What to Expect: Inter Miami Take On Sporting Kansas City

What Inter Miami Needs To Do To Win

As we’ve mentioned before, Inter Miami is chasing points to rise in the Eastern Conference. The Herons sit on 25 points from 25 games and are eight points back of DC United for the ninth and final playoff spot.

Sporting Kansas City, on the other hand, are in a similar spot… chasing a playoff spot. They are just two points back of Austin for the ninth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

Sporting is coming off a 2-1 home win over St. Louis and have won two of their last three in all competitions.

But the hill for Inter Miami is much steeper with eight players called up for international duty and unavailable for Saturday’s match.

Sporting has just one player called up and will be with a mostly full roster when they visit Ft. Lauderdale.

In order for Inter Miami to come away with three points, bench players will have to step up… which goes without saying.

We can’t forget that both Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba will be in the lineup for Inter Miami, so not everyone is out.

That said, manager Tata Martino will have to reconfigure the attacking options up top without Messi, Cremeschi, Martinez and Taylor to pick from.

Inter Miami will be more reliant on forward Leonardo Campana and new signings Facundo Farias and Tomas Aviles to fill the roles of missing players.

Campana has five goals in MLS play this season — and he will be the leading goalscorer for Inter Miami on the pitch.

That likely means more pressure on the defense against a Sporting Kansas City squad that has 36 goals in the season. For reference, that’s nine more goals than Inter Miami in league play.

The bottom line is Inter Miami’s lesser-known players will have to make names for themselves in a good way in order for the Herons to earn points against Sporting.