This match will leave a strong and horrible taste in everyone’s mouth. I haven’t seen this club getting thrashed, beaten to a pulp the way I saw this club either as the MetroStars or the New York Red Bulls with a forty five minute period the way they crumbled at the might of Lionel Messi or Luis Suarez. The only adjustment made by Inter Miami was putting Sergio Busquets into a deeper midfield position, then subbing in Matias Rojas for David Ruiz and the beginning of the end came in the 48th minute. Two goals within a span of two to three minutes were all it took for Inter Miami to roll back into the match with a vengeance.
The first half was excellent by the New York Red Bulls. They were compact, they plugged up the middle of the pitch, and had plenty of confidence to attempt a big win on the road against the Herrons until Tata Martino made that slight adjustment to start the second half. A one goal lead evaporated into thin air once the Inter Miami scoring machine came out of nowhere and blitzed the Red Bulls throughout the second half. But why did the Red Bulls have no chance of getting back into the match? Part of it was the club was shell shocked and couldn’t hold on to the ball, also their touches failed them on the offensive end of the pitch.
Sadly Sandro Schwarz didn’t make a sub until the 70th minute and it was a tough pill to swallow. He tried leaving Daniel Edelman by himself as the lone number six after the score was three to one, but there’s only so much you can do against the firepower that Inter Miami has. It wasn’t pretty and it wasn’t fun, but one thing is certain is that it’s another learning lesson by this Red Bulls side, who has only suffered their second loss of the season against a top side.
“Yeah, we tried to change our structure to use only one 6 position and to that, we take a little bit more risk in our behavior to create these chances after three one. Then we open the space, and this is the biggest problem against this quality when you have open space against Lionel Messi.” said Sandro Schwarz, “Then they have these moments after the transition when we are losing the ball especially before we concede the third goal. We had a good moment in the box of the opponent, but we didn’t finish this attacking situation that was a great chance for us we lost the ball and then they had a moment in that transition and that was the main difference today. I saw the numbers directly after the game they shot 15 times we had 14 times they had 7 shots on the goal, and we had five or six on the goal, and that shows the quality of Inter Miami.”
It’s hard to see that while behind two goals to one, Schwarz should’ve made some form of substitution to help with the defending against Messi, while still attacking against them, but sadly, it was their worst second half performance in a very long time. No, it wasn’t the Daniel Patrick yellow kits that put them in this position, it was the adjustments that Tata Martino made and the adjustments that Schwarz didn’t make till it was too late. Is this the time to panic? Is this the time to get worried? Right now there is some concern, but it can all go away when the New England Revolution comes to town next weekend. They are dead last in the East, and shouldn’t have a puncher’s chance to steal the three points.
After getting beaten badly by the Columbus Crew, the Red Bulls got back on their horse and went on another unbeaten streak, I believe they can do it again. Three big matches at home against the Revs, then a mid-week clash with DC United at our nation’s capital, then a first trip to Queens and Citi Field against NYCFC. There is plenty of time to get back on another unbeaten streak and climb back to the top of the Eastern Conference standings. But this week is going to be salty, and very bitter after the melt down we saw at Chase Stadium.