Should Inter Miami CF Worry About Red Cards: Things We Learned From Inter Miami vs. Charlotte | OneFootball

Despite playing with 10 players again on Sunday afternoon, Inter Miami CF kept the good times rolling with a 1–0 win over Charlotte FC.

Tadeo Allende scored the winning goal for the Herons as they picked up their second win in a row in MLS play, building on a 4–1 victory over the Houston Dynamo on Matchday 2. However, with another red card, this time to goalkeeper Oscar Ustari, each game has brought its extra bit of drama.

As Miami move to seven points on the season and second in the Eastern Conference after three weeks, here are three takeaways from the recent victory over Charlotte.

The Discipline Issue: Should Inter Miami be worried?

Inter Miami may be off to a near perfect start to the season results-wise, but the success in 2025 has been a far cry from the composed, professional and record-breaking campaign the club enjoyed in 2024.

Under the tutelage of veteran head coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino, Miami set an all-time regular-season points record, hitting 74 in their Supporters’ Shield-winning season. On the journey to that 22-4-8 record, they stayed committed to an identity and let their results speak for themselves.

Throughout that campaign, they received 88 yellow cards and four red cards. While that still ranked them among the top four MLS sides in total cards, they’ve been significantly more reckless in 2025. They appear frustrated and have to dig themselves out of holes under rookie head coach Javier Mascherano.

Match officials have awarded Miami a red card in each MLS game this season, and although Ian Fray’s was eventually rescinded, the players have often appeared agitated in their play. Even the superstars Lionel Messi and Luis Suárez have been hit with MLS disciplinary action in 2025, both being fined for altercations.

Many other MLS supporters see Inter Miami as the villain. The best Herons can do is keep winning, as they’ve done, but that’s much easier with a full allotment of players on the pitch.

Tadeo Allende and Luis Suarez enjoying stellar form

While Lionel Messi has not been available for Inter Miami in recent games, Suárez and Tadeo Allende have more than compensated by filling the void.

For Allende, his introduction to MLS and Miami could not be going much better. Against Charlotte, he scored the winning goal, extended his scoring streak to four games in all competitions, and helped keep the defensive structure with 10 men.

With all his contributions, he’s putting himself in the conversation for the MLS Newcomer of the Year award after just three matches.

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Yet, he’s doing it all in his prime at 26 years old. One of his attacking partners, Suárez, has even exceeded him in production, putting up four assists and three goals in all competitions in his last six games at 38 years old.

Inter Miami’s identity lies in its free-flowing and productive attack, and with Allende and Suárez, it has just that, even without the GOAT in the lineup.

What does the goalkeeping future look like?

Rocco Rios Novo could face his former MLS club, Atlanta United, next week, despite being Miami's third goalkeeper. / Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

Despite a formative offseason on the soccer operations, Inter Miami did not shore up their goalkeeping situation ahead of 2025. With No. 1 choice and USMNT goaltender Drake Callender unavailable due to injury, the club has had to gamble with veteran Oscar Ustari, who was given a red card for a risky challenge against Charlotte.

At the same time, the club lost young American goalkeeping prospect CJ Dos Santos to expansion side San Diego FC, where he has assumed the starter's role and showed well this season.

It leaves Mascherano with little choice going into next weekend’s clash with Atlanta United, relying on Rocco Rios Novo, who had not played an MLS match since 2022, before coming in as relief for the red-carded Ustari against Charlotte.

These are worrying times between the sticks for Miami.