Inter Miami CF head coach Javier Mascherano said he changed the game plan after goalkeeper Oscar Ustari received a red card in the first half of the match against Charlotte FC at Chase Stadium, preventing Lionel Messi from coming off the bench as a substitute.
“The reality is that in the case of Leo maybe we had thought about giving him minutes in the game,” Mascherano said after the match. “But since the game was played with one man less, and taking into consideration the time he has without playing, we thought that the best thing was to preserve it. We didn’t want to risk it.”
Ustari was sent off in the 35th minute for a foul on Charlotte’s Wilfried Zaha in a one-on-one situation where Zaha would have had a clear path to the goal.
Messi was included in the Inter Miami squad for the first time since Feb. 25. He missed the matches against Houston Dynamo FC and Cavalier FC due to load management.
Mascherano made it clear last week that Messi had not suffered any kind of injury but needed to be rested to avoid any future complications.
Despite its star player’s absence, Miami managed to triumph without Messi for a third time. The team defeated Charlotte 1-0 with a goal from new signee Tadeo Allende in the 46th minute, before defending well to avoid conceding an equalizer.
“I want to keep the resilience. Try to go forward,” Mascherano said. “I think today we showed a lot of team spirit. We need to continue in this way. Keep working together, working hard. We know that maybe we believe that we think that we are nice and beautiful. We are wrong. We need to keep going forward.”
Inter Miami, which haven’t lost a game in all competitions this season, now prepare to travel to Jamaica for the second leg of the Concacaf Champions Cup round-of-16 series against Cavalier. Miami leads the series 2-0 after defeating Cavalier in the first leg at Chase Stadium on March 6.
“It’s a long season for us. We have a tough game Thursday. Will be difficult, difficult in Jamaica,” Mascherano added. “So we have to be ready. It’s not easy. We are playing every three, four days. We are tired. The squad is not too long. We have some injuries, but we keep going forward.
“In football, we have two ways: excuses or results. And we have to choose results.”
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