Inter Miami hopes to continue road success Wednesday at Cincinnati | OneFootball

Bounce-back win eases sting of historic home loss against Orlando

It wasn't beautiful, but Los Garzas got just what they needed Saturday at BMO Field in Toronto: relief.

The 4-2 win against the Reds was more than a victory; it was balm to help ease the pain of the Herons' slower-than-anticipated start to the 2026 season.

Expectations are outrageously high for Major League Soccer's most scrutinized, analyzed and criticized team. It doesn't help that the defending MLS Cup champs haven't come close to matching the form they showed in last year's playoffs. Or failed to advance in CONCACAF Champions Cup. Orr been held winless in their first four matches at $350 million Nu Stadium.

Or earned the dubious record of being the first MLS team to lose after building a 3-0 lead on its home pitch. Or that Orlando City SC -- Miami's Sunshine Derby rival -- mounted that unlikely comeback earlier this month.

Despite the doom-and-gloom narrative coming from supporters, though, the Herons, with six wins, two losses and four draws for 22 points, are third in the Eastern Conference and fifth overall. The squad is beginning to get healthy again -- injury-plagued newcomer Sergio Reguilón, brought in to play the left wing back slot vacated by the retirement of Jordi Alba, scored his first MLS goal in Toronto -- and has just three matches left before the almost two-month-long World Cup break. Miami is a team badly in need of a reset after its early disappointments and the unexpected resignation of former coach Javier Mascherano and his entire staff. Just three matches remain before they have valuable time to decide on whether to remove the "interim" label from Guillermo Hoyos' head coach label or to bring in a higher profile skipper and said skipper time to get a head start on the season's second half.

First up: FC Cincinnati (4-4-4, 16 points), in Cincinnati, at 7:30 p.m. ET Wednesday. Next up, home matches against the Portland Timbers (and former Miami coach Phil Neville) on Sunday and the Philadelphia Union on May 24. It would really, really be ideal if Los Garzas could win one or both of those Nu Stadium matches before the break; it would be nice to shed the "cursed" rumor from the Herons' new home before the players begin to believe it.