Nashville vs Inter Miami: NSH vs MIA: Lionel Messi and Co at Inter Miami are only a step away from creating history for the club. It hasn’t even been an entire month since Messi and his former Barcelona teammates Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba joined. Now, they have a chance to win the club’s first-ever silverware. The same goes for their opponent Nashville which was established only a year before Miami. If they manage to stop Miami’s run of brilliance, they will win their first-ever silverware as well.
Inter Miami’s performance in this season’s MLS so far has been horrible, to say the least. They are currently sitting at the bottom of the MLS Eastern Conference table. Phil Neville was sacked from the head coach position and Gerardo Martino was hired in his place. Martino was then reunited with his former pupils Messi, Busquets, and Alba and they became a new team overnight. On the other hand, Nashville are 4th in the league table. Additionally, even though they started the Leagues Cup shaky, they will give tough competition.
Nashville Team News
Similar to Inter Miami, Nashville are one of the newest teams in MLS. They were established in 2017 and have not won any silverware yet. Their journey in the Leagues Cup has been amazing. Their start was shaky as their progression from the group stage was doubtful at one point, but they prevailed. They stumbled and progressed through penalty shootouts in both round of 32 and round of 16 matches. However, they seem to have turned it around with 2 straight clean sheet wins before the final.
Nashville have a few star players of their own. Last season’s Bournemouth player Sam Surridge joined the MLS side about a month ago. Since his addition to the team, he has scored 3 goals in the 3 matches he appeared. Hany Mukhtar is the club’s ace with 65 goals to his name. Miami’s defense has been shaky a few times, so Nashville’s coach will be looking to take advantage of that by lining up both Mukhtar and Surridge. In the meantime, USMNT’s Walker Zimmerman will lead the defense line.
Inter Miami Team News
Inter Miami was established in 2018 and they also have not won any silverware yet. Their MLS campaign this season was horrible, to say the least. However, the arrival of Lionel Messi and his Barcelona teammates changed the face of the team. Only their round-of-16 match against FC Dallas went into a penalty shootout. Otherwise, they have won every other Leagues Cup match. Additionally, they have netted 22 goals in the process. The number is incredible considering their entire MLS goal tally this season before Messi’s arrival was 22.
Since Messi, Busquets, and Alba were integrated into the starting XI on a regular basis, Inter Miami found the perfect team. Starting from Messi’s debut in Miami’s first Leagues Cup match, they have won all except one match in the competition. They faced FC Dallas in the round-of-16 stage match, which ended in a 4-4 draw at the end of the official 90 minutes. However, they won in the following penalty shootout. Since they found a lineup that works wonders, coach Martino probably will not risk making any changes in the final.
Editors pick
