Lionel Messi, Inter Miami held scoreless by Nashville SC’s “resounding” defense

To some extent, circumstances imposed a cautious outlook from the visitors. With Walker Zimmerman dealing with a “lower body” injury and an intense workload, Hany Mukhtar in need of rest and thus rotated to the substitutes’ bench, and Sam Surridge left at home to nurse a knee problem, Nashville were short on DP game-changers. That prompted an unfussy 4-4-2 shape and a corresponding counterattacking mentality.

“When you put many players close to your own goal, normally you’re going to have a good chance of keeping a clean sheet,” said Martino. “What changed today is that Surridge and Mukhtar, they’re very offensive players that they had in the first game [the Leagues Cup Final] that weren’t here or didn’t start today. So defensively, they had more today, with 10 players that were more defensively sound, and we weren’t able to have a lot of attacking threats.”

Nashville’s 4-0 thumping at the hands of Atlanta United over the weekend – the worst margin of defeat in club history – actually worked against Miami here, as it prompted Smith and his staff to make meticulous defending a point of emphasis for a group who pride themselves on organization and steel.

“Coming off the result in Atlanta, we needed to tighten things up defensively,” veteran holding midfielder Dax McCarty told MLS Season Pass reporter Katie Witham. “Coming into Miami, playing against this team right now, in the form they’re in, that’s not exactly an easy task. So full credit to the whole team. I thought we defended a little bit too deep in the first half. We wanted to get our lines up a little bit in the second half and put a little bit more pressure on them, which I thought we did.”