Inter Miami 3, Orlando City 4. What a game that was to watch, and what a disaster for The Herons.
Inter Miami did not just lose the Florida derby on the 3rd of May. They lost the first Florida derby ever played at Nu Stadium, against their bottom of the table in-state rivals, after leading 3-0 inside 33 minutes.
That is the sort of result that gets talked about for a decade.
Match Report
Miami were 3-0 up through Ian Fray, Telasco Segovia and Lionel Messi, with Messi also assisting the first two goals. At that point, Orlando City looked in danger of being severely embarrassed. It could have been many more. Maxime Crépeau had already been forced into a string of first-half saves, including a remarkable sequence of 4 saves in a row, that stopped Miami from turning control into humiliation.
That’s an important point, because this was not a game where Miami simply stopped creating chances. They created plenty. They had 26 shots to Orlando’s 13 and won the xG battle 3.00 to 1.91. On paper, that should be enough to win a home game. Instead, they became one of the very few MLS teams ever to lose after leading by three goals.
The collapse began before the break, when Martín Ojeda pulled one back in the 39th minute. But it was some tactical outmanoeuvring that after half time that did the real damage. Interim head coach, Martín Perelman, replaced Tiago and Luis Otávio with Tyrese Spicer and Eduard Atuesda, and adjusted into a more direct shape that gave their runners more space and allowed them to challenge Miami’s defensive weaknesses more aggressively. Suddenly Miami’s back line was being attacked at pace, repeatedly, and they were exposed.
It worked spectacularly.
Ojeda scored again in the 68th minute, then completed his hat-trick from the penalty spot in the 79th after Maximiliano Falcón fouled Iago Teodoro. He might even have had four, but Dayne St. Clair somehow kept him out with a close-range save using… his face. It didn’t look entirely intentional and St Clair needed a sit down afterwards, but still, remarkable commitment to the cause.
Then came the final humiliation. In the 93rd minute, Braian Ojeda released Tyrese Spicer, whose pace carried him clear before he finished through St. Clair’s legs. Orlando had gone from 3-0 down to 4-3 up, away from home, in the Florida derby, inside Miami’s new stadium.
For Orlando, it was the type of rivalry win supporters remember for years.
For Miami, it was a dark day which will have battered their confidence.
The Structural Problems Are Becoming Impossible To Ignore
Around a month ago, I wrote that Inter Miami looked like a club caught between two eras. The old Messi-led superteam had already changed shape. Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba were gone, Luis Suárez was taking on a reduced role, Javier Mascherano had unexpectedly left as head coach, and Miami were still waiting for Nu Stadium to feel like home.
This result took all of those concerns and put them under floodlights.
The attacking quality is still there. Messi remains absurdly influential, and any team that can score three goals in 33 minutes has obvious firepower. But Miami’s problem has never really been whether Messi can still produce moments. It is whether the structure around him is strong enough to survive when the game stops bending to his rhythm.
Against Orlando, the answer was no.
The loss of Busquets is especially relevant. Miami’s defence has always needed protection, and now it looks exposed far too often in transition. They have already conceded twice as many goals at this stage of the season as they had in 2025, and the new defensive additions have not solved the issue.
That is the real concern. This was not a freakish 10-minute collapse from an otherwise stable team. It was an exaggerated version of problems that were already visible: loose defensive spacing, vulnerable centre-backs, midfield giveaways, and a back line that struggles badly when opponents run at it with pace.
Orlando saw that and adjusted. Miami did not respond.
Nu Stadium Is Starting To Become Part Of The Story
New stadiums are supposed to create momentum. They are supposed to give a club a sense of arrival, permanence and intimidation. Instead, Miami are still waiting for their first win at the Nu Stadium after opening with three draws and then losing this derby.
That does not mean the stadium is cursed, or anything dramatic like that. But it does mean the first defining rivalry memory at Nu Stadium belongs to Orlando, not Miami. That is brutal.
There is still enough quality in this Miami squad for them to recover. Messi can still decide matches. Segovia looks dangerous. Fray gave them a flying start. St. Clair, despite conceding four, made important saves that prevented the scoreline from becoming even worse – he was voted Goalkeeper of the Year for 2025 after all.
But that almost makes the result more worrying, not less. Miami had big performances, created the better chances, scored three times, and still lost.
That is not a finishing problem. It is not bad luck. It is a structural problem.
This was the sort of match that makes an earlier argument feel more urgent. Inter Miami’s question is no longer just whether they are built to last after Messi. It is whether they are built to cope now, while Messi is still here.
Because if a 3-0 lead at home in a Florida derby is not safe, very little is.