Orlando City aim to slow first-place Inter Miami
Inter Miami will put a five-match winning streak on the line when they visit in-state rival Orlando City on Wednesday night. Miami is also unbeaten since March 23, as it drew two matches before the five consecutive wins. The Herons (8-2-3, 27 points) kept those streaks intact when they rallied to a 3-2 road win over CF Montreal on Saturday. For a change, it wasn’t Lionel Messi who provided the scoring. Matias Rojas and Luis Suarez scored just before halftime to turn a 2-0 deficit into a tie game, and Benjamin Cremaschi came through with the game-winner in the 59th minute in his first start of the season.
The 19-year-old midfielder from the Miami area now has two goals in his past three matches after missing much of the start of the season due to injury. “Benja generated a lot in the minutes he played,” coach Tata Martino said after Saturday’s match. “It had been a long time since he started a game. He played 70 minutes and we are very satisfied with his performance, and with his game-deciding goal.
Though Messi helped spark the counterattack that set up Cremaschi’s goal, he went without a goal or an assist for the first time this season. Messi has 10 goals and a league-high 12 assists, including an MLS-record six goal contributions (one goal, five assists) in a 6-2 win over the New York Red Bulls on May 4. Orlando City (3-5-3, 12 points) own a 5-4 edge in the all-time series against Miami (in MLS play), with three ties. But the Lions have played second fiddle in Florida since Messi arrived last summer, and Orlando will want payback after a 5-0 drubbing at Miami in March. Messi and Suarez each scored twice in that encounter.
We had a start to the season where we haven’t been getting the results that we wanted,” Muriel said
