Heron Talk presented by Gallagher
Inter Miami CF will be back at home looking to extend its current four-game unbeaten streak as it faces off against Columbus Crew at DRV PNK Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 11 at 8 p.m. ET.
Ahead of Saturday’s match, head coach Phil Neville touched on the invigorating 0-1win over FC Cincinnati on the road this past weekend highlighting Brek Shea’s late goal that allowed the Heron’s to be victorious.
“The most pleasing thing was obviously that Brek had to be patient to score the winning goal and he took that opportunity. Then the reaction of the substitutes I thought was sensational, it was the best part of the game for me,” Neville pointed out.
“[Julián] Carranza, Jay Chapman, Sami Guediri, Edison [Azcona], the way they celebrated meant that we’re a real strong team. You’re only as good as your bench and a true sign of a good team is when you score, look at the bench and they celebrate and they’re happy. That’s the sign of a good team spirit.”
Looking forward to the matchup versus Columbus Crew, Neville emphasized the high-quality team that Columbus possesses.
“We are under no illusions that this is probably going to be one of our toughest games. They’ve got good experience, they’ve got good players,” he said.
Neville also emphasized a major key to maintaining the Heron’s momentum: the ability to keep a clean sheet.
“It [a clean sheet] means that we’re defending well, it means that we got a good compact shape, it means that there’s really good concentration and we want to continue that. I think any successful team is built off a solid foundation of good defensive performances,” he said.
“That’s what we’ve been looking for all season, that consistency in our performance, that consistency in our defending, and consistency in our concentration and determination levels,” he added.
Neville reiterated the need to continue building the momentum to persevere and conquer the upcoming schedule.
“This feels like we’re building momentum in terms of confidence and belief and we just need to keep going. We don’t change what we’re doing, we just keep going [with] what we’re doing to keep persevering, to keep chipping away at the teams above.”
Lewis Morgan highlighted the teams’ mentality going into the weekend matchup, reflecting on the win against FC Cincinnati.
“It drives home that message that we can be successful on the road and we are not settling to go places and just try to take one point, we try and take the maximum every game we play.”
Morgan added that the chemistry and the current mood of the team have been channeled into the high quality of play on the field.
“The group is definitely closer now and I think you see that on the pitch and all of those things add up. Helps us be more successful as a team,” Morgan said.
On the upcoming match-up, Morgan said, “We respect them as a team and we know they’re strong, they also had a great year last year but they are one of our direct rivals now and we’re going to the game full of confidence and if we do what we can do, if we stick to the plan at the moment, then it’ll be all in our favour and we can try and get three points again.”
Kelvin Leerdam also restated the importance and urgency of maintaining the teams’ momentum.
“For us, we want to keep the momentum going and you know it’s going to be difficult because a team that’s struggling, you know it only takes the next game to change everything.”
