Inter Miami Searching For First Home Win As They Face Portland Timbers | OneFootball

Here’s a crazy stat. Despite sitting 2nd in the East, almost 3 months into the season, and Inter Miami still have not won a home game. They look to fix that as Western Conference foes Portland Timbers come to town.

Inter Miami Scoring For Fun

The good news for the Herons is that they come into this match in great goalscoring form, with 12 goals in their last 3 matches. They’ve also won 2 games on the bounce, beating a depleted Toronto side 4-2 in Canada last weekend then winning a thrilling 5-3 fixture against FC Cincinnati on Wednesday. Miami’s last home match was the crushing 4-3 loss to Florida rivals Orlando City, so they’ll look to get the sour taste of a derby defeat out of their mouth with a win over Portland.

The main man Lionel Messi has been instrumental to Miami’s recent attacking output. He’s contributed 4 goals and 4 assists in those latest 3 games and was narrowly denied a hat trick against Cincy on a technicality. His third effort was officially ruled an own goal.

All the other big names are starting to deliver as well. In the past week, Inter Miami has had goals from Luis Suárez, Rodrigo De Paul, Germán Berterame, and Sergio Reguilón. However, their defense is still a major problem. They’ve conceded 9 goals in their last 3 games and reigning Goalkeeper of the Year Dayne St. Clair has statistically been one of the worst keepers in MLS this season.

Timbers Attack Looking For Consistency

Luckily for Miami’s leaky defense, Portland Timbers have struggled to score goals this season. If you take away last weekend’s 6-0 thrashing of a historically bad Sporting KC side, Timbers have scored 1.36 goals per match. That would rank 24th out of 30 in MLS. They followed up that 6-0 win with a 2-2 draw against a rotated Montréal team. The schedule hasn’t been kind to Portland, as they’ve had to travel about 3,750 miles in the last week.

David Da Costa, the club’s replacement for Evander, has had a poor start to the season. He notched his first 2 assists of the campaign in that win over SKC and has only scored once. Offseason acquisition Cole Bassett has been key for Portland in the midfield and is starting to find his goalscoring form of 2024 again as he’s netted in the last 2 matches. The club’s top scorer is also finding his rhythm.

21 year old striker Kevin Kelsy has 4 goals and an assist in his last 4 matches. He also scored a 96th minute winner against LAFC last month. Kelsy will have opportunities to score in this game, as Miami allowed 0.81 xG to Kévin Denkey against Cincy and let Toronto striker Emilio Aristizábal score a brace.

Match Prediction

Inter Miami will be determined to finally notch their first home win of the season and have a great chance to do so with all their stars in form. Portland will create chances to score but goalkeeper James Pantemis is going to need his best performance of the season if they want to get a result in this one.

Prediction: Inter Miami 3-1 Portland Timbers