On this Magic City Soccer Podcast, Matt, Drew and Lee welcome in the new year by breaking down lots of news. Diego Alonso will lead Inter Miami CF into its first season, while The Miami FC will take on a familiar foe in its USL Championship home debut. Plus, we answer listener questions. Join us, won’t you?
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Magic City Soccer will take the last 10 days of 2019 to review the last 10 years of Miami-Dade County soccer. Today in Miami Soccer in Review, we take a look back at 2019. As the decade closes, Inter Miami CF, The Miami FC and more prepare for the next decade and beyond.
2019 began with Inter Miami CF targeting Miami Freedom Park and a not-yet-named temporary venue. The Miami FC was preparing for its second season in the National Premier Soccer League. And Miami United FC was gearing up for its sixth season at Ted Hendricks Stadium in Hialeah. By the end of the year, Inter Miami was nearly done building a stadium no one envisioned in January, Miami FC was onto its third league in 12 months, and Miami United moved across the county.
Magic City Soccer will take the last 10 days of 2019 to review the last 10 years of Miami-Dade County soccer. Today in Miami Soccer in Review, we take a look back at 2017. The Miami FC makes an enthralling U.S. Open Cup run, and Jorge Mas offers a lifeline to a Miami Beckham United ready to quit.
When The Miami FC was announced in 2015. owner Riccardo Silva indicated that the U.S. Open Cup would prove to be as important as league performance. That wasn’t reflected in 2016, when the club was bombed out in its first game by Wilmington Hammerheads FC. In 2017, however, a magical run would show the potential that The Miami FC presented the South Florida soccer community.
Magic City Soccer will take the last 10 days of 2019 to review the last 10 years of Miami-Dade County soccer. Today in Miami Soccer in Review, we take a look back at 2015. An unexpected rival enters the Miami professional soccer market, and plans to be playing games sooner than anyone would imagine.
By the middle point 2015, the David Beckham proposal bandied about anonymously in 2013 and shared publicly in February 2014 was looking ragged. Proposals for Dodge Island and Downtown were shot down. A compromise location next to Marlins Park was being stonewalled by property owners abutting the stadium’s property. It was clear that building a stadium would be the defining problem of the plan.
Seeing the instability, Italian businessman and investor Riccardo Silva made a play. Silva and Italian legend Paolo Maldini announced that The Miami FC would be competing in the North American Soccer League in the 2016 season. Instead of building a new venue, it would play at Ocean Bank Field at FIU Stadium. A head coach (Alessandro Nesta) and jersey unveiling soon followed.
In this episode of the Magic City Soccer podcast, Matt and Lee sound the siren and discuss The Miami FC’s shocking move to USL Championship. Join us, won’t you?
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The Miami FC claimed its second National Premier Soccer League National Championship on Saturday night, defeating host New York Cosmos 3-1.
Miami FC, which has announced it has plans to leave NPSL for the National Independent Soccer Association, became the first team in NPSL history to win a second title.
After both teams alternated chances in the first 10 minutes, a high press from Miami FC and Ariel Martinez generated a turnover from Daniel Szetela. The ball landed at the feet of captain Dylan Mares, who passed to Miguel Gonzalez, and found Mares on a one-time pass that set him up for a clear shot on goal. A low roller to the left corner beat Cosmos keeper Paul Blanchette to put Miami up 1-0.
The key second goal came just six minutes later, when another turnover from Szetela forced by Tomás Granitto led to the ball falling right at Mares’ foot. A few touches and a small move to the right found Mares open in the box with a look at the top-right corner. The captain again took his chance, and doubled his team’s advantage.
New York Cosmos would halve the advantage in the 30th minute, when an Ansi Agolli free kick sneaked through the crowd in the box and past Miami FC goalkeeper Mark Pais, who was anticipating a header that never came.
It was the one misstep from Pais, who made a number of saves to keep Miami FC in the game. Particularly in the second half, Pais made save after save to keep the one-goal advantage in place. In the 86th minute, it took a double-fingertip save from Pais to keep Miami FC on top.
The game was finally sorted in stoppage time, when defender Shawn Chin won a ball and found forward Darío Suárez on the wing. Chin then continued a run, and Suárez found him streaking down the right. With only Blanchette to beat, Chin calmly moved around the sliding keeper, continued his run, and passed the ball into the heart of the net. Chin’s shirt came off, his team ran over to join him at the opposite flag post, and the champions defended their crown.
Back in 2017 we had a nice little run going here at Magic City Soccer of nailing score-lines of Miami FC matches. If you look back at the preview, we hit the match right on it’s head. It took Miami quite a while, for their standards, to get their first goal of the match. It just took one to open the floodgates and secure three points in Winter Park.
It’s been a long, long, time since the Miami FC played an official match in central Florida. The Orlando area has always treated Miami quite well on the pitch. I don’t have to remind you of the 2017 #cupset over Orlando City behind the hat trick from Stefano Pinho. Those days are long gone, but the Miami FC are in fine form and look to keep racking up the wins in the 407 over NPSL Sunshine Conference newcomers CFSC.
It was a good night of soccer for the Magic City faithful. With two matches taking place consecutively, or so we thought, South Florida was treated to 180 minutes of dominating action. In Lauderhill, Miami FC had to wait approximately three hours to kickoff their match against the new look Storm FC. Our contingent was at the match, where the weather delay persisted due to lightning strikes in the area, despite a drop of water never falling from the sky. Scheduled for a 5:30 kickoff, Miami United’s contest against the Jacksonville Armada began prior to kickoff at Central Broward Stadium.
The Miami FC make their first trip into Broward county for the 2019 season. While Lockhart is being demolished in Fort Lauderdale, there is soccer being played just down the road in Lauderhill. Storm FC have seen a major organizational overhaul in 2019 with the Miami Soccer Academy taking over operations from the crew that finished last in the 2018 NPSL Sunshine Conference. The question is, can MSA provide some type of hope for the Storm brand?
The Miami FC have been left with a sour taste in their mouth with having been exposed in the away fixture of the #MagicCityClasico. The second of the fixtures against Miami United was the exact opposite of the first contest, with United besting FC 2-0 with both goals coming in the first half. The highly touted Lloyd Sam was invisible in a match where his talent should have cast a spotlight. The midfield was lacking the link in play that is notable of Miami’s style throughout their history. The return of Ariel Martinez will be a boost to the squad that is surely looking to make a statement.
Ariel Martinez might find himself thrown immediately into the fire as he will be getting his first action of 2019. With Miami being unable to create chances from the midfield against Miami United, expect Paul Dalglish to make a point of emphasis of creating passing lanes and using runs into the box to bring havoc to the Storm backline. In last year’s fixture, Jaime Chavez capitalized on aerial through-balls and a sleeping Storm defense. Miami cannot solely rely on feeding Mohamed Thiaw in the air as a target man. Getting combination runs and exposing Storm out wide like some of these goals last year will be key.
While the middle of the defense was arguably the most questionable going into the campaign, Kcira’s season ending injury has left Miami exposed on the flanks. Miami United exposed Marco Franco’s and Brian James’ lack of pace and positional awareness last weekend. Dalglish must find a solution to his fullback situation and provide support in coverage. It would be wise to deploy Lance Rozeboom in a more defensive role and perhaps have him slot in as a 3rd centreback, giving Brenton Griffiths, John Neeskens, and Jalen Markey freedom to help cover the flanks when necessary.
The simple truth is, no one knows what to expect from this newly run Storm FC side. Storm was unable to tally against Naples United and didn’t fare as well as they should have against USL League Two side FC Miami City. While I don’t expect a full on drubbing like the 7-0 fixture in 2018, the talent and experience should carry Miami to their second victory of the season. Dalglish should have his squads full talents on display as avoiding any setbacks the rest of the way is the key to putting Miami FC in the best possible position to repeating the success from a year ago.
Tickets will be available at the gate and Miami Soccer Academy are giving out some for free to attend the match at 5:30. Click here for a chance to win your free tickets.
