Heron Talk presented by Gallagher
Following the team’s loss against the New York Red Bulls in its last match, Inter Miami will be back in action on Wednesday, Sept. 22, when it hosts Nashville SC at DRV PNK Stadium at 7:30 p.m. ET.
Head coach Phil Neville stressed the importance of not dwelling on the defeat and instead focusing on getting back on track against Nashville to continue collecting points as the team did over the past months.
“Obviously we’re really, really disappointed. Hopefully it’s just a blip and a minor bump on the road and we can go on another [positive] run like we did previously... We've taken many steps forward in the last two months, but we just took a step back the other night. Now we have to reset and we have to go again. There’s no time for mistakes, there’s no time to recover, we have to go again,” said Neville. “We have to go again harder and be better and be even more relentless in what we’ve been doing.”
Inter Miami captain and midfielder Gregore shared Neville’s sentiment, emphasizing how it's vital to the team’s success that it bounces back and finishes off the regular season strongly, while also analyzing the upcoming fixture against Nashville.
“We are very aware that in the league there are no easy games. We were doing well and we were on a winning streak and now we just got to get back to that,” he stated.
“Like always, I expect it to be a tough game. It’s very hard to play against any opponent in this league. They will also come out to get the three points, but we play at home and count on the support of our fans. We will have to be more focused than last game so we don’t concede as many goals or give that many chances to the opponent, but we are going to come out onto the field in search of the win,” added Gregore.
Neville also highlighted the importance of the squad’s depth ahead of facing Nashville, as several key players will miss the matchup due to injury or suspension.
“We got [Kieran] Gibbs back, which is a really good, really good addition, he feels good, feels motivated. So he comes back into the equation on Wednesday. We lose two players due to suspension for Wednesday: Nicolás [Figal] and Leandro [González Pirez]. We are literally down to the bare bones in terms of defensive options, but I think that these are the situations that I love the most in terms of the opportunities for those on the outskirts to come in and make a real big impact.
“It’s another final for us, it’s a game that we want to bounce back in, it’s a game that can take us back up to the places where we want to be,” he concluded.
