By Miguel Rapetti
Gerardo Martino, coach of Inter Miami, explained this Wednesday after the 1-2 defeat against Rayados at Chase Stadium the absence of the injured Lionel Messi, despite having trained the day before, and did not want to give a specific date for his return to the team.
In doubt until the last minute, Messi, who has been suffering from a muscle injury since mid-March, was finally not included in the squad for the first leg of the quarter-finals of the Concacaf Champions Cup, and based on that the first questions of the press for Martino were intended to explain the absence of 10.
“It goes game by game, we understood that this was not the game. This is what will happen with Colorado and with the return in Monterrey. He is feeling better but today we were taking too big a risk,” said the Argentine coach in a press conference.
It is not just about Rosario’s genius: Inter Miami has many casualties due to injury and Martino pointed to the preparation and the numerous trips made.
“What we don’t have, unfortunately, is the full team, between 20 and 22 players. Having any shortage in the team is not indicated. I don’t know whether to attribute it exclusively to the wear and tear of the preseason trips,” he said.
Regarding the first leg against Monterrey, the coach was able to draw positive conclusions.
“We did well, in the first half we were even able to convert the second. When you have such a high-ranking team in front of you, with players from the Chilean team, the Mexican team… you have to be very solid, not make mistakes. Unfortunately we did not commit them in the game but in an unfortunate action,” he argued.
In this sense, Martino indicated that physicality was a factor that influenced performance at the end of the crash.
“We lacked the legs to play the last twenty minutes in the same way as the rest of the game. Monterrey demands a lot from you and playing with one less man forced us to rearrange the line of five. It was logical that we were going to have dominated moments, it seems to me that we were going to suffer more and it wasn’t that much. But it demanded so much of us that playing the last minutes with one less player was more noticeable,” he explained.
Finally, regarding favoritism in this tournament, the Argentine coach is clear that Inter Miami is not among the main candidates.
“I think that in these types of competitions, if we have the possibility of going to Monterrey, Tigres or the MLS champion will come, and maybe later America, which is the big favorite,” he concluded.
Keep reading:
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