Lionel Messi missed his eleventh consecutive game with Inter Miami on Tuesday, August 13, when they faced Columbus Crew at Lower.com Field in the round of 16 of the Leagues Cup, and his team sorely missed him in this clash of champions.
It was an early final in which Columbus overturned the visitors’ two goals to beat Miami 3-2, which eliminated them from the competition where they were crowned champions last year.
Meanwhile, the Crew, the current MLS champion, advanced to the quarterfinals where they will face New York City, who won 2-1 against Tigres UANL.
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For Miami, Matias Rojas (10′) and Diego Gomez (62′) scored, while for Columbus, Christian Ramirez (67′) and Diego Rossi (69′ and 80′) scored.
The team led by Gerardo “Tata” Martino had the match in their hands until the 66th minute, but fatigue combined with the push of the rival team thwarted their hopes of advancing in the tournament.
“I think we played a brilliant 65 minutes, where we could have even scored the 3rd goal. In 10 minutes we were somewhat confused, which I think was not because we sat back but because we sometimes wanted to press high when we were perhaps not in a position to do so, they came out quickly, found the discount, and quickly found the 2-2,” said Martino.
“Even when they were 3-2 up, we had two very clear chances to score. But the truth is that I am very sad about the result because I think we take very little away from the game we played and the opponent we played against,” he added.
Although in all fairness the Crew was a fair winner after dominating the match (54.4%), with more shots on goal (19-12), of which 8-3 were on target, but above all for playing better and believing in their game.
Martino surprised with a 5-3-2 that gave control to the Columbus team, insisting on Noah Allen, who is not a center-back, which practically leaves the team with one less player.
In the end, the bet on Allen backfired again for Martino, who also delayed making changes too long with the team exhausted in the final stretch due to the effort made.
Miami opened with Drake Callender, Marcelo Weigandt, Tomas Aviles, Sergio Busquets, Allen, Jordi Alba, Federico Redondo, Jannick Bright, Gomez, Rojas and Luis Suarez.
The first half ended in favor of Inter Miami 1-0, despite the fact that Columbus had more possession (57.2%) and shot more (6-3), although the pink-black team controlled the game well and outperformed 2-1 in shots on target.
In the 10th minute, the visiting club opened the scoring with a beautiful goal by Paraguayan Rojas, who headed and headed a measured cross from his countryman Gomez, who, after recovering the ball, reached the goal line and made a pass that meant 1-0 for his team.
Columbus, although dominating, had a hard time getting past Miami’s first line of pressure formed by Rojas, Redondo, Bright, and Gomez, who later joined Suarez on the counterattacks.
After half an hour of play, Inter Miami was superior with Alba generating danger and offsides as the best weapon in the Crew’s defense, which barely disturbed Callender’s goal.
Columbus pressed hard in the final minutes of the first half and in the 41st minute Salvadoran referee Ivan Barton cautioned Weigandt, but there was no more and after the first 45 minutes had elapsed, the break came.
Columbus made three changes at the start of the second half, with both sides creating chances, repeating the same pattern of play, as the game reached the hour mark.
And in the 62nd minute, in a counterattack worth remembering, Gomez scored the 2-0 after a fantastic wall pass from Suarez.
It was a great goal in which the Uruguayan striker had a lot to do with receiving the ball and passing it to Gomez, who passed it back to him as he entered the left side of the area in an unbeatable position so that he could beat the Crew goalkeeper with his right foot at the far post.
The 2-0 scoreline proved to be the most deceptive of results and five minutes later, in just two minutes, Columbus managed to tie the game 2-2.
The first, at 67′, when Ramirez headed a powerful header alone in front of Miami’s goal, taking advantage of the fact that Allen was lost in the marking, after a cross from Max Arfsten from the right.
The second, at 69′, when Rossi, coming in from the left, finished off a cross from the right by Juan Camilo “Cucho” Hernández with his right foot.
They say that whoever draws wins and so it was. In the 80th minute, Rossi scored his second goal with a cross from the right very close to the goal, after a great through ball from Mohamed Farsi between Allen and Alba.
The changes of Julian Gressel for Rojas, Leo Campana for Allen, Ian Fray for Weigandt, and Benjamin Cremaschi for Redondo came too late and could do nothing.
Callender kept Miami alive, who had a chance to tie the game in the 95th minute, but lacked the necessary composure to go down with their boots on and say goodbye to the tournament.
Nothing to regret, in the end, every cloud has a silver lining.
