MIAMI — Lionel Messi and his Inter Miami teammates boarded a flight to Chicago on Tuesday afternoon, aiming to hit their stride as they await the arrival of new coach Kily Gonzalez heading into the final stretch of the regular season.
After failing to win the CONCACAF Champions Cup or the Leagues Cup, Miami has its eye set on becoming the first MLS Cup champion to defend its title since the 2011-12 Los Angeles Galaxy.
It will not be an easy task.
Inter Miami, which sits in second place in the Eastern Conference, plays the third-place Chicago Fire on Wednesday at Soldier Field (8:30 p.m., Apple TV). With a win, Miami could start closing the 10-point gap on leader Nashville SC. A Miami loss would move Chicago just two points from second place.
The game features a high-profile matchup between 39-year-old Argentine legend Messi and another former Barcelona star, 38-year-old Polish national team captain Robert Lewandowski, who has scored five goals and become a Chicago fan favorite since joining the club this summer. Between them, they have scored nearly 1,700 goals for club and country.
“This is the aim of Major League Soccer, to play games like this in front of sold-out stadiums with marquee players,” Fire coach Gregg Berhalter said on Monday. “We always talk about Major League Soccer being a league choice for top players, and this game is an example of this. You can see a lot of top players featured in this game.”
Berhalter added that this match requires no added motivation.
“These are the games it’s really easy to get up for, the games you mark on your calendars at the beginning of the year,” he said. “Miami’s used to playing in front of a lot of people, but I have to say, since Robert arrived, we’ve been playing in front of packed stadiums, also.”
Chicago winger Philip Zinckernagel agreed.
“We had the pleasure of playing [Messi] last year in this stadium and it was almost full, as well, and obviously with Lewandowski, we have another superstar,” Zinckernagel said. “Once the game is on, you just focus on the game. You don’t think too much about either Messi or Lewandowski. I’m just happy that we have one of the superstars on our team this time. It’s exciting, exciting times with the Club.”
The Fire is on a six-game unbeaten run in league play and heads into Wednesday’s game after three consecutive draws, most recently a 4-4 deadlock with Toronto FC.
Miami, meanwhile, is winless in five of its past six games and coming off a 2-2 tie at home against Atlanta United. The club made a coaching change nearly two weeks ago, replacing Guillermo Hoyos with Gonzalez, but Gonzalez is awaiting his work visa, so Hoyos remains in charge and will move to another role once the new coach arrives.
The last time the two teams faced each other, at Nu Stadium on July 22, Luis Suarez scored a brace and Preston Plambeck scored to lead Miami to a 3-2 win over the Fire in Lewandowski’s MLS debut. Inter Miami played without Messi and Rodrigo de Paul, where were on a post-World Cup break.
The Fire has scored plenty of goals since the World Cup break, but suffered through defensive lapses, including giving up the lead late last weekend against Toronto.
“So what we talked about was the focus at the end of the game,” Berhalter said. “We got ourselves back into it, we took the lead, and it was really about how do we prevent that one attack that they had at the end? And we didn’t do it well, and they ended up getting the tie.
“For us, we’ve got to be better at defending, we’ve got to be more compact. Offensively, we’re creating enough. We’re doing enough to score goals.”
Sound familiar, Inter Miami fans?
No MLS team has scored more goals this season than Miami, which has 58. Cincinnati and Vancouver are second-highest with 49 goals. But, Miami has conceded 43 goals, which is fifth-most in the Eastern Conference.
“As a team, things haven’t gone our way lately,” said Inter Miami midfielder Telasco Segovia. “We’ve had chances we have not finished. But we’re a team with very good players, and we will get ourselves out of this. They are a strong team, in third place, playing well, and we want to beat them to widen the gap.”
Messi has not scored in the past two games against the Fire. Asked what the Fire did to stop him, Berhalter smiled and said he hadn’t planned to talk about that stat because he didn’t want to jinx his team.
“Maybe it’s luck,” he said. “He’s a top player, gets tons of chances and scores tons of goals. We have a 180-minute sample size, which is not the biggest sample size. We need to be focused on him, there’s no question about it. They have a lot of good players, but he’s certainly the top of the list.”
Berhalter said he expects goals from both teams.
“Last year before we played there were similar conversations; we said the one thing we know is there will be goals, and it was 0-0,” he said. “So, all it proves is I don’t know a lot. I would suspect there will be goals because both teams are offensive teams and have been scoring at a good rate, but who knows?”
Wednesday’s game will be special for defender Noah Allen, the Pembroke Pines native who was loaned from Inter Miami to the Fire last week with a $3 million permanent move expected in January. Allen played 133 games for Inter Miami, a club record.
Berhalter said they brought Allen in for his versatility as a left back and center back.
“For him, I imagine this game a little bit complicated,” Berhalter said. “He has spent a great time there, was raised there, won an MLS Cup there. So, I can understand he has very strong feelings toward Inter Miami. For us, it’s trying to get some information off of him. But, it’s pretty clear what they do. They’re a very good team with very good attacking players. It’s really about coming up with a game plan to try and contain some of what they do and limit some of their danger.”
Zinckernagel said Allen has had a good first few days with his new team.
“I think he looked really good when he came on last game,” he said. “He’s only been here for a few days, so we haven’t been able to train too much. But I liked his calmness on the ball, and he can take on opponents as a defender, which is something that can help us in many games. The fact that he can cover more positions is also really good for us.”
Injury report: Mbekezeli Mbokazi and Andre Franco are out for the Fire. Center backs Micael and Gonzalo Lujan are doubtful for Miami and Mateo Silvetti is out after reinjuring his shoulder against Atlanta.