MIAMI — Charlotte FC could have had a time at the beach Saturday as they faced off once again against Inter Miami CF. Instead, the home team was able to bounce back against the black and blue.
The MLS Eastern Conference meeting was the second match ever between both teams. After a more than hour-long rain delay punted kickoff to 9:22 p.m. EDT, the scoring started early and in Charlotte's favor at first.
Yordy Reyna found the net just 25 seconds into play, giving some fuel to the team's fire. The striker would score Charlotte's second and final goal of the night 42 minutes into the match.
But after halftime, Inter Miami answered in full force, up to the final minutes of play. Robert Taylor provided the team's first answer almost an hour into the match, followed next by Gonzalo Higuaín 72 minutes in. For much of the remainder of the match, it seemed like it would end in a draw, but at three minutes in stoppage time, Emerson Rodríguez found the net one last time, sealing the game for Miami. Final score: Miami 3, Charlotte 2.
Both teams are now even with each other as far as the record between them goes. Prior to Saturday's match, Charlotte was 5-7-1, while Miami was 3-6-3. In games where each team scored only one goal, Charlotte has a 2-5-1 record while Miami is 1-4-1.
Charlotte's top performers going into Saturday's match included forward Andre Shinyashiki and midfielder Ben Bender. For Miami, forward Leonardo Campana and winger Indiana Vassilev have performed well in recent matches.
Data gathered by the Associated Press contributed to this report
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