For Club and Country: Herons on the International Stage
A look at our IMCF players on International Duty plus a few more games to watch during the 2021 season.
Inter Miami CF had a rough week ( Thanks COVID 😡 ) but looks to be getting the band back together after quite a few of the Herons left for the International Break.
Let's see where each went and how they faired!
Where In The World Are The Herons?
Rodolfo Pizarro
Our #10 was a substitute in a friendly match on 3/27/2021 against Wales where he replaced Luis Rodriguez in the 61st minute.
Rodolfo featured for El Tri in another friendly match on 03/30/2021 where he slotted into the False 9 and played 65 minutes.
Joevin Jones
Jones started against Guyana on 03/25/2021 and helped orchestrated a 3-0 victory for T&T.
Jones also featured against Puerto Rico on 03/28/2021 and scored the team's only goal in a 1-1 draw.
Kelvin Leerdam
Kelvin featured for Suriname against the Cayman Islands on 03/24/2021 and registered an assist.
Kelvin featured again for Suriname against Aruba and helped guide the team to a resounding 6-0 win.
**Suriname….A Geography Lesson by IMPC!**
Suriname has a population of 575,990.
- In comparison, the city of Miami (in 2018) had a population of 470,914.
The official language of Suriname is Dutch but they also recognized 8 different regional languages.
Other players of Surinamese descent include Ruud Gullit, Patrick Kluivert, Frank Rijkaard, Clarence Seedorf, Virgil Van Dijk, and Georginio Wijnaldum
Edison Azcona
Our boy wonder played in the CONCACAF Men’s Olympic Tourney where he started all three games, played all 90 minutes, and notched a penalty goal 👏👏
IMCF ‘21 Nation Wide Tour
The Herons had their schedule released on March 24th which added some relief for those waiting to make plans but also added angst knowing they were going to have to navigate through a less than stellar ticket situation... 🤭
The season opens against the LA Galaxy at home. If you recall, we were supposed to play the Galaxy in our 2020 home-opened before all hell broke loose. We don’t always agree with the MLS, but the MLS did rectify this situation, albeit, 13 months later…
Our second match has us traveling up to the Keystone State to face off against the reigning Supporters’ Shield champion Philadelphia Union at Subaru Park. This should be an intriguing matchup as both teams will look to set the tone early and grab an early high ranking in the standings.
( no more Brandon Aaronson 👋 )
Later down the road, we focus on the match in Cincinnati where FC Cincinnati will be debuting the brand new West End Stadium which promises to be one of the better stadiums in the league (behind ours of course…). Sure would be a shame if someone came in and messed up that debut… 🤷♂️ just saying.
Make Or Break Time?
Here at IMPC, we’re eyeing up one key stretch that could make or break our season.
Between May 29th and August 27th, we have a total of nine home matches (Club de Foot Montreal playing at our stadium even though we are technically away). In our five away matches during that stretch, we have two trips to Orlando which will essentially be day trips for the team. The rest of the away matches are to DC (1), NY (1) and NJ (1) but those are not lumped together with any other away fixtures.
This means the team will spend quite a bit of time at home in front of La Familia where opponents already dislike playing.
More time at home = less time on the road = less fatigue
It will be essential to grab as many points as possible during this stretch because September has back to back to back away matches all over the country. The Herons travel up to Atlanta then cut across the country to Portland (our longest trip of the year) and then head to the reigning MLS champion Columbus Crew.
The real negative out of this stretch is that there is only a three-day turnaround between Atlanta and Portland 😬
Atlanta is reloaded and ready to make up for their terrible 2020 season. Atlanta shocked the MLS by going winless in the MLS is Back tournament. The season never got better for them as they compiled only six wins to thirteen losses and four draws. The loss of Josef Martinez with his torn ACL proved how much he means to the club. Josef is going to have a major chip on his shoulder after going down and will look to return to his defense terrifying form as the season progresses.
Looking at Portland, you can never overlook the Timbers even in an off-year. The Timbers bounced back in 2020 after two disappointing seasons in 2018 and 2019 by winning the MLS is Back tournament and by placing third in the western conference. Unfortunately for them, they had a case of Inter Miami-itis and conceded a late goal in their first-round game against FC Dallas which led to their demise in a penalty shootout.
QUESTION: What game are you most excited to see this year? 🤔
Comment below and share your thoughts!
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As always….
VAMOS MIAMI!!
✌️IMPC