Colorado Rapids vs Inter Miami Preview With Battered Herons

Denver, Colo.- This weekend Colorado Rapids celebrate their 30th Anniversary. Inter Miami and Lionel Messi are in town. Messi has traveled. He’s not on the availability report. He’s expected to play. It’s been an eventful week for the Herons. We reached out to Daniel Granada from Battered Herons to discuss.

Burgundy Wave: Inter Miami’s coming off two 2-2 draws in their first two games at the new stadium. What has the team done well in those games? What needed to be better? 

Daniel Granada: In the first game against Austin they played with Messi as a false 9 and that seems to be the best way for them to produce. They had 28 shots and but they weren’t able to convert. Their struggles have been defending counters and set pieces. Austin scored on a corner and off a counter and took advantage of the few chances they had.

In the second game, they started with Berterame at striker and he has been underwhelming. The attack didn’t look as dynamic and the Red Bulls dominated the midfield, but Miami did a good job of keeping them from creating good opportunities. They managed to score on the only two shots they had on target, one of them being off a set piece.

BW: Big news this week with Javier Mascherano resigning for personal reasons. I’ve seen the reporting and speculation about what all led to this decision. Guillermo Hoyos takes over as interim manager. What was your reaction to this news? What do you expect Hoyos to do similarly or differently on Saturday compared to how Mascherano coached the team to start the season? 

DG: No one has any idea what to expect from Hoyos. He has years of coaching experience but all for small clubs that not many people have knowledge of. Mascherano wasn’t a surprise because everyone figured he’d leave at some point this year, but the timing was weird because I thought it would be during the World Cup break. 

BW: Ok, now we have to talk about Messi. He’s still the GOAT but he’s 38. He’s got fewer Barcelona buddies. For the teams that have done well to limit him this year, what have been their keys to that success? 

DG: When they play a compact defense it stifles Messi’s production. He no longer has Jordi Alba to stretch the defense horizontally and Luis Suarez also isn’t starting so he has no one to link up with in the box. Allende and Berterame have no creativity on the ball and it leaves Messi on an island and that has been what’s made this season so frustrating for him. 

BW: Germán Berterame was the big signing from this offseason. He got off to a slow start but got his first goal against Red Bulls. What have you seen from him? What’s he do well even when he’s not dangerous? 

DG: I haven’t seen him do anything well. He can’t take on defenders 1-on-1. He hasn’t finished on the few opportunities he’s had and if he doesn’t get any service he is otherwise useless. 

BW: If you haven’t watched much of the Rapids, they are pressing monsters. I imagine they will give Miami no time on the ball. Obviously, Messi and Rodrigo De Paul are good on the ball when under pressure. But what about the rest of the team? Is that a weakness or could we see Miami pass around Colorado’s defense to open things up for Messi down field *gulp*? 

DG: Miami has been doing surprisingly well beating the press and playing balls directly to the forwards to try and create opportunities. Dayne St Clair was a question mark when it comes to teams pressuring but he has surprised everyone with his distribution. 

BW: The Rapids are just the latest MLS team to get a home game against Miami and cash in on the Messi tourism by moving the game to a big stadium and making the tickets expensive. Do you think the team, not just Messi, are getting weary of being everyone’s Cup Final? Or have they had so many of these games, they’re used to it and unphased? From afar, it feels like they do well in these games, playing spoiler, and also benefit from some of the crowd cheering for him. 

I haven’t heard anyone say that these games stand out to them in anyway. This team has built itself up in the locker room to believe it’s a global brand and a big time team so it expects and doesn’t shy away from these environments. 

BW: Lastly, got a lineup and score prediction for us? 

Lineup is really up in the air because of Hoyos taking over, the fanbase would like to see Messi as a false 9 and the same lineup we saw agains Austin but that’s still up in the air. As for predictions if it wasn’t for the manager change I might go a different way, but I feel whenever there is a manager chance in any sport it seems to give the team a boost and I think with the big stadium and the manager the team will make Colorado pay for that aggressive press and they’ll win 3-1.

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