Diego Alonso says he is ‘proud’ of his players despite a seven-minute collapse which saw Inter Miami lose its second straight game.
It all looked to be going well for the Herons against D.C. United in their second MLS outing with Rodolfo Pizarro scoring the club’s first ever competitive goal after just two minutes.
But after Roman Torres was sent off for a handball spotted by VAR on the 54th minute, things started to go very wrong.
Amil Yasad scored a penalty five minutes later, and two minutes after that, Federic Brillant scored what would prove to be the winner when Miami was slow to react to a free-kick.
Alsonso’s men reacted well to going behind, despite being a man short, arguably deserving a point or more for their overall performance, but they would pay the price for their seven minutes to forget in the second half, starting the season with two straight losses.
That wasn’t what Alonso envisaged for his team ahead of Saturday’s home opener against LA Galaxy, but he says he was still ‘proud’ of Inter’s efforts in the capital.
Lewis Morgan celebrates after setting up Rodolfo Pizarro for the opener.
“I’m proud of the players. Proud of what they did today,” he said after the game.
“We need to keep on pushing. Unfortunately, we have less than we deserve after two matches. We have to continue pushing and fighting because in the two matches that we’ve played, the team has done some very good things.
“I think that today we played better than the other day, we had a first great half in which we could have had a larger difference than the 0-1.
“In ten minutes, the match completely changed and afterward with a man down the team fought the remaining time to tie the match or even win it. We had opportunities in front of goal up until the last minute and that makes me proud.
“I’m happy to be coaching these players. I’m happy to be Inter Miami’s coach and I’m sure that with this group of players we will achieve important things.”
