{"id":868729,"date":"2025-08-28T23:14:45","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T04:14:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/28\/with-messi-out-orlando-drops-miami-to-6th-in-rout\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T23:14:45","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T04:14:45","slug":"with-messi-out-orlando-drops-miami-to-6th-in-rout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/28\/with-messi-out-orlando-drops-miami-to-6th-in-rout\/","title":{"rendered":"With Messi out, Orlando drops Miami to 6th in rout"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-video=\"watch,640,360,45941830\" data-cerebro-id=\"68995347f8047a101334f000\" data-title=\"Muriel's brace pushes Orlando City past Messi-less Inter Miami\" data-source=\"espn\" data-contributing-partner=\"wsc\"><figcaption>\n<div>\n<p><span>Muriel&#8217;s brace pushes Orlando City past Messi-less Inter Miami (1:09)<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Luis Muriel scores twice in Orlando City&#8217;s 4-1 victory against Inter Miami. (1:09)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>ESPN News Services<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>Aug 10, 2025, 10:34 PM ET<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>ORLANDO, Fla. &#8212; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/player\/_\/id\/151510\/Luis-Muriel\">Luis Muriel<\/a> scored a goal in each half and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/player\/_\/id\/233401\/martin-ojeda\">Mart\u00edn Ojeda<\/a> had a goal and an assist to lead <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"6539496d-980a-9a39-0cfd-39f904228370\" href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/team?id=12011\">Orlando City SC<\/a> to a 4-1 victory over <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"68c59d9b-7197-356f-8418-52c0d216852c\" href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/team?id=20232\">Inter Miami CF<\/a> on Sunday night.<\/p>\n<p>Miami star <a data-player-guid=\"dc5f8d51-332b-0ab2-b4b0-c97efdc624e0\" href=\"http:\/\/espn.com\/soccer\/player\/_\/id\/45843\/lionel-messi\">Lionel Messi<\/a> did not play because of a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/story\/_\/id\/45931975\/too-risky-lionel-messi-face-orlando-mascherano\" target=\"_blank\">leg injury he sustained last Saturday<\/a> in a Leagues Cup match against Necaxa.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Today there are no excuses. Football is about tactics, organization, talent, but you also know that in one-on-one situations, they were better,&#8221; Miami coach Javier Mascherano said. &#8220;And having the hunger and desire that you&#8217;re not going to beat me, and today we clearly didn&#8217;t have that. We didn&#8217;t have that.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Unfortunately, it hurts me a lot because afterward, let&#8217;s say, in football, you can either lose or you can be beaten, let&#8217;s say, but I think today the team didn&#8217;t have the intensity that the game needed.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Muriel scored in the second minute to give Orlando City (9-6-8) a lead that lasted only three minutes after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/player\/_\/id\/329025\/Yannick-Bright\">Yannick Bright<\/a> scored unassisted for his first career goal in his 40th appearance to pull Inter Miami (12-5-6) even.<\/p>\n<p>Ojeda collected his 13th assist on Muriel&#8217;s goal, extending his club-record streak with a goal contribution to 14.<\/p>\n<p>Orlando City took a 2-1 lead five minutes into the second half on Muriel&#8217;s eighth goal of the season.<\/p>\n<p>Ojeda found the net for the 14th time this season to give Orlando City a 3-1 lead in the 58th minute. His 27 goal contributions lead the league.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/player\/_\/id\/324270\/marco-pasalic\">Marco Pa\u0161ali\u0107<\/a> scored unassisted in the 88th minute for a three-goal advantage. It was his 10th goal in his first season in the league.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/player\/_\/id\/150334\/Pedro-Gallese\">Pedro Gallese<\/a> totaled four saves in goal for Orlando City, including a brilliant save from a long-range <a data-player-guid=\"26b70748-4173-44e0-1f83-01954be4777d\" href=\"http:\/\/espn.com\/soccer\/player\/_\/id\/125088\/luis-suarez\">Luis Su\u00e1rez<\/a> shot that the home keeper just managed to tip over the crossbar.<\/p>\n<p><a data-player-guid=\"e2fe81f6-104c-6ce7-a0fe-7d75879318e4\" href=\"http:\/\/espn.com\/soccer\/player\/_\/id\/102985\/oscar-ustari\">\u00d3scar Ustari<\/a> turned away eight shots for Inter Miami.<\/p>\n<p>As Miami tried to mount a comeback, it looked short of answers without Messi, whose 18 goals have come while playing in 18 of his club&#8217;s 23 matches.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Football is easy. Sometimes we make it more complex than it is,&#8221; Mascherano said. &#8220;When you&#8217;re not at 100%, any team can beat you, and today there was only one team: Orlando. We didn&#8217;t even play with the intensity needed to play this game, and they clearly outplayed us from the first minute to the last, due to some passages after the goal.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We were able to tie the game a little, but it leaves us thinking that if we really want to compete, this isn&#8217;t the way. I&#8217;m sorry, but this isn&#8217;t the way. Clearly, I&#8217;m responsible, because I&#8217;m the coach, but there&#8217;s not much to say. There was only one team on the field.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Orlando City moved into fourth place in the Eastern Conference, with head coach Oscar Pareja needing one more victory to reach 100 across all competitions.<\/p>\n<p>Inter Miami sits in sixth place but has three matches in hand against the top four and two in hand against the fifth-place <a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/team\/_\/id\/183\/columbus-crew\">Columbus Crew<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Inter Miami hosts the <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"eacb28a8-817f-2672-b231-e287f1248f0f\" href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/team?id=187\">LA Galaxy<\/a> on Saturday, and Orlando does the same against <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"8ff544cd-355a-136d-d0fa-aabb58af1650\" href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/team?id=186\">Sporting Kansas City<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>ESPN&#8217;s Lizzy Becherano and The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> Raleigh Stoval<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/story\/_\/id\/45941849\/messi-muriel-leads-orlando-rout-inter-miami\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Muriel&#8217;s brace pushes Orlando City past Messi-less Inter Miami (1:09) Luis Muriel scores twice in Orlando City&#8217;s 4-1 victory against Inter Miami. (1:09) ESPN News Services Aug 10, 2025, 10:34 PM ET ORLANDO, Fla. &#8212; Luis Muriel scored a goal in each half and Mart\u00edn Ojeda had a goal and an assist to lead Orlando<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":868730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22673,804],"tags":[42860,6614],"class_list":{"0":"post-868729","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-messi","8":"category-orlando","9":"tag-messi","10":"tag-orlando"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=868729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/868730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}