Messi injured, Falcon ejected as Inter Miami battles Necaxa in Leagues Cup
In the span of six minutes, Miami lost its captain, Lionel Messi, and one of its defensive leaders, Maxi Falcon.
Messi left the field with an apparent right upper thigh injury after falling while being challenged by defenders Raul Sanchez and Alexi Pena at the 11-minute mark. He stumbled onto the ground, got up, tried to walk it off, but then sat down and sought medical attention.
The crowd went silent as the dejected Argentine star was treated by the team's medical staff before taking off his captain's armband and trudging to the tunnel.
Falcon was ejected with a red card six minutes later after slightly tugging on the shirt of Diber Cambindo as he raced toward the edge of the box. Falcon, his teammates, the Miami bench and the home crowd protested the call, but it stood.
Messi was replaced by Fede Redondo. Falcon's exit left Miami with 10 men for the remainder of the game.
In between the two setbacks, Inter Miami took a 1-0 lead with a brilliant goal by Telasco Segovia with an assist from Rodrigo De Paul, starting his second game since joining the team last week.
Holding a lead and down a man, Inter Miami coach Javier Mascherano took a defensive stance and replaced Tadeo Allende with Gonzalo Lujan in the 29th minute.
But Necaxa tied it up four minutes later with a left-footed shot by Tomas Badaloni, who got past Noah Allen, starting his first game since injuring his hamstring in the Club World Cup Round of 16 game against Paris Saint-Germain on June 29.
Then, at the 60-minute mark, Necaxa defender Cristian Calderon was sent off with a second yellow card, evening the field at 10 vs. 10. Six minutes later, Mascherano made three substitutions for Miami: Sergio Busquets, Noah Allen and Telasco Segovia were replaced by Toto Aviles, Yannick Bright and Benja Cremaschi.
Both teams were coming off dramatic wins in their opening Leagues Cup games. Inter Miami defeated Atlas 2-1 on a Chelo Weigandt goal in added time and Necaxa won 3-1 against Atlanta United with a pair of goals by Badaloni in the final 12 minutes.
Despite the victories, both teams were desperate to score goals and win again on Saturday because of the new Leagues Cup format. Rather than the traditional group stage format, where a group winner is guaranteed to advance, this tournament divided the field by league, and the top four teams in each league's table after three games qualifies for the knockout round.
In other words, a team could win all three of its group games and be eliminated based on goal differential against the other teams in its league.
Heading into Saturday's game, Miami was in sixth place among MLS teams with a plus-1 goal differential, behind Seattle (plus-7), Portland (plus-4), LA Galaxy (plus-3), Minnesota (plus-3), and Cincinnati (plus-1).
Mascherano went with the same starting lineup as he used in the first Cup game, with one exception. Allen started in place of Lujan.
The rest of the starters were: Messi, Busquets, Segovia, Luis Suarez, Jordi Alba, Allende, Falcon, Weigandt, and goalkeeper Rocco Rios-Novo, who took over the starting role in place of injured Oscar Ustari.
Defender Ian Fray returned to the active roster after recovering from an adductor injury. He was on the bench along with Lujan, Toto Aviles, Baltasar Rodriguez, Fafa Picault, Will Yarbrough, Benja Cremaschi, David Ruiz, Yannick Bright, Redondo and Santi Morales.
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