Inter Miami Face-Off Against Nashville to Stay Alive in MLS Playoffs

David Beckham and Rodolfo Pizarro’s Inter Miami will face off against another 2020 expansion team, Nashville SC, tomorrow Friday November 20^th for a chance to advance in the Audi MLS Playoffs. Both expansion teams are currently in their first year of existence and have both qualified for the Play-In Round which allows them the chance to advance into the main playoffs.

In this battle of the newcomers, both teams are coming in with different circumstances surrounding their playoff participation. Starting with Inter Miami, they’re coming into this game with a lot to prove. With this year’s expanded playoff, they barely made the cut to get into the playoffs, being the 10^th and last seed to qualify. They ended the season winning 4 of their last 8 games, certainly less than stellar. Precedence is also not in Inter’s favor, as they have yet to win a game against Nashville in the two matchups they had this season. However, it’s not all bad news for Inter. They do have a few things trending their way. Mainly, they will be able to count on Mextranjero, Rodolfo Pizarro, for this game. There was speculation initially that Pizarro would not be able to return from international duty in time to clear Covid protocol’s, however, the league cleared Pizarro for action mid-week. This of course will be a huge boost for Inter as they’ll have a key playmaker back to couple up with their other stars, Gonzalo Higuain and Blaise Matuidi. Speaking of the other Inter stars, further good news is that they are starting to get into the rhythm of things as well. Higuain and Matuidi have begun to warm up to the MLS style of play. In their short time span with the team, they’ve netted a goal each as well as assists to goal. While it may not seem like much on paper, their on-field play has been getting better and better.

Nashville SC, as you may have inferred by now, has the slight upper hand coming into this match. They ended the regular season in 7^th place in the Eastern Conference, which still would have qualified them for the Playoffs in a regular year. Nashville’s biggest advantage in this game is going to be their defense, which has allowed the 3^rd fewest goals in the Eastern Conference. On offense they have just about the same amount of goals scored as Inter, which is to say, not a whole lot. In the end however, it may be Nashville’s defense that will help push them just across the finish line, so long as they can contain Pizarro and company.

Be sure to catch MLS Playoff action with El Tri Online this off season as we follow our Mextranjeros in their quest to claim the 2020 Audi MLS Cup. You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.