The New England Revolution were close, but star-studded Inter Miami CF generally don\u2019t go quietly.<\/p>\n
And so it was on Saturday night, as both sides settled for a 1-1 tie at Nu Stadium.<\/p>\n
Yet, the Revolution (5-3-1, 16 points) will be the happier of the two sides. While the result snaps a five-game winning streak across all competitions, the Revs are unbeaten in six, have picked up back-to-back road results, and have the credibility of having taken Lionel Messi and the star-studded, defending MLS Cup champions to the brink.<\/p>\n
Conversely, Miami (5-1-4, 19 points) was sloppy and out of sync, and have now failed to win in three tries in their newly-opened home arena.<\/p>\n
Messi, Miami\u2019s main talisman and the oft-regarded greatest of all-time, was uncharacteristically off his game for much of the night. He was marked tightly by Revolution central midfielders Alhassan Yusuf and Brooklyn Raines, his touches at times off and his head sinking after Revolution captain Carles Gil gave the visitors the lead in the 56th minute by poking in the remnants of a Will Sands throw-in after emerging unmarked in the penalty area.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were just very focused that somebody\u2019s always on Messi, in those pockets, when they have the ball, because no matter what, I think their first option is to play to Messi,\u201d first-year Revolution head coach Marko Mitrovic said. \u201cEverything is easy to say and put on paper, but when you play against players like Messi\u2026to execute, that\u2019s not easy. I know that he had some very good moments today, but I also know that we had moments where we were very good against him.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Miami pressed hard and had an 18-16 edge in shots, even having a goal annulled on a tight offside call. Their breakthrough eventually came in the 76th minute, Nu Stadium erupting when German Berterame equalized into an open net following an easy rebound on Luis Suarez\u2019s low drive.<\/p>\n
That said, the performance was a proof point for Mitrovic and his players. They successfully limited Messi, with excellent marking, wing play, and smart counter-attacks leading the way in a wide-open contest.<\/p>\n
Revolution goalkeeper Matt Turner \u2014 who continues to vie for the U.S. men\u2019s national team\u2019s starting role at this summer\u2019s FIFA World Cup \u2014 had a standout performance, with nine saves, including three on Messi. That Turner was so active and resolute against a quality opposition will be of note to the U.S. coaching staff. Indeed, playing Miami may have been Turner\u2019s last high-profile opportunity to stand out before U.S. head coach Mauricio Pochettino names his roster for the tournament at the end of May.<\/p>\n
The Revolution host Orlando City SC on Wednesday night in the Round of 16 of the U.S. Open Cup, and return to MLS regular season play on Saturday against Charlotte FC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New England Revolution were close, but star-studded Inter Miami CF generally don\u2019t go quietly. And so it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[10073,1660,14236,123,125,124,5692,17144,2062],"class_list":{"0":"post-246910","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-inter-miami","9":"tag-lionel-messi","10":"tag-messi","11":"tag-miami","12":"tag-miami-headlines","13":"tag-miami-news","14":"tag-mls","15":"tag-new-england-revolution","16":"tag-soccer"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}