Martino explains Messi absence and criticises referee after Inter Miami loss to Montreal

Despite Inter Miami losing to CF Montréal in a crazy game that ended 2-3 to the away side, coach Tata Martino took the positives from his team’s performance. However, he did show concern regarding the defensive solidity and the lapses in concentration that ended up costing them the defeat and the loss of their undefeated record.

Martino acknowledged the poor start to the game by The Herons on Sunday, although he pointed out that they had enough to have come away with a better result. In his media press conference, Martino was unhappy at the performance of one person in particular: the referee, saying that the official contributed to the defeat.

Martino criticises the MLS ‘competitive spirit’

“We deserved to win. What worries me is that we are a team that doesn’t defend hard. We didn’t have a good start. We had 15 bad minutes, but the reality is that we got two goals from set pieces. I liked the team’s performance, but I regret the loss of points because we had what we needed to win this match,” said Martino.

Martino was not amused in his post-match press conference and complained about the opposition’s approach, saying “I was told about the competitive spirit of the league, and I didn’t see that today.”

As well as criticising Montreal’s attitude, Martino also took time to mention the performance of the referee: “There was a team that did not want to play on the field with the collaboration of a referee who took 30 seconds to write down the shirt number!”

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Although Martino had indicated during the week that Messi was likely to be rested for the MLS game, the rotations were a big shock to the fans, especially given that the team were looking to remain undefeated in the competition. When questioned (again) about the changes to his XI, Tata was blunt in his response.

“The thing is, I was asked 10 days ago if we were going to rotate, and today we have rotated. There is no other answer” was all Martino could muster regarding the absence of his big names in the starting XI against Montreal. Inter Miami’s next game will be the second leg of their CONCACAF Champions Cup tie against Nashville SC. It be played on Wednesday, March 13, with kick off at 8.15 p.m. ET / 5.15 p.m. PT.