With barely any time to rest and with Leo Messi in charge, Inter Miami CF hit the road again to arrive in New York early this Saturday, September 21 (2 pm TV: Apple TV) to face New York City at Yankee Stadium.
The Miami team (19-6-4) arrived in the Big Apple as first in the Eastern Conference with 63 points, after tying 2-2 in their visit to Atlanta United last Wednesday, with goals from youth team player David Ruiz and Leonardo Campana, who became the team’s all-time leading scorer, with 30 goals.
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On the other hand, NY City (11-7-11), occupying 6th place in the East with 40 points, arrives at this match upset, after having lost 5-1 to Philadelphia Union.
This will be a clash in which Inter will look to reduce the historical advantage in head-to-head matches between the two teams, in which City has eight wins, two draws, and Miami just one victory. This will be the second time that both teams meet in 2024. The last time the teams met, they tied 1-1 at Chase Stadium on March 30.
In addition, the team led by Gerardo “Tata” Martino needs the three points to strengthen its advantage in the race for the Supporters Shield and at the same time automatically qualify for the 2025 Concacaf Champions League. Winning the Supporters Shield title would give Miami the chance to play in the 2025 Club World Cup.
Martino is expected to field his top-flight lineup for this match, starting with Leo Messi, as well as Luis Suarez, Jordi Alba, and Sergio Busquets, who will return to the starting eleven after missing the match in Atlanta due to an accumulation of yellow cards.
With Messi in the starting line-up, Inter, in addition to playing better and showing better, is also guaranteed to score goals. Leo has 14 goals and 14 assists, being the team’s top contributor with 28 in 14 games, two as a substitute. The best news is that he looks fully recovered from his ankle injury.
“Leo played 30 minutes, he did well without any disagreements, so he is ready to play. Tata will decide how much [he will play], but Leo is doing very well physically,” Inter’s assistant coach Javi Morales said on Friday.
“When you have three games in a week, the game to rotate is the one in the middle. I think Tata will field the strongest team on Saturday.”
Suarez is also the team’s top scorer with 17 goals, fighting to be the top scorer in the MLS this season. He is currently third, with four games left in the regular season.
Messi arrived in New York with Inter and this Friday morning they completed the final pre-match training session on a New York pitch and he is ready to start and shine for the first time in the legendary stadium of the MLB Yankees, which hopes to break the record for revenue.
Tickets range from $100 to $6,000 dollars and despite this, an attendance of around 46,500 spectators is expected, many of them to see Messi and support the Miami team.
Martino returns to the bench after serving his suspension in Atlanta and will be able to count on almost all of his players, including Noah Allen, who has already left the concussion protocol. He will only be without center David Martinez (adductor) and midfielder Matias Rojas (ankle), with midfielder Diego Gomez (hamstring) in doubt until the last moment.
The expected starting XI: Drake Callender, Marcelo Weigandt, Tomas Aviles, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba, Federico Redondo, Jannick Bright, Julian Gressel, Leo Messi, Luis Suarez and Robert Taylor. The only question is whether Busquets starts in midfield instead of Bright, with Sergio Kryvtsov at center-back.
