Due to the postponement of the Inter Miami CF hope opener against the LA Galaxy, and in the interest of promoting social distancing and support for our local community, Magic City Soccer will be providing a full-length, fully commentated Football Manager simulation of the game on Twitch on Saturday night at 7 p.m.
Month: March 2020
The United Soccer League confirmed Thursday that it would impose a 30-day suspension of games due to COVID-19, referred to commonly as novel coronavirus. This means that The Miami FC’s home opener against the Tampa Bay Rowdies, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Friday night at Riccardo Silva Stadium, will not go forward as planned.
Stay with Magic City Soccer as this story develops.
Major League Soccer confirmed Thursday morning that it would be postponing its season for a minimum of 30 days due to COVID-19, referred to commonly as novel coronavirus. This affects all MLS teams, including Inter Miami CF and its scheduled home opener on Saturday.
“We’ve made a decision as a league, this morning, as owners, that play will be suspended temporarily. Target on that is 30 days.” managing owner Jorge Mas told the assembled press this afternoon. “We are working, and the league is working on rescheduling the games. We fully anticipate that we will play all of our 34 games.”
“We want to protect our players, and protect our fans, as much as possible.”
Stay with Magic City Soccer as this story develops.
For 50 minutes Saturday, Inter Miami CF seemed poised to claim its first Major League Soccer victory. An early Rodolfo Pizarro goal, the first in the club’s history, was the cap of an early offensive blitz and reflected the dominance we would see from the team in the first half.
But one moment proved to be a harbinger of doom for the RosaNegra, taking them from 2-0 up to down 2-1 and a man within 10 minutes.
The wait for an inaugural point continues. Inter Miami fell at the hands of DC United Saturday, 2-1.
The debut of Inter Miami CF in Major League Soccer was more than six years in the making. Any actual result, win lose or draw, would have surely been a delight for the Miami faithful.
But when Lee Nguyen stood over a 96th-minute free kick, then followed up with a shot on goal moments later, those fans had to be dreaming of a point.
The excitement, the exhilaration and the possibility was all there for Inter Miami CF on Sunday night. The only thing missing was a goal.
Los Angeles FC, spearheaded by a solid defensive performance and led by a moment of brilliance from Carlos Vela, defeated Inter Miami 1-0 to give the RosaNegra an ignoble welcome to MLS.
As Inter Miami CF kicks off its first game this afternoon, I’ve been doing some thinking. I wasn’t always a fan of soccer. In fact, I spent most of my adolescence harboring a strong dislike of the sport. Soccer was boring, no one ever scored, it was for other countries and not the United States.
Obviously, if you’ve read this website or listened to our podcast, you know that opinion has changed radically. It was a process that started in my hometown of Baltimore, but took hold in Miami. I learned to appreciate, then love, The Beautiful Game.
By the time my appreciation of soccer took hold, around 2008, I was driving to pubs on Miami Beach or Oakland Park to watch my club team, Liverpool. And I was also aware of a plan by F.C. Barcelona and Marcelo Claure to bring Major League Soccer to Miami. My first thought was: “Yeah, why the hell doesn’t Miami have MLS already?” My second thought was: “Awesome!”
My first thought was answered when I researched and discovered there had been a Miami team, and that it had been contracted after the 2001 season. My second thought was slowly killed off by the Great Recession and Barcelona’s abandonment of the project in 2009. It would be more than a decade before Major League Soccer would actually return.