{"id":518540,"date":"2026-03-12T06:05:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T06:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/518540\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T06:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T06:05:10","slug":"nashville-0-0-miami-mar-11-2026-game-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/518540\/","title":{"rendered":"Nashville 0-0 Miami (Mar 11, 2026) Game Analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nashville SC<\/a> held Inter Miami CF<\/a> to a 0-0 draw in the first leg of its Concacaf Champions Cup<\/a> round-of-16 match with the defending MLS<\/a> champions on Wednesday night at GEODIS Park.<\/p>\n

The teams will meet again on March 18 at Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale to decide which squad advances to the quarterfinal round.<\/p>\n

The result means Miami star Lionel Messi<\/a> is still one goal shy of the 900 mark, after netting his 899th on Saturday against D.C. United<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Messi, who came into the game looking to join Ronaldo as the only other player to score 900 goals for club and country, came close early in the second half but was denied by Nashville keeper Brian Schwake<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Entering the contest, Messi had scored in six straight games against Nashville, dating to April 20, 2024, posting 12 goals and five assists in that stretch. He was held without a point for the second time in four games after being held off the scoresheet in a 3-0 loss to LAFC on Feb. 21.<\/p>\n

\"LionelLionel Messi and Miami were held to a 0-0 draw in the first leg of their Concacaf Champions Cup last-16 game against Nashville.<\/p>\n

Messi’s one shot on target was his lowest single-game shot total since Nov. 29, in the MLS Cup Eastern Conference final against New York City FC<\/a>. In that game, he had no shots on goal , but did have an assist in Inter Miami’s 5-1 win.<\/p>\n

Miami dominated possession, controlling the ball for 59% of the game. However, Nashville was proactive when it had the ball, recording 15 total shots to Miami’s eight, four of which were on target.<\/p>\n

“The team played a good game, especially in terms of defensive organization, preventing Nashville from playing comfortably,” Miami coach Javier Mascherano said.<\/p>\n

“It’s never easy coming here; we knew that beforehand. And well, now we wait for next Wednesday with our fans to see if we can close out the tie and advance to the quarterfinals.”<\/p>\n

Nashville’s best chance came off a corner from Cristian Espinoza in the 65th minute. His throw-in found Reed Baker-Whiting in the box. However, Baker-Whiting sent a header just over the crossbar.<\/p>\n

Inter Miami’s Maximiliano Falc\u00f3n<\/a> was injured in the seventh minute and left the game. He was replaced by Gonzalo Luj\u00e1n<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Regarding Maxi [Falcon], we don’t know; it’s very recent. He’ll have to undergo tests,” Mascherano said. “Hopefully, it will be as minor as possible. He’s a strong player, but the fact that he has to come off means there’s something wrong.”<\/p>\n

The winner of the Nashville-Miami series will face either Club Am\u00e9rica<\/a> or the Philadelphia Union<\/a> in quarterfinals. Club Am\u00e9rica defeated Philadelphia 1-0 on Wednesday in Chester, Pennsylvania. The elimination game will be held on March 18 in Mexico City.<\/p>\n

Winners in the Champions Cup are decided on aggregate goals, with the team scoring the most goals over two games advancing. If Nashville and Miami are scoreless at the end of 90 minutes in their next game, the teams will go into extra time and then penalty kicks.<\/p>\n

Miami will begin playing at Nu Stadium — the team’s new 26,700-seat facility — on April 4 against Austin FC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Information from The Associated Press was used in this story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nashville SC held Inter Miami CF to a 0-0 draw in the first leg of its Concacaf Champions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-518540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}