More weather woes for Inter Miami

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Former Toronto FC star midfielder Alejandro Pozuelo — who makes his first visit back to BMO Field on Friday night since being traded this summer — has said that one of the reasons he enjoys playing for Inter Miami is because of the south Florida weather.

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Under normal circumstances, Florida does enjoy beautiful weather. However, this year has been rough on the Inter Miami club as a result of the climate. As reported by Michelle Kaufman in the Miami Herald, five of The Herons’ 15 home games this season — and six games overall — have been delayed or interrupted by inclement weather.

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And as Miami prepares for its crucial game in Toronto, Hurricane Ian forced the cancellation of one practice this week. Miami is hoping to get in a training session on Thursday before flying to Toronto, but that’s to be determined.

As for Pozuelo, in four seasons in Toronto, the Seville native scored 30 goals in 100 total appearances, and was a wizard setting up scoring chances. He was traded to Inter Miami on July 7 for $150,000 in General Allocation Money as well as additional conditional GAM depending on certain performance metrics. Pozuelo has been a standout in south Florida, scoring two goals while adding six assists in 11 games.

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HERONS HUNGRY

Expect Inter Miami to be a motivated club on Friday at BMO Field. Unlike TFC, the Herons are in a battle to remain in playoff position in the MLS Eastern Conference. With three games remaining in the regular season, Inter Miami, which is coming off back-to-back wins over Columbus and DC United, is clinging to the seventh and final playoff spot in the East.

Inter Miami has won its last four matches against TFC after the Reds won the first meeting, 2-1, in November 2020. Toronto is one of two teams (the other being Cincinnati) that Miami has defeated four times in MLS play.

Striker Gonzalo Higuain has scored in each of Miami’s last three games (four goals) including a stoppage winner against DC United on Sept. 18. Higuain is the first player in club history to score in three straight MLS matches. That DC United match represented Miami’s third road win of the season and was Miami’s 10th away win in the club’s MLS history, with all 10 victories coming by a one-goal margin.

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Getting three points on Friday won’t mean as much from a positional point of view for TFC, a club out of playoff contention for the second season in a row. But you know head coach Bob Bradley and the front office want to finish the regular season on a good note. The Reds are not in danger of finishing in last place in the East (DC United is seven points back with two games left), but the organization does not want to finish in second-last either, where the team sits right now. Toronto finished second from the bottom last season, so it’s important to show some improvement, though the Reds already have six more points than they recorded all of last season.

COUNTRY, NOW CLUB

Three TFC players — right back Richie Laryea, midfielder Mark-Anthony Kaye, and centre back Doneil Henry — will be coming back from Europe this week after being with the Canadian national team for a pair of pre-World Cup friendlies against Qatar and Uruguay. It’s expected all three would be available for Friday’s match. Right back DeAndre Yedlin (U.S.) and centre back Damion Lowe (Jamaica) are on their way back to rejoin Inter Miami after spending the past 10 days playing for their national teams.

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TFC WORTH $705M US

The sports business site Sportico has ranked the value of all MLS teams — based on the sum of the current market value of an MLS franchise combined with the value of team-related businesses and real estate holdings.

According to the Sportico study, the average MLS franchise is worth $582 million, up 5.8% over last year. TFC ranked fifth at $705 million (US), behind LAFC ($900M), LA Galaxy ($865M), Atlanta United ($855M) and Seattle Sounders ($725M). TFC just edged out DC United ($700M) and New York City FC ($690M). Despite having a tremendous year on the field (second in the MLS East with 59 points), CF Montreal ranks dead-last in terms of franchise value ($390M) of all 28 MLS franchises while the Vancouver Whitecaps are third from last ($415M).

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According to Sportico: “After two COVID-19 disrupted seasons and huge operating losses across the board, MLS is on pace to post record attendance of nearly 10 million in 2022, breaking the previous mark of 8.6 million set in 2019. Almost every club is still losing money — losses at NYCFC, TFC and Inter Miami are all expected to top $20 million this season — but many have pared losses as revenues expanded. The 28 teams are projected to generate $1.6 billion in revenue during the 2022 regular season, after bottoming out at $468 million during 2020 when there were few or no fans in stadiums because of COVID-19.”

FAN APPRECIATION NIGHT

Friday night’s match at BMO Field — the final home game of the season for TFC — is Fan Appreciation Night. No details as to what attending fans will receive, but a nice gesture would be to perhaps cut the cost of tickets for next season after such a disappointing 2022 campaign. However, it’s MLSE. Don’t count on it. The final TFC match of the year is on Oct. 9 at Philadelphia Union.

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