Match Preview: DC United vs Inter Miami

Gameweek 2 is here and we are up against expansion side Inter Miami. After the disappointment of the late defeat by Colorado Rapids, Ben Olsen’s side will be wanting to right those wrongs. We saw last week that there were tired legs and despite having fresh legs available, Ben decided to not use them as they weren’t tall enough. Hopefully he won’t be using that excuse this week as he uses all 3 subs if needed (we hope).

We take on Inter Miami for the 1st time in our history and we will be wanting to get off to a good start. Inter Miami last week put in a solid performance against a top LAFC side, only to get beat by a fantastic Carlos Vela goal, seriously, does he not know how to score a simple goal? What can we expect from our lads though? Here are my thoughts.

DC United

I don’t expect Ben to be making any changes and I will actually like that. Not changing for changing sake. We had spells of good football and if he chops and changes already, we will never gel. We played a 4-3-3 last week, a refreshing change from the 4-2-3-1 of 2019. I’d still like to see at some point us play with 2 strikers, but the 4-3-3 is something I can definitely get behind.

Of course we’ve got the new boys of Federico ‘Pipa’ Higuain and Mohammed Abu, but don’t expect them to go straight into the lineup. It’s already been announced by DC that Moses Nyeman & Kevin Paredes will be with Loudoun United for this weekend. I expect both new signings to be on the bench.

Inter Miami

Expansion side Inter Miami have finally entered MLS, after such a long wait for David Beckham to find and establish his side, they got underway with a game against Supporters Shield winners LAFC. And they put in a good performance, only getting beat 1-0 thanks to a Carlos Vela goal. I caught up with Sam who runs the Inter Miami UK fan page on Twitter and I spoke to him about what the strengths & weaknesses were.

From what we’ve been told we can attack the flanks and try and nullify their playmakers as they only have Superdraft pick Robbie Robinson in the striker ranks. We normally have a solid defence and with Moreno and Felipe beginning to form a solid midfield partnership, we will be looking to them to press and nullify any key players.

Match Prediction

After the defeat last week, I expect a bit of a backlash from the team, especially from the manner of said defeat. I would think we would be attacking from the kick off, especially since we are at home. We should be showing the new boys how it’s done and the old guard know best. We still need to respect them as they do have an abundance of fantastic footballers, saying that though, I expect a victory from us today.

Where to watch

You can catch the game in the UK over on Freesports TV. The game programme starts at 8:45pm so the advertised kick off of 8:30pm won’t exactly be accurate. Classic MLS.