What you need to know about Inter Miami home game Saturday vs. first-place New England
It seems every time the New England Revolution comes to town, Inter Miami leaves DRV PNK Stadium inspired to make a climb in the standings. Coach Phil Neville and his team aim to keep that trend going on Saturday night in front of an expected sellout crowd.
When the teams met in South Florida last year, Miami was desperate for a victory after going winless through the first five games of the season. Forward Leo Campana recorded the first hat trick in Inter Miami history in a 3-2 win over the Revolution, and Miami lost just two of the next eight games.
Two years ago, Miami was humiliated 5-0 by New England and coach Revolution coach Bruce Arena, a friend and mentor of Neville’s, offered some words of wisdom after the game. Miami was mired in a six-game losing streak at the time. Arena advised Neville to stick to his plan and assured him better days were ahead.
He was right. Miami lost just one of the next 11 games.
New England (7-1-3) enters this weekend’s match on an eight-game unbeaten run, in first place in the Eastern Conference with 24 points. Inter Miami (4-6-0) is tied for 10th place with 12 pts following a pair of wins over Columbus and Atlanta.
Only three points separates 10th place from fifth, and nine teams are sitting on 12 to 15 points.
“We have a fantastic run of fixtures coming up where we can make headway,” Neville said. “A defeat can take you to the bottom and a win could take you to fourth or fifth. The incentive is there for us.”
Josef Martinez is highly motivated to score again after breaking out of the longest drought of his career with a pair of goals against Atlanta United, his former team, last Saturday. He did not score in the U.S. Open Cup game against Charleston on Wednesday and showed his frustration when he was subbed in the 56th minute.
“Josef’s ready,” Neville said. “I like the passion he showed. Passion is probably his biggest quality. Saturday he’ll bring that. In the Atlanta game the tide turned for him and against New England I think we’ll see what he’s all about.”
Neville plans to pair Martinez and Campana in the attack at times in upcoming games but did not reveal if both would start Saturday. They will be up against goalkeeper Djordje Petrović, who has five shutouts this season. The Revolution’s nine goals conceded are second fewest in the East.
Right back Harvey Neville, the coach’s son, said the two recent league wins, plus a pair of U.S. Open wins, has the team feeling confident.
“It’s been massive for us to get those wins; it’s changed the whole feeling,” Neville said. “We were always confident in what we were doing, we just needed the wins to back it up.”
Arena believes Neville and his team are turning the corner.
“He’s a good man, he’s done a good job there under difficult circumstances,” Arena said of Neville. “They had some financial irregularities over the years, so it was quite challenging. They had a good year last year and this year they dealt with injuries and a losing streak, but you can see over the last two games they’ve found a formula that’s working. That’s good coaching as well as having good team spirit. They’re positioning themselves to have a real positive run.”
