Despite Club America’s season already beginning, they’ll play an unorthodox friendly against Inter Miami in Las Vegas to kick off the Herons’ preseason. Winning one match and drawing one while mainly featuring youth players, Club America are seemingly using this match as their unofficial season kickoff.
It has been a longer than expected offseason for Inter Miami, after being knocked out of the MLS Cup playoffs in the first round and there’s plenty of change. Manager Tata Martino has been replaced by Javier Mascherano and the stars are now a year older with key contributors like Diego Gomez and Leonardo Campana now gone.
Here’s our storylines, how you can watch the match and more:
How to watch and odds
- Date: Saturday, Jan 18 | Time: 10 p.m. ET
- Location: Allegiant Stadium — Las Vegas, Nevada
- Live stream: MLS Season Pass
Will Lionel Messi play
Preseason last year included Lionel Messi missing a match in Hong Kong. Fans were offered a 50% refund on tickets after their backlash to not seeing the Argentine pitch. To prevent that this year, Messi is contractually obligated to play at least one 45 minute half during the preseason match in Vegas. It’s an unusual stipulation in American soccer, but American soccer has never seen a superstar like Messi. Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets, and Luis Suarez are also expected to feature in the friendly to provide a Concacaf Champions Cup level atmosphere in Vegas.
What has changed?
Along with a new coach taking over, it has been a busy offseason for Inter Miami with Nocolas Freire, Sergiy Kryvtsov, Matias Rojas, Franco Negri, Leonardo Campana and Diego Gomez all departing. Additions have been made with the Herons trending on the younger side outside of adding Fafa Picault, but none of them feel like moves that will immediately improve the team. Right back Gonzalo Lujan and midfielder Telasco Segovia are players who could end up improving and being strong contributors but coming from outside of the United States, it can be tough to adjust to MLS play.
More work needs to be done to replace the production that the Herons have lost and also to offset for potential injuries down the line. When Busquets went out during the playoffs, the team didn’t have a way to progress the ball through midfield and if they’re going to avoid that disappointment this season, how they perform without their stars will be one of Mascherano’s biggest responsibilities.
At the moment, this team seems to have taken a step back from the one that set a new MLS regular season points record last season with 74 points, but there’s also plenty of time to change that. The MLS transfer window doesn’t officially open until Jan. 31 and Miami does have flexibility via General Allocation Money to pursue players, but only time will tell how they’ll make that happen.
Prediction
With the Herons looking to get things rolling there will be rust to shake off as Club America is further along their preparation but with the stars on showcase in Vegas, there will still be goals. Pick: Inter Miami 2, Club America 2
