ATLANTA UNITED
Atlanta United “don’t care about Messi” after victory over Inter Miami
Gonzalo Pineda’s side cruised past the Herons on Saturday evening and the Five Stripes insisted that the Argentine’s absence made little difference.
Atlanta United strengthened their playoff credentials with a comprehensive win over Inter Miami on Saturday evening.
Miami took the lead through Leonardo Campana but were outplayed by Atlanta across the 90 minutes. Campana scored a second for the visitors early in the second half but the hosts surged to a 5-2 victory at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
A flurry of three goals in eight first half minutes consigned Miami to their first defeat since the arrival of Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba. Many will point to the fact that Messi was not fit enough to feature on Saturday as a reason for Atlanta’s impressive result.
However Atlanta head coach Gonzalo Pineda insisted in the post-match interview that the result was not dependent on Messi’s absence.
“A lot of things that are going out there in the atmosphere and everything seems to be about Inter Miami, about Messi, about all that,” Pineda told reporters. “And I told them we have to turn that down to ‘it’s about us, it’s about Atlanta United.’”
In July Atlanta faced the full force of a Messi-inspired Inter Miami in the Leagues Cup. The Herons ran out 4-0 winners on their way to lifting the trophy.
Did Inter Miami miss Lionel Messi?
After scoring 11 goals in his first 11 games for Inter Miami, Messi’s role in the team’s mid-season turnaround is clear. However the Herons did manage an impressive 3-2 victory over Sporting Kansas City in their previous game, which Messi was also unavailable for.
Was Messi’s absence the key factor in Atlanta victory on Saturday? Atlanta’s Argentinian forward Thiago Almada insisted that Miami are a tough proposition, even without Messi in the squad.
“I don’t know if it made it easier because they have great players on their team as well,” Almada explained. “They have a great team and are playing very well, but today showed we had the merit to win this game.”
Speaking after the match, Atlanta winger Xande Silva said that the team had not focused on Messi in the build up to the game.
“We don’t care about Messi,” Silva said. “We care about us. We want to be in the playoffs.”