Pressure mounts as Messi, slumping Inter Miami face CF Montreal at home
Lionel Messi and his Inter Miami teammates entered Wednesday's home game against CF Montreal under intense pressure to live up to lofty expectations and get out of a month-long funk during which they won just one of eight games, conceded 23 goals during that stretch and slipped to seventh place in the Eastern Conference.
Coach Javier Mascherano stuck with mostly the same lineup he used for the 3-3 tie on the road against the Philadelphia Union last weekend. In that game, Miami rallied from a 3-1 second-half deficit to salvage a point. It was the third time in a month Inter Miami scored three goals and did not win the match.
The only changes in the lineup were midfielder Fede Redondo replaced injured Yannick Bright and Telasco Segovia, who scored the equalizer in extra time against the Union, replaced defender Tomas 'Toto' Aviles, as Mascherano went with a more attack-minded lineup against Montreal.
The rest of the Miami Starting XI were: goalkeeper Oscar Ustari, right back Ian Fray, center back Gonzalo Lujan, center back Noah Allen, left back Jordi Alba, midfielder Sergio Busquets, winger Tadeo Allende, Messi, and Luis Suarez at center forward.
Suarez, the 38-year-old Uruguayan, has been in a scoring slump this season with just two goals in 11 MLS games after being a Golden Boot finalist last season with 20 goals. Mascherano has been asked in recent weeks about Suarez's poor run of form, but the coach decided to keep him in the starting lineup. Mascherano has said on numerous occasions that even when Suarez doesn't score, he helps the team by organizing attackers and defending.
Asked about Suarez's slump in the leadup to the game, Mascherano said: 'I'm not here to single anyone out. You can do whatever analysis you want, you have that right, that is your job. We try to analyze different situations. We know how important Luis is for the club, in general. The club a year and a half ago decided to go with this project and we have to adapt to that.'
On the bench for Miami Wednesday were: Rocco Rios Novo, Marcelo Weigandt, Aviles, Maxi Falcon, David Martinez, Benja Cremaschi, Fafa Picault, Leo Afonso and Allen Obando.
Inter Miami's recent struggles include five losses and two ties while conceding 23 goals and scoring just 15. The team slipped from second place in the Eastern Conference to seventh, with 23 points from 14 league games.
CF Montreal is in last place in the East with just one victory all season, but Mascherano assured fans the opponent is better than its record and Inter Miami is not taking this game lightly.
Montreal is coming off a 2-2 tie against LAFC and has also had good results against the Crew (1-1), Orlando (0-0), and New York City FC (1-0).
'Despite their position in the standings, if you watched Montreal's games, you saw that in several of their games they deserved better results than what they got,' Mascherano said. 'I don't think it's an opponent we should judge by their record. They played even and gave trouble to Columbus, Philadelphia [2-1 loss], LAFC. They are very physical, like most teams in MLS they have good players in the final third, and we expect a tough opponent.'
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