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No Messi, no worries. Gomez goal, Redondo brace lead Inter Miami to 3-1 win vs. Toronto.

Michelle Kaufman, Miami Herald on

Published in Soccer

Copa America is over, the tourists and international journalists have gone home, but professional soccer carried on in South Florida Wednesday night as Inter Miami defeated Toronto FC 3-1 at Chase Stadium to regain first place in the MLS standings with 10 games remaining in the regular season.

Captain Lionel Messi is out indefinitely with an ankle injury and watched with his family from a field-level suite as fellow Argentine Fede Redondo scored two second-half goals, his first goals for Miami, and Diego Gomez scored the opening goal to give Miami a 3-0 lead at the 60-minute mark.

Derrick Etienne Jr. put Toronto on the board in the 79th minute to prevent the Miami shutout.

With the win, Miami regains first place from FC Cincinnati in the Supporters Shield race. Inter Miami has 50 points on 15 wins, four losses and five ties heading into another home game Saturday against the Chicago Fire.

Luis Suarez, who helped lead Uruguay to third place in the Copa, came off the bench in the 62nd minute for Miami. He replaced new look Leo Campana, with bleached blond hair, who started at forward as fans did a double-take.

The rest of the Inter Miami Starting XI: Drake Callender, Tomas Aviles, Ian Fray, Jordi Alba, Sergiy Kryvtsov, Fede Redondo, Matias Rojas, Diego Gomez, Julian Gressel, and Yannick Bright.

Goalkeeper Drake Callender was playing his 100th game for Inter Miami, the first player in club history to reach that milestone and he made it memorable. He made two first-half saves, and the second one was spectacular. Toronto’s Italian No. 10 Federico Bernardeschi blasted a shot that was headed to the upper right corner when Callender stretched out and swatted it away just before halftime.

Gomez made his last appearance for Miami before heading to France on Thursday to represent Paraguay at the Paris Olympics, and he will leave on a high note after scoring a goal in the 43rd minute to give Miami a 1-0 lead at halftime. Gomez made a nice diagonal run, collected a perfectly placed arching pass by Redondo and blasted it into the net. His teammates swarmed him after to celebrate.

 

It was Redondo’s turn to score after intermission. His first goal was a header off a curling Julian Gressel free kick in the 53rd minute. Six minutes later, Redondo struck again after an exquisite sequence that began with a Gressel diagonal pass to Gomez, who was on the left side the box and centered it to Redondo, who slipped it into the net with his signature black boot.

Midfielder Sergio Busquets watched from a suite as he served a red card suspension.

The Inter Miami Starting XI: Callender, Tomas Aviles, Ian Fray, Jordi Alba, Sergiy Kryvtsov, Redondo, Matias Rojas, Gomez, Gressel, and Yannick Bright.

Toronto’s starting lineup included Sean Johnson, Kevin Long, Nicksoen Gomis, Raoul Petretta, Federico Bernardeschi, Etienne Jr., Deybi Flores, Jonathan Osorio, Richie Laryea, Lorenzo Insigne, and Deandre Kerr.

Inter Miami had won four games in a row without leading scorers Messi and Suarez, who combined for 24 goals before leaving for Copa America, but a 6-1 rout at FC Cincinnati briefly dropped Miami to second place in the Eastern Conference standings.

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©2024 Miami Herald. Visit miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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