With a mixed starting eleven and without Lionel Messi, Inter Miami suffered its first defeat of the season against CF Montreal. Sandro Schwarz, on the other hand, celebrated thanks to Emil Forsberg.
Anyone who got a ticket specifically for the game against CF Montreal to see Lionel Messi live was out of luck. The world champion wasn’t even in the squad for Inter Miami’s home game on Monday night (CET) – his team promptly suffered their first defeat of the season, 2-3.
Shortly after Leonardo Campana equalized the visitors’ early lead through Fernando Alvarez (13′) (71′), Montreal decided the game with a curious double strike. Attacker Matias Coccaro (75th) and Sunusi Ibrahim (78th), who came on for him two minutes later, struck ice cold. The 3-1 was prepared by Josef Martinez, who was also substituted on, a player who had worn the Inter jersey last season.
The home team quickly came close again when Jordi Alba used a cross from his former Barcelona teammate Sergio Busquets to score his first goal of the season (80th). Unlike the first leg of the round of 16 in the CONCACAF Champions Cup against Nashville SC during the week (2-2), the late equalizer was no longer possible this time.
Busquets, Suarez and Gressel also part of the rotation
Ultimately, coach Gerardo Martino probably gambled a bit too high with his many personnel changes, which he also made with a view to the second leg against Nashville on Thursday (1:15 a.m. CET). While Messi was missing entirely, Busquets and Luis Suarez were deliberately only included, and Federico Redondo and Julian Gressel were deliberately replaced early.
“That’s how it was planned,” Martino revealed and said of Messi’s absence: “We talked about it about a week ago and agreed that we would rest him in this game.” The fact that the 36-year-old was kicked in the leg in Nashville had nothing to do with it.
Forsberg scores for the Red Bulls for the first time
Like six other teams, Inter is in the best position with seven points, but is the only one of them to have already played four times. The remaining sextet also includes the New York Red Bulls under new coach Sandro Schwarz. They had already remained unbeaten the day before with a 2-1 win against FC Dallas. Top newcomer Emil Forsberg scored his first goal in the new jersey from the penalty spot and also set up Lewis Morgan’s 2-0 win.