Inter Miami drew 1-1 with DC United. The Herons played without their star players. Mascherano opted for a major rotation, arguing that all members of the squad have to perform regardless of who plays or not.
It was already known that former FC Barcelona player Lionel Messi was not going to be available to the coach due to injury. But the big surprise was when in the starting 11 there were no players such as Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquets or Rodrigo De Paul.
After the match, coach Mascherano said: “We’ve played 41 games and we wanted to give other players a chance. We need the whole squad; it was a clear decision for us, and at the end of the game I think it was the right one.”
However, the equaliser and the improvement of the team came once Mascherano made substitutions and played the most important names in the team. So much so that even the assist for the goal scored by Baltasar Rodriguez was from Rodrigo De Paul, who came on in the 56th minute. Rodriguez also came on in the same window of changes.“The feeling is that if we had played with the same intensity from the beginning, we could have won the game,” Mascherano said in the post-match press conference.
An update on Lionel Messi’s status
The Argentine talisman had come on as a substitute in the Herons’ 3-1 win against LA Galaxy on August 16, but alarm bells were ringing when he did not feature in the Leagues Cup quarter-final on August 20.
After the victory, Javier Mascherano’s technical assistant (who was sent off in the match), explained why Messi did not play: “We talked to Leo, we based it on how he feels, and we preferred not to take any chances, not to go back on his recovery and play it safe by not having him in the game,” he said
Messi has scored 25 goals and assisted 11 times in 32 Inter Miami matches in all competitions this season. There is no news yet on whether he will return for the Leagues Cup semi-final against Orlando City on August 27.
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