Atlanta United FC 5-2 Inter Miami CF (Sep 16, 2023) Game Analysis

Inter Miami was with out Lionel Messi and suffered its first loss since his arrival in July in a 5-2 humbling at Atlanta United in entrance of a crowd of 71,635 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Saturday.

Tristan Muyumba, Brooks Lennon and a Kamal Miller personal aim put the house aspect in entrance on the finish of the primary half earlier than Georgios Giakoumakis and Tyler Wolff every scored within the second as Atlanta (12-8-9, 45 factors) improved to 9-3-3 at house. The membership stays in sixth within the MLS Eastern Conference after the victory.

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Leonardo Campana scored twice for Miami (8-15-4, 28 factors), who noticed their 12-game unbeaten streak throughout all competitions come to an finish.

Miami supervisor Gerardo “Tata” Martino mentioned Messi and Spanish defender Jordi Alba missed the sport on account of “muscular fatigue” and that their absences weren’t associated to the FieldTurf floor at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Atlanta United coach Gonzalo Pineda mentioned he discovered about Messi’s choice on social media.

“I checked the Twitter account to know he was not coming,” Pineda mentioned, including he inspired his gamers to stay targeted regardless of the eye given Messi’s standing.

“Honestly, I told the players, there are a lot of things out there in the atmosphere and everything seems to be about Inter Miami. We have to turn that to about us.”

Trailing 3-1 early within the second half, Campana’s second aim on a penalty kick pulled Inter Miami to inside one.

Giakoumakis responded for Atlanta within the 76th minute, restoring the two-goal lead, and Wolff added an insurance coverage rating within the 89th minute. Giakoumakis’ 14th aim tied him for the league lead.

Inter Miami opened the scoring within the twenty fifth minute on Campana’s eighth aim of the season. Atlanta erased the deficit by scoring 3 times in eight minutes to hold a 3-1 lead into half-time.

Campana took the rebound off Dixon Arroyo’s strike, which hit the publish, and obtained round Atlanta defender Miles Robinson with some fancy footwork earlier than beating Brad Guzan.

Muyumba scored the equalizer for Atlanta within the thirty sixth minute, placing a header previous Miami keeper Drake Callender. The play was reviewed to find out if the ball crossed the aim line, however the video was inconclusive.

Atlanta took the lead with an personal aim. Xande Silva’s strike deflected off Inter Miami defender Kamal Miller and previous Callender.

Lennon gave Atlanta a 3-1 lead, taking a Caleb Wiley cross and beating Callender with a right-footed strike from the center of the field for his fourth aim of the season.

Miami has matches at house towards Toronto on Wednesday and at Orlando on Sept. 24 earlier than the U.S. Open Cup last towards the Houston Dynamo three days later.

Information from Reuters and the Associated Press was used on this report.