Inter Miami won 2-0 against Jamaica’s Cavalier, without the presence of Lionel Messi, in a match valid for the first leg of the Round of 16 of the Concacaf Champions League, held this Thursday at Chase Stadium in the United States.
The goals of the match for the Americans were scored by Tadeo Allende, 16 minutes into the second half, and the Uruguayan Luis Suárez, 38 minutes into the same period.
For their part, the visitors had managed to get ahead in the duel at the end of the first half thanks to Shaquille Stein, but the goal was annulled by VAR due to offside by defender Richard King, when trying to fight for the ball.
The team led by Argentine Javier Mascherano did not have the presence of the Rosario native due to muscle overload, which also prevented him from adding minutes in the 4-1 win over Houston Dynamo last Sunday in Major League Soccer.
With this victory, Inter Miami left the series in its favor and will have to seal the pass to the quarterfinals of the Concacaf Champions Cup on March 13 at 10:00 p.m., as a visitor.
The team of Messi, Suarez, Sergio Busquets and company did not play a good first half and could have gone down on the scoreboard against Cavalier, who had two clear chances to open the scoring.
At first, it was the post that denied the Jamaican team the goal, and then the VAR was the protagonist, with more than 5 minutes of review, to determine King’s offside position in an attempt to head the ball.
The play started with a free kick from the right to the far post and a visiting player brought the ball down to the middle for Stein to arrive, who sent the ball into the back of the net to the surprise of everyone present in the stadium, but everything was invalidated.
Already in the second half, the ball fell at the feet of the former Godoy Cruz player, after a pass from Busquets from the ground, and he took a powerful low left-footed shot to put the pink team ahead in the match.
After the goal, Cavalier declined in the game due to fatigue and superiority and suffered a hard blow at the end of the match.
The 38-year-old Uruguayan forward captured the ball after a deflection off a defender and placed the ball close to the right post of goalkeeper Vino Barclett to seal the match and leave qualification to the next round of the tournament within reach.
Although the captain of the Argentine National Team did not participate in this match, it is expected that he will be in optimal condition for the return match next Thursday.
