Every expansion team that comes into MLS promises to build a club that will reflect the character of its city, but few cities have a character as defined as Miami.
South Florida’s hub is a tropical melting pot of culture and language — a place as vibrant, colorful and alluring as any in the United States. To make a dent in a city with so many distractions, an MLS team must win, and it must win loudly.
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From the very beginning, Inter Miami pledged to do all of that, starting with owner David Beckham in the first of what would turn into a drawn-out series of launch events for the club back in February 2014. He said that Miami wouldn’t just become the “best team in America,” but a truly global enterprise. Managing owner Jorge Mas, who saved the club from folding before it even launched when he bought a controlling stake in the team in December 2017, hasn’t been shy either, listing MLS Cup, the Supporters’ Shield and the U.S. Open Cup as goals for Miami’s inaugural season.
The team is still in its infancy, but so far, Inter Miami has fallen well short of those big promises.
Miami crashed out of the MLS is Back tournament on Monday morning, losing 1-0 to New York City FC to finish last in Group A. They’ve lost each of their first five matches (going back to their two pre-pandemic shutdown regular season games), and the club now owns the record for the worst start for an expansion team in MLS history.
They’ve been close to getting results in all five of those contests, but close is no consolation for a club that was supposed to be the continuation of recent expansion successes in Atlanta United and LAFC. It’s also not good enough for a club that has reportedly spent north of $20 million on transfer fees, a massive amount in MLS.
It is, however, a bit appropriate. There’s still plenty of time for this to change, but Miami has been Major League Soccer’s “almost” organization since that first announcement back in February 2014. In the last year or so alone, Miami almost landed Roberto Martinez, Patrick Vieira and Marcelo Gallardo as their head coach. Miami has been linked to signing what seems like almost every aging star in Europe. Miami almost played a home game. That they’ve fallen short after almost getting results in five matches feels pretty natural for a club that has so far been defined by false starts and near misses.
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Not that all of this is all their fault. The COVID-19 outbreak prompted the league to shut down just 48 hours before Inter was scheduled to play their first home match on March 14th against Beckham’s old club, the LA Galaxy. Had Miami been able to play some of their matches at their temporary home in Fort Lauderdale, they may have had a better chance of picking up a result in their first five contests. The pandemic has also completely altered the global transfer market, likely playing a role in the team’s inability to sign that third designated player.
But plenty of this is of their own doing. They chased few big coaching candidates, missed, and didn’t lock in manager Diego Alonso — who, it should be noted, has an impressive resume of his own — until Dec. 30th. They didn’t land a big-time attacker until Feb. 17th, when they signed Rodolfo Pizarro from Monterrey for an $11.8 million transfer fee. They still haven’t landed the superstar striker who could be so key to their development on and off the field.
There’s nothing wrong with missing a few times when you’re swinging big, but the delays have cost Miami. And those delays, by the way, were not part of Atlanta’s 2017 launch, which locked in head coach Tata Martino in September 2016, or the 2018 inaugural campaign of LAFC, which secured manager Bob Bradley and star Carlos Vela in July and August of 2017, respectively.
We’ve seen those problems manifest throughout the season, particularly in the attack. Miami has been toothless going forward, scoring only three goals in those five matches, including just two in the three games in Orlando. The shutout defeat to NYCFC on Monday was particularly bleak. Inter registered just two shots on target and didn’t have a single good chance created from the run of play.
The lack of a true striker has hurt immensely. Pizarro is a talented player, but he’s been the team’s only consistent threat over the first five games. The responsibility of being Inter Miami’s only marquee player has led to him trying to do too much.
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The 26-year-old’s best performances for Mexico have been as a hybrid No. 10 or as an inverted winger. During last summer’s Gold Cup final against the U.S., Pizarro was a constant threat in dangerous pockets and wide channels, combining effortlessly with Jona Dos Santos and Raúl Jiménez.
When Pizarro has found similar attacking spaces with Miami, his teammates either haven’t been in position to take advantage or haven’t been able to find him in space. The club’s other DP, 19-year-old winger Matias Pellegrini, has shown a few flashes, but he has mostly struggled to make an impact. Targeted allocation money signing Julián Carranza, another teenage Argentine attacker, has been ineffective as he continues to work his way back from a foot injury that sidelined him from the end of January through early June.
Miami didn’t expect Pellegrini and Carranza to deliver in every match. They’re both young, developing players working through new, difficult circumstances. Their form will inevitably rise and fall. Which is part of the reason why their inability to land that true striker has been so confounding. This is about more than getting a big name to help make some noise in south Florida — though that wouldn’t hurt. The lack of a real threat up top has been perhaps the biggest reason for their five-game losing streak. Adding one in the summer would significantly ease the burden currently being borne by Pizarro, and give him, Pellegrini, Carranza and winger Lewis Morgan a proper outlet to combine with and aim for.
It’s not like Miami is some giant mess. They’re not unsure of what their tactics are or what the manager wants from them. Their best moments before the pandemic were highlighted by organized pressing in their opponent’s half and a willingness to play out of pressure. Against a free-flowing and more seasoned side like the Philadelphia Union in their second match in MLS is Back, Alonso executed a game plan that targeted Philadelphia’s narrow shape, despite his team’s limitations. To start, Miami absorbed pressure and countered with purpose. As the match progressed, they settled in and saw more of the ball.
They’ve been defensively sound throughout the year, too, giving up eight goals — two of which came when down a man. They should only get stronger at the back. Miami will field perhaps the league’s top central defensive pairing if play resumes later this year. Nicolás Figal and Leandro González Pírez, who was prevented from playing in Orlando by MLS rules, are head and shoulders above the majority of MLS’s center-back tandems. Their talent, experience and aptitude for a few of the dark arts have been sorely missed during all five of Miami’s matches.
In addition, Inter Miami sporting director Paul McDonough believes that the team’s third center back, 20-year-old Colombian Andres Reyes, has a future in European football. Former Seattle Sounder and two-time MLS Cup champion Roman Torres is headed toward the end of his decorated career, but the Panamanian is valuable down the depth chart.
Alonso isn’t as aggressive in his attacking tactics as Martino and Bradley, who are arguably two of the best managers in CONCACAF today, and openly expansive with their play. The 45-year-old Uruguayan prefers a more balanced, deliberate side, and so he should be optimistic about the direction of his back line and his team’s performance against Philadelphia, when they controlled more of the ball and dictated their preferred pace.
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However, he still has a big problem at No. 9. There’s also an issue behind Pizarro in central midfield, where the pairing of Wil Trapp and Victor Ulloa didn’t deliver consistently in Orlando. Miami must get more creativity and muscle from that spot when they return to play, which, according to Alonso, could be as soon as four weeks.
“We know that there are areas where we can improve. We have to do more in order to deserve better,” Alonso said following the 1-0 loss against NYCFC. “We know that we’ll have four weeks to train before the start of the regular season. In those four weeks we’ll try to fine-tune some details and (add) players that can help improve the team. With the players that we have and those that we add, (we) should improve and accomplish our objectives.”
Losing games at the professional level is difficult for any organization. Losing five consecutive matches by just one goal conjures an entirely different set of emotions that Inter Miami is grappling with today. Owner David Beckham offered the club’s supporters some solace on Instagram following Inter Miami’s latest defeat.
“Teams, players and clubs need time to flourish, but when they do, all the hard times seem so distant,” Beckham wrote.
But the club isn’t that far off. They’re already defensively sound, and Gonzalez Pirez will bolster the backline even further. Adding a striker will solve a lot of problems for Pizarro and should make things easier for Pellegrini and Carranza. The club hasn’t come close to delivering on their ambitious promises but, despite the poor start, that could begin to shift with just a change or two.
(Photo: Michael Janosz/ISI Photos/Getty Images)
