In battle of the MLS expansion teams, Inter Miami set for playoff showdown against Nashville SC

History will be made when Inter Miami CF kicks off the MLS Cup playoffs with a play-in match against host Nashville SC at 9 p.m. on Friday at Nissan Stadium (ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes).

Inter Miami are just hoping to be the ones making history.

When the final whistle sounds late Friday evening, either Nashville SC or Inter Miami — the sixth and seventh expansion teams to qualify for the playoffs in league history — will become the first expansion team to advance in the playoffs in 22 years.

Both are looking to follow the footsteps of the 1998 Chicago Fire, who are the only expansion team to advance in the MLS Cup playoffs during their inaugural season — and also won the MLS Cup that year.

Neither want to be like Inter Miami’s South Florida MLS club predecessor — the Miami Fusion (1998) — the Seattle Sounders (2009), Atlanta United (2017) and Los Angeles FC (2018) as teams that fell in the opening round of their respective playoff tournaments.

“It was a goal of ours to make it into the playoffs because if you do, anything can happen,” Inter Miami midfielder Wil Trapp said. “Ironically, it’s two expansion teams playing each other in the first game. For either one of us, history will be made. It’s going to take a lot of effort from all of us, but as I’ve seen through my career in MLS playoffs games, anything can happen.”

Although Inter Miami and Nashville SC have both reached similar destinations as expansion teams in the playoffs, their journeys to the point have been significantly different.

Inter Miami (7-13-3, 24 points) didn’t clinch the 10th seed and the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference until the final day of the season after an up-and-down inaugural year. The league expanded the playoffs from 14 to 18 teams (10 in the East, eight in the West) and added two play-in matches in the East after shortening the regular season from 34 games to 23 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nashville SC (8-7-8, 32 points), who moved from the Western Conference to the East in June, had a steadier year and clinched a playoff spot with four games left in their season.

When asked how the teams compare as expansion clubs “in the same place” in the playoffs, Nashville coach Gary Smith responded: “When you say the ‘same place’ what do you mean by that? Because we’re seventh and they’re 10th. I don’t quite get that part. In any normal year, they wouldn’t have made it.”

Nashville climbed up the U.S. soccer pyramid before joining Major League Soccer, and discreetly built its roster with its “flashiest” acquisition being its trade for Walker Zimmerman, who was named the MLS Defender of the Year earlier in the week.

On the other hand, Inter Miami’s been linked to the biggest names in the sports since their inception. Every move and singing the club makes — or don’t make — is analyzed heavily due to its location in South Florida and because soccer icon David Beckham is involved with the team as a co-owner and president of soccer operations.

“They’ve gone about their business very differently to us,” Smith said. “I think that’s easy for anyone to see in the way they’ve put this group together. They’re very talented and have a lot of talented individuals.

“I would suspect that there’s probably a little bit more disappointment in their camp in the way that things have gone this year. However, they’ve certainly finished the season off in a decent run, and they’ve clinched that final spot. They’ll be dangerous, there’s no doubt about it. We’re by no means taking this game lightly and shouldn’t be.”

Despite significant players not appearing for them until later in the season — Blaise Matuidi in September and Gonzalo Higuain in October — Inter Miami’s confident they’ll fare well in the playoffs due to the individual experiences players on their roster have in the playoffs.

They have 11 players on their roster with MLS playoff experience, including five who’ve won at least one MLS Cup.

“The games in the postseason are different,” said Leandro Gonzalez Pirez, who’s been in the playoffs every year of his MLS career and was on the Atlanta United team that made the playoffs in 2017. He won the MLS Cup with Atlanta in 2018.

“You need to change your mentality and your risk. You know if you make a mistake, you go home so you don’t have a chance to take risks, miss and then there’s the next game. You have one chance and you have to be ready for that chance.”

Both teams have a familiarity with one another, as Inter Miami lost to and played Nashville to a scoreless draw during the pair of regular-season matchups between the two expansion teams. Nashville’s 22 goals allowed in 23 games are the third-fewest in the league.

“Nashville, with time, have gained a lot of confidence and the results have helped them,” Inter Miami coach Diego Alonso said. “At the beginning of the season they were known for being very well defensively, and with time they’ve added more control of the ball. They’re a very dangerous team. We have to be ready for their set pieces and counterattacks.”

Nashville knows Higuain makes Inter Miami a different team — despite his scoring struggles — because of his playmaking ability and soccer intelligence. Higuain didn’t appear in the teams’ regular-season matchups.

“His reputation precedes him,” Smith said about the Argentine forward. “He’s more than capable of winning a game, changing the course of a game. We’ll put our record in front of anyone in terms of how we compete and how we go about our business. And my hope is we can make his life as difficult as possible and limit him to few chances.”

But they’ve also taken note of other difference-makers Inter Miami has.

“Lewis Morgan has really actually taken it up a notch,” Nashville midfielder Dax McCarty said about the Scottish winger who’s recorded team-highs of five goals and eight assists. “He’s probably been their best player this whole season. We’ve talked about him a little bit being a very dangerous player that we have to account for at all times.”

Inter Miami’s achieved their goal of making the playoffs, but they’re hoping the story to their inaugural season won’t end Friday.

“We’ve all seen what’s happening this season,” Alonso said. “We don’t take this as excuse. We take it as a challenge. At the end of the day, we achieved our goal [of making the playoffs]. We managed to get our objectives. With time, confidence and the owners we have, we have a very promising future.”

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