Inter Miami fall 1-0 at New York City FC, and it’s hard not to see a Messi sized hole in their XI

Inter Miami coach Phil Neville has continued to campaign for Lionel Messi’s arrival in South Beach.

And if the World Cup winner moves to the United States, it will take better performances from Neville’s men than Saturday’s 1-0 loss to New York City FC to add to their trophy case.

With a handful of about 40 Miami fans stationed over home plate at Yankee Stadium, both teams played out a hard-fought first half with goals disallowed for offside before Christopher McVey’s nightmare goal on the minute 36 would give New York City the decisive advantage.

The David Beckham-owned club was lucky not to concede another, but the performance was still an improvement on Miami’s 3-0 thrashing of NYCFC in the playoffs last year, as hosts coach Nick later acknowledged. Cushing.

‘When [Neville] I took this team, I knew exactly the type of direction the team was going to take,’ Cushing said of Miami, which has won two of its first three games.

“And he knew that the team he inherited was not going to be the team he would end up creating.”

That team might soon include Messi, but Miami’s game at Yankee Stadium was largely the antithesis of the kind of soccer that helped Messi and La Albiceleste lift the trophy in Qatar, lacking both ruthlessness and defensive focus.

Josef Martinez failed to convert a couple of chances in the first half, and with Neville recently saying Messi would be the ‘greatest signing ever’, it’s hard not to imagine what those chances might have looked like coming from the Argentine’s left foot.

However, Neville refused to let his imagination run wild after the match.

“Today he played for PSG, he’s a PSG player,” he said when asked by DailyMail.com about the possibility of Messi joining and whether he saw the Miami games as an opportunity to impress the star.

“I’m worried about the players we have here.”

Despite the result, it’s easy to see Messi fitting into the pink and black.

Draped in the club’s signature light pink, the small group of Miami fans jumped for much of the game while chanting in Spanish, though the chants were expected to be much louder at home.

Messi would also find a South American contingent on the pitch.

Argentines Nicolás Stefanelli and Franco Negri made the starting lineup on Saturday, while Brazilian midfielder Jean Mota also received the nod.

Messi may also recognize Venezuelan Martínez, one of the most prolific forwards in MLS history, from the CONMEBOL rankings.

The PSG star may already have made up his mind, as an anonymous source told The Athletic this week that a deal for him “was almost done”, but on Saturday he showed where Miami can improve, especially if he arrives.

After McVey’s missed clearance went into his own net, the visitors were lucky not to concede again.

Midfielder Keaton Parks squandered a point-blank chance in the 55th minute, before providing Santi Rodríguez for an eventual save six minutes later.

That came after a ball from Parks over the ball to Rodríguez froze the defense in the 17th minute before the chance was blown, while left-back Braian Cufre also had a shot wide late in the game.

These would be problems for any coach and any team, but especially for someone courting Messi, a very talented player, who doesn’t play defense much these days.

Still, it’s worth a little perspective.

While the home fans were chanting ‘go New York’ as the final whistle approached, it’s Miami, which has conceded just one goal in three games, who is ahead of them in the standings after defeating the top two teams in the This one from the last regular season. (Philadelphia and Montreal).

Neville showed a disappointed figure after the game, but his outlook wasn’t too pessimistic.

“I can’t complain about the effort of the players,” he said. “We’re just looking for that little bit of extra quality now in the last third.

If he gets his wish, it will be much more than a little.