Josef Martinez “ready to score goals” as Inter Miami opens season Saturday vs. Montreal

Inter Miami kicks off the 2023 season at home on Saturday night against CF Montreal, and coach Phil Neville is eager to see how his team will fare with Gonzalo Higuain gone and potentially five new players in the starting lineup.

“You work all preseason to get to this point and all of a sudden the butterflies start appearing in the belly,” Neville said. “There’s been a different feel this week. It’s game week. The beauty about sport is you can feel confident, you can build your roster, but you don’t know what’s going to happen until you get out there over that white line.”

Miami ended last season with four wins in its final six matches and earned a playoff spot with a sixth-place finish in the Eastern Conference. The team scored 12 goals during that stretch, which was third best in the conference.

Miami hopes to carry the momentum into the new season. Neville said most of the starting lineup is set for the opener, but a few spots were still being decided. He said Josef Martinez, the 2018 MLS MVP who signed with Miami last month, will start despite not being in peak form yet.

“Josef’s ready to start and score goals,” Neville said.

Martinez is expected to be paired up front with Ecuadorean forward Leo Campana. Other new players likely to start are Ukrainian center back Serhiy Kryvtsov, Argentine left back Franco Negri, and midfielders Nico Stefanelli and Rodolfo Pizarro.

Stefanelli is from Argentina and was playing in Sweden. Pizarro, the team’s first high-priced Designated Player, is back after a yearlong loan in the Mexican league.

Montreal poses a massive challenge and has won four of the last six matches between the teams.

Montreal was runner-up in the East in 2022, two points behind Philadelphia, and lost in the MLS Cup semifinals to New York City FC. The team was unbeaten in its final six matches, had an 11-4-2 away record, including the final seven road games of the season.

The departures of Ismael Kone, Djordje Mihailovic and Alistair Johnston to Watford, AZ Alkmaar and Celtic respectively, are major losses for Montreal.

“You take Mihailovic out of any team and you’re going to suffer,” Neville said. “Over the past two seasons he was one of the players I really enjoyed watching. I felt he was their difference maker.”

Neville expects their replacements to be hungry to impress coach Hernan Losado.

Inter Miami and Montreal played in a preseason scrimmage on Feb. 15 in Fort Lauderdale, but Neville said neither team revealed how it will line up on Saturday.

“When we arranged the scrimmages, we never envisioned we would play Montreal 10 days later,” Neville said. “Both me and their manager spoke before the match and agreed it wasn’t ideal. We both didn’t play our best teams, didn’t play the tactics we will play Saturday, but there won’t be any secrets. We have a good understanding of how each other play.”

Limited tickets are available for the opener at intermiamicf.com