Inter Miami continue strong play as they defeat Nashville SC

Inter Miami defeated Nashville SC 2-1 on Sunday, August 8th at the DRV PNK Stadium in what turned out to be one of the best finishes in club history.

The Herons came out with a different starting XI after their draw against rivals Orlando City, as Rodolfo Pizarro makes his return and Leandro Gonzalez-Pirez returns after his suspension. Manager Phil Neville also decided to go with a back three formation with Gonzalez-Pirez, Jorge Figal and Christian Makoun anchoring the defense.

This was another strong 90 minutes from Inter Miami as it never felt like they relinquished momentum to Nashville SC. Their passing was precise and accurate, their pressure on Nashville was suffocating all over the pitch and the attack was able to create some decent opportunities.

The first half was back and forth, but Inter Miami were the ones coming away with better scoring opportunities and allowed Nashville to have just two total shots. I was very impressed with the center back trio of Figal, Gonzalez-Pirez and Makoun as they contested everything coming into their territory. Nashville attackers just couldn’t find any space and looked frustrated the entire game.

With Pizarro back in the starting lineup you can feel his creativity on the pitch. Though it didn’t result to much his play did have much more positive results than in any other match I’ve seen him in this season, so I take the positives where I can.

With neither team able to get on the scoresheet we headed into the break with a goalless draw. However, you can definitely say Inter Miami was the better team over the first 45 minutes.

The start of the second half was a much different story though as Nashville SC were able to unlock the Inter Miami defense and get their first corner of the game. Goes to show how dominant the Herons were in the first half.

Nashville star Hany Mukhtar set up to deliver the corner and he made a perfect pass that was met by striker CJ Sapong, who headed it off the crossbar to take a 1-0 lead in the 48’.

Now at this point the game had been looking very good for Inter Miami, so there was no reason to worry. However, as we’ve seen time and time again throughout this season the Herons tend to put their heads down and allow the opponents to control the rest of the game. Yet over the last three games this has not been the case as they’ve been able to battle back every time and get results. I along with everyone else in the stadium was hoping for the same thing and that is exactly what we got.

Inter Miami continued to stay on the front foot and create opportunities for themselves in the Nashville final third. Despite the opponents having an answer for nearly every cross and run the Herons tried there was reason to believe a breakthrough was just around the corner.

Then came a beautiful pass from Matuidi to Gonzalo Higuain in the box and he put it into the back of the net to tie it up at 1-1 in the 60’. The stadium was going crazy as Inter Miami once again come away with a strong response after going down in this game. Higuain scores his eighth goal of the season and Matuidi gets his first assist of the season.

Phil Neville once again made some smart tactical changes to the lineup as he brought on Indiana Vassilev and Brek Shea for Kelvin Leerdam and Kieran Gibbs. Plus, shortly after the equalizer Federico Higuain joined the mix in place of Pizarro, who had a solid game up to that point.

These additions solidified the midfield and defense for the final 30 minutes of the game and made it that much harder for Nashville to put together any sort of positive results in the Inter Miami half.

The Herons continued to attack Nashville with constant pressure in their final third and it honestly felt like a goal was coming soon. However, as the match was nearing it’s conclusion, Nashville SC was finally able to get behind the Herons defense and looked like they were going to score the game winner as Jhonder Cadiz had a wide open header in front of goal, but he sailed it wide.

With five minutes of added time there was plenty of time for a winner to be scored and Inter Miami once again controlled possession for most of it. It just didn’t feel like they would be able to come up with anything of significance in the final moments. Boy was I wrong as Federico Higuain delivered a perfect cross to Aston Vila loanee Indiana Vassilev for the game winning header with no time remaining to make it 2-1 in the 90+5’.

DRV PNK Stadium was going absolutely insane, me included, as this club was able to take all three points for just their second home win of the season. Plus, their first ever win against Nashville SC, who up to this point has been the much better club in their first two seasons.

Something has changed with this team as they are finally playing together and putting together consecutive great performances against the top teams in the Eastern Conference. They are making DRV PNK Stadium as tough place to play and the fans have a big part in it as they are some of the best the MLS has to offer.

Undefeated in four straight game solidifies this as the best stretch Inter Miami have shown all season and possibly in their history. Can they keep this up? We’ll just have to wait till their next game which is on the road on Saturday, August 14th at 8:00 PM against New York City FC.