Furious Phil Neville responds to Chicago Fire coach Ezra Hendrickson’s ‘bull***’ claims that Inter Miami defends ‘close and leaves the back post’ after third straight MLS loss
Inter Miami lost its third straight game on Saturday night and coach Phil Neville was in no mood to take criticism from an opposing coach.
Chicago Fire defeated Miami 3-2 thanks to a 90th-minute goal from Kei Kamara, and Fire coach Ezra Hendrickson said he set up his team to exploit a rocky defense.
“They get a little tight and they always leave the post behind,” Hendrickson said of Miami when they’re attacked on the wings. Neville was far from impressed when he was given those quotes.
“That’s really silly, I honestly think it’s because I think you just have to defend,” he said.
‘You think about the first goal, it had nothing to do with the way we defended. The last goal had nothing to do with our way of defending.’
Phil Neville slammed Chicago Fire’s Ezra Hendrickson’s claims about Inter Miami’s defense
Fire ran out of a 3-2 win against Inter in a gripping MLS game on Saturday night.
Christopher Mueller’s first goal for Chicago came exactly as Hendrickson described it: a ball from the right evaded the Miami defense and the winger was alone at the back post to score.
Carlos Terán put Chicago up 2-0, before Franco Negri scored for Neville’s men on the stroke of halftime. Nicolas Stefanelli leveled them before Kei Kamara robbed Chicago of the win and, in fairness to Hendrickson, Miami’s defense got tight once again.
Brian Gutierrez received the ball down the right, ran up the middle and played Kamara on his left, who had too much space and time to pick his spot and seal the win.
Neville, in his post-game comments, was more concerned about his team’s confidence after three straight losses.
“The evolution of this team is that they need to start learning and learn fast because you lose games and losing games and suffering this adversity is not pleasant,” he said. I don’t want them to lose their trust.
The schedule doesn’t get much rosier for Miami. Next up is a road game against Cincinnati, which is yet to lose in five games this season.
Miami ranks eighth in the Eastern conference with six points from five games.
Meanwhile, match winner Kamara praised his team’s character in holding on and recording victory.
Kei Kamara celebrates with Fire manager Ezra Hendrickson after scoring the game-winning goal
“I hope they (his team) don’t listen to this interview, but I can see a lot of heart that they have and they all want to prove something,” he said.
Hendrickson said of the 38-year-old Kamara, who joined in the offseason from Montreal: ‘He’s been good for us on and off the field.
He’s an older guy, but we know what he gives us. He’s still in shape and he’s going to bring a lot to this team, to this organization.”
The win was Chicago’s first of the season: they have four points out of five and are 12th in the Eastern Conference.