How New York City FC’s collapse paved the way for more Lionel Messi magic in Inter Miami win

NEW YORK – There were reasons for the New York City FC to be optimistic when they hit the field at Citi Field, where a football field was blocked in a baseball diamond on Wednesday when they welcomed Inter Miami. The NYCFC entered the match in fourth place and won five victories in their last six, raising the table at the right time with the MLS cup qualifiers. They also played a first half in the first half against a team from Miami who was under pressure to ensure that their three games in their hands do not count, any more than the hosts did not get out of the match when they entered the final stages of the down match.

What difference, however, 13 minutes can make.

Inter Miami went from an advance from 1-0 to the 73rd minute to an advance of 4-0 by the 86th, the defense of NYCFC collapses impressively. There was a feeling of inevitability because the magic of Lionel Messi was fully exposed for a closed window in the Queens, the winner of the World Cup marking twice in this 13 -minute section and giving them the exact thing that the participants came to see. Messi’s first goal saw Sergio Busquets playing a stellar ball through traffic before he spotted at his feet, the star then walking towards the goalkeeper of the male national team Matt Freese before effortlessly school school for arrival. Messi mainly did all the work itself for his second in the 86th minute, winning the ball on the right flank and leaving several opponents in his wake while he cut inside and then marked from the interior of the distribution.

Messi’s brilliance, however, was just as apparent as the sudden fragility of NYCFC. Whatever determination they had for 73 minutes completely disappeared in the last section of the match, collapsing while Miami’s attack looked like a pink wave after the other. It was particularly obvious on Messi’s second goal, discovering the defense of the opposition after making the ball.

“Given the last 15 minutes where the precision on our side would be wrapped and as I mentioned, we were also punished for these moments,” said head coach of NYCFC, Pascal Jensen, after the match. “If you look at the last objective that Messi has scored, we are in possession in a construction phase and put it back in a turnover and that is a goal, which makes it difficult.”

The irony of the conclusion responsible for error in NYCFC’s performance is that Jensen hoped that the momentum would swing entirely in the other direction. He carried out two substitutions in the 73rd minute, take off the Thiago Martins center and the Agustin Ojeda winger while bringing the midfielder Jonathan Shore and the striker Julian Fernandez. The plan has never been materialized.

“It was a moment in the match, nearly 15, 20 minutes to do and I wanted to take more risks at the moment and Aidan helped us play in the central position of the defense, to put ourselves in the midfield, so the basic idea behind it was to have a more offensive power in possession knowing that Thiago gave a lot in the previous games,” said Jensen.

As much as late capitulation can define the defeat of NYCFC, however, they did not go in advance. A glance at the statistics sheet showed a competitive game between two well -matched opponents in a few categories – Miami had only surpassed NYCFC Sept to five, but visitors had put four of their attempts on the target and had 0.92 objectives expected to show it. The hosts, in comparison, had only one target shot and 0.61 expected goals. Before the end of Miami’s late, the two teams were at the opposite ends of the efficiency spectrum; The late goals burst simply amplified it.

“One of the things was very frank in the preparation of this game – you must be very clinical in moments of finish because the quality on the other side is so high that if you give them the opportunity to return to the game or get ahead, it will be difficult,” said Jensen. “It is part of the conversation now because we were not clinical enough in a few moments and we simply had no more intensity to be good on the ball and make sure that we have attacked all the spaces with precision.”

The release is not necessarily a sign of misfortune and sadness for the NYCFC, but for Miami, it reaffirmed their references as one of the best teams in MLS. Certain incoherent results and their plethora of hand matches meant that they had spent several weeks outside the highest points of the Eastern Conference, but with Wednesday’s victory, they reserved a place in the playoff series and postponed themselves to the supporters’ shield race. There are only five points separating them from the leaders of the League, the Philadelphia Union, with two games in hand – even if the head coach Javier Mascherano takes on a match at a time.

“We are happy now because we are official[ly] Qualified for the playoffs, which was very important to us and now we have to continue to move forward, “said Mascherano.” We know that we have two games in hand, so we will try to rest, recover and go to Toronto [FC]. We know how much [it] will be [on] Saturday because we have less than 72 hours to play, but we try to play our best, trying to win the game and trying to qualify as high as possible. If we can win the next five games we have, [it] will be great and we will have [the] Chance to fight for the supporters shield, but we cannot think of the five games. We have to think of Toronto, trying to recover people, players and try to go on Saturday to play a good game. Still, I say that the most important game we have is next and we focus on this. “”