. But he and his teammates have enjoyed a full week to train under Hoyos after navigating a stretch of three games in eight days following the managerial switch.
Messi scored two goals when Inter Miami won 4-2 at Orlando City on March 1. He has eight goals in five meetings against the Lions across all competitions.
Meanwhile, Orlando (2-7-1, 7 points) will play for a second time in about 72 hours and a seventh time in 21 days while managing a run to the U.S. Open Cup quarterfinals.
Learning how to balance his players’ workloads has been on-the-job learning for interim manager Martin Perelman, who took over for Oscar Pareja following a three-match losing streak to start the season.
Complicating the equation is a lengthy injury list that includes key attackers Duncan McGuire and Marco Pasalic, who missed last weekend’s 3-2 league loss at D.C. United and Wednesday’s 4-3 Cup triumph over the New England Revolution.
“It’s not an easy task, especially because now we are recovering some of our guys,” Perelman said. “But we’ve had a lot of injuries, so that makes more difficult the task of (monitoring) loads. But the players are responding. They are doing a huge effort, an amazing effort.”
–Field Level Media
