Inter Miami winless streak at 11 after 3-0 road loss to St. Louis in Tata Martino debut

Tata Martino made his Inter Miami coaching debut Saturday night on the road against St. Louis City SC, just hours after the club officially announced the signing of Argentine superstar Lionel Messi. The coach lamented that the team lost 3-0 and was unable to give Messi the welcome gift they would have liked.

“We are very happy that his signing was made official, but we were hoping to give him a win to welcome him and we were not able to do that,” Martino said. “Looking to the future, it is a dream to have the best player in the world on our team, but we have to have patience so he can be ready physically to play at the right moment.”

Contract negotiations with Messi dragged on for weeks, but the deal was finally sealed in time for the Messi “Unveil” ceremony at DRV PNK Park Sunday night. Messi is expected to make his debut at Inter Miami’s next game, at home Friday against Mexican team Cruz Azul in the opener of the inaugural Leagues Cup tournament.

He joins a team that remains in last place in the Eastern Conference with a 5-3-14 record and 18 points, which is 12 short points of the playoff line with 12 games to go. The top nine teams advance to the playoffs. Over the past few years, the ninth-place teams ended the season with a total of 42 to 44 points, which means Miami will likely need to earn 25 points over the next 12 games.

On Saturday, Miami failed to find the back of the net against St. Louis City, which leads the Western Conference with 41 points. All three of the St. Louis goals against Miami were scored on set pieces. Samuel Adeniran scored after a cross from a corner kick in the 28^th minute. Tim Parker made it 2-0 on a header from the center of the box that came off a cross following a corner kick in the 40^th minute. And Eduard Lowen scored the third from a free kick late in the game.

“Going forward, we are a team that should play games without goals, without our goal and without the opponents’,” Martino said, tongue in cheek. “Between the areas we played well, generated offense.”

Defender DeAndre Yedlin, who returned to the team after missing a month while on U.S. national team duty for the Gold Cup, stressed that set pieces have been a weak spot.

“The thing that stands out is set pieces, we gave them three goals on set pieces, which isn’t good enough,” Yedlin said. “It’s not even so much tactically. When it comes to set pieces, it’s that desire to either score or not get scored on. We definitely need to be stronger in that department. It’s a transitional period for us and we have to make sure we get the small details sorted out.”

Inter Miami’s roster has been decimated due to injuries, and coaches Phil Neville, who was fired June 1, interim coach Javi Morales and now Martino have had to go deep into the bench.

Martino on Saturday went with a starting lineup that included three homegrown youth academy products – Ian Fray, Noah Allen, Benjamin Cremaschi, and Lawson Sunderland, a 21-year-old American midfielder making his first MLS start.

Sunderland is a native of Aurora, Illinois, started at the Chicago Fire and Portland Timbers youth academies and spent the past six years playing in Spain with the youth teams of Levante, Sabadell, Damm, and Sant Adreu.

Yedlin rested the first half and replaced Allen at the start of the second half. Leo Campana replaced Sunderland at halftime.

The look of the team is sure to change drastically with the addition of Messi and the imminent arrival of his former FC Barcelona teammates Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba. Busquets is scheduled to arrive in South Florida on Sunday morning and attend the “Unveil” ceremony. Alba’s arrival is delayed because his wife is due to give birth to their third child in the coming days.

The roster already looked different with the absence of Mexican midfielder Rodolfo Pizarro, whose contract was terminated to make room for Messi and Busquets. The team announced that it had mutually agreed to part ways. Pizarro had seven goals and 13 assists in 59 games (48 starts) over three-plus seasons with Miami. He is expected to join AEK Athens of Greece on a free transfer.

Inter Miami and the rest of the league will take a one-month hiatus during the Leagues Cup, which includes all the MLS teams, and all the Liga MX teams from Mexico in a World Cup format tournament. Miami’s two group stage games are at home against Cruz Azul and on July 25 against Atlanta United. Tickets are still available for both matches. The cheapest tickets for Messi’s debut game are in the $200 range and available through TicketMaster.