I’ve been dreading to write this column since the last time I wrote about Gonzalo Higuaín. I wrote down multiple reasons why I thought he should never come to Inter Miami. A few months ago it was just a rumor, but that rumor is now a reality, a reality that I really don’t want to live in, but now I have to learn to deal with it.
A few of the reasons why I thought that Higuaín isn’t the player Miami needed is the fact that he’s already past his prime. He lacks fitness and let’s face it, he’s a bit slower now at his age. Even though MLS is not at the level of the Italian Serie A, Premier League or La Liga, it is still a very physical, fast pace league, due to the fact that most footballers in MLS aren’t as technical as those in Europe, so the footballers place more emphasis in the athletic aspect of their game.
When David Beckham announced that he would bring an MLS team to Miami, I hoped that this time around it would be a lot different from an ownership aspect. I hoped that Jorge Mas, David and the other owners would focus in bringing young designated players, players that would stick around our team for at least 5, 6, 7 years, players that would help the team grow, build its history and help is win cups. The Miami Fusion used to bring designated players that catered to the latino fan base here in South Florida, it didn’t matter the age of the player, their idea was that if we bring a player like Carlos Valderrama, then thousands of Colombians would come to support the team, which in the end, that wasn’t the case.
The Fusion lacked a large fan base, the ownership didn’t do things right and, in the end, Miami Fusion folded and we were left without an MLS team for almost 20 years. It seems as if history is repeating itself once again with Inter Miami, they’ve focused on bringing in older players as designated players instead of going south of the border, and try to attract players from Argentina, Peru, Uruguay and many others. Yes, it’s true, we have a few young South American players already, but those players need more seasoning, they’re very young, they need a whole lot of growing to do.
There are many up and coming young South American talent, players that are the stars of their teams, players that are hungry to leave their country and want to make more money somewhere else. Yes, I’m sure their goal is to go to Europe, but they could always come to MLS and play a few seasons before making the jump to the other side of the Atlantic. I hope that Higuaín proves me wrong and that he starts scoring lots of goals for us, even though I don’t like him as a player, now that he is part of Inter Miami I have no choice but to wish for the best. I have to support him as a player because he’s one of us now.
In a couple of days we will see what Higuaín will bring to our team, hopefully he will adapt fast to Diego Alonso’s tactics. I’m sure he won’t have a problem with that since he’s coming from perhaps, the most tactical league in the world, the Italian Serie A. Maybe we start playing a 4-2-3-1 formation, that way Higuaín can be the only striker up top with Morgan on the right, Robinson on the left and Pizarro as our number 10, creating scoring chances and being the link between our midfielders and the strikers.Recently, Pizarro has had to drop all the way back to get the ball, that’s not the ideal thing to do for our most creative players, that’s why they brought in Matuidi, that should be his job, which he can do pretty well. Now the team has to get used to playing with one another.
We can only hope for the best now, we can only hope that our team will change for the better with Higuaín up top. His presence will keep defenders on him at all times, that will clear the way for our other attacking players to try to score goals. The one thing that makes me happy now is that finally all the fans can stop speculating as to which striker we were going to sign. There were so many players that were named from many fans that it was a bit annoying, since some of these players are not planning on coming to MLS at this point in their careers. The main one was Cavani, who in my opinion would have been the perfect player for our team, even if he’s 33 years old. Yes, I know, I’m contradicting myself since I called Higuaín old and past his prime, but, come on, this is Édinson Cavani we’re talking about here, the man is a scoring machine, he’s lethal in the box, an amazing finisher…. OK, I’ll stop, I’m sure you get the point.
I hope that the next column I write is about a victory and how good our team plays. We need to start winning. In a few weeks we will be half way through the season, we have to start winning at all cost. I want to see Miami in the playoffs, perhaps by then, we will all be able to attend the games and finally show support to our team.
