Match will broadcast nationally on FS1 at 7 p.m. ET
Inter Miami CF will travel to face Atlanta United FC on Wednesday, Sept. 2, at 7 p.m. ET, just three days after its away match in Nashville, Tenn. The match at Mercedes-Benz Stadium will broadcast nationally on television, and regionally through radio platforms in English and Spanish.
Fans across the country can watch live on FS1, while a regional audience can, as well as listen on Spanish radio via Univision Miami’s WQBA 1140 AM and the Uforia App. Fans worldwide can tune in to live commentary on the Club’s App. Download and Register your Profile here: https://www.intermiamicf.com/en/club/app.
“I know that we are coming up against a hurt team. We have the hope of putting in a great performance and leaving with the three points", said manager DIego Alonso. “We’re starting to read the game more clearly and we’re adjusting on the situations in which we feel the team can improve a bit. The team is feeling better, competing better. We’re starting to recognize what our strengths and weaknesses are. I’m happy with the work we’re doing; not the results, but with the growth of the team.”
Inter Miami faces a rapid turnaround following its first away match in nearly six months as it continues its season with a quick trip to Atlanta, Ga. to face the reigning Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup and Campeones Cup champions. The team is coming off of a narrow 1-0 defeat to fellow expansion side Nashville SC in which it outshot (18 to five) and outpossessed its opponents (53% to 47%).
The match saw the visitors receive a boost from the introduction of five substitutes in Juan Agudelo, Dylan Nealis, Robbie Robinson, Lee Nguyen and Brek Shea. The second-half changes sparked a promising spell in which the team controlled the rhythm of play, but was ultimately unable to equalize.
Shea, along with Leandro González Pirez and Mikey Ambrose, will have the chance to face their former team Atlanta United. The trio played together for the Five Stripes in 2019, Shea’s only season with the club, while Ambrose and González Pirez played for the team from 2017 to 2019. Together they helped Atlanta lift the 2019 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.
González Pirez also helped launch Atlanta’s expansion campaign in 2017 and guided the team to the 2018 MLS Cup and 2019 Campeones Cup titles, while earning individual recognitions as a 2019 MLS All-Star and two-time MLS Defender of the Year nominee. Shea, meanwhile, joined the team in 2019. The versatile defender / midfielder made 19 appearances for the team, starting in 10 of those. Ambrose appeared in 20 regular season and two playoff matches in his three seasons with Atlanta.
The matchup will also feature a head to head between Rodolfo Pizarro and two compatriots, Jürgen Damm and Érick Torres. Pizarro has played alongside, and against, both players on a number of occasions throughout his career.
He was teammates with Damm at C.F. Pachuca from 2013 to 2015, including a period under the tutelage of current Inter Miami manager Diego Alonso from 2014 to 2015, and appeared in 61 matches together for the club. They also shared the pitch as teammates for the Mexican National Team on one occasion. The two have faced each other as opponents eight times in their careers, competing in LigaMX and Concacaf Champions League matches. Overall, Pizarro put together a record of three wins, three draws and two losses against Damm, registering one goal and two assists in the process.
Pizarro and Torres, meanwhile, have lined up as teammates at various levels for the Mexican National Team, sharing the pitch 10 times and compiling a record of seven wins, two draws and one loss. They have only faced each other as opponents once, when Pizarro’s Pachuca defeated Torres’ Chivas.
Atlanta United are the reigning U.S. Open Cup and Campeones Cup champions, having claimed the titles under the management of Frank de Boer in 2019. The head coach, however, has since departed the club following its participation in the MLS is Back Tournament, in which the team lost its three matches, conceding three total goals and scoring none. Since then, the team has been under the leadership of interim head coach Stephen Glass, who helped guide the team to a 2-0 victory over Nashville SC before falling 1-3 at home to Orlando City SC in the team’s first matches in the next phase of the 2020 season.
The team will be without 2018 MLS MVP Josef Martínez, who is recovering from a knee injury suffered in the team’s first match of 2020. A pair of dynamic midfield holdovers in Gonzalo “Pity” Martínez and Ezequiel Barco have led the team this season with a combined total of four goals and four assists.
