Austin scored two goals in the game against Miami FC at Q2 Stadium. (0:33)
Chris Henderson experienced an expansion season with the Seattle Sounders in 2009, and he thinks the rebuilding job he is doing with Inter Miami is similar. His current task is very difficult.
Henderson, Adrian Hanauer and Sigi Schmid were able to build a new team because they had a blank canvas. In South Florida, the former United States international is razing portions of the troubled team to the ground. Three Miami free agents who were re-signed were not included in the 30 transactions he engaged in before this season. Rodolfo Pizarro, who was on loan to Monterrey, is now an ambassador for the club. Lewis Morgan and Leandro Gonzalez Pirez were also shipped out.
If there is pain associated with so much roster turnover, it is self-destructive, taking place against the backdrop of the MLS sanctions imposed on Miami when it emerged that the organization had violated the league's roster rules during its inaugural campaign in 2020. The contracts of Matuidi and Reyes meant they should have been classified as Designated Players, giving Miami two more than the three allowed per league rules. The compensation paid to Gonzalez Pirez was not reported.
MLS fined Miami $2.27 million in allocation money, spread over the next two seasons, when the news broke last May. Henderson and the league wouldn't say how much of a hit Miami is taking this season.
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We are waiting to hear from the league as to how those are spread out, according to Henderson.
Henderson was hired two months before MLS announced that it was investigating the club's signing of Matuidi, and four months before the sanctions were imposed, leaving him to clean up the mess left by his predecessor. The league decided to fine Mas personally to the tune of $250,000 for his role in the scandal.
The early returns have not been promising. The Miami and Chicago Fire played to a draw in the season opener. The Herons lost to Austin FC in a big way last weekend.
The manager said that they were really disappointed and that they had some new players in the team that would take time to gel. It is a steep learning curve for this new team but we have faith in them and need to correct some of the mistakes we made.
It's a result that puts even more of a microscope on Miami's roster, although there is acknowledgement that Henderson is doing the best he can in terms of minimizing the hit on the salary budget. While cap space has been cleared, outlays for transfer fees have been relatively modest. Prior to the start of the season, Henderson said that he was able to capture 90 percent of the targets.
Jean Mota had made more than 250 appearances for the Brazilian side. On Sunday, Leonardo Campana scored Miami's first goal of the season. Yedlin should be able to play on the right flank. Henderson was impressed with the leadership role that the man has taken this season.
It is something to keep an eye on when things are going badly for him and his teammates. Last week, a player from the Chicago Bulls said that he hosts a show that is so pathetic. His body language is terrible. I would not want to be a teammate of his. I don't want any part of it.
Henderson sees the steps that need to be taken, and he thinks they are the right ones. At times, we would turn over the ball too quickly and we were spending a lot of energy defending. With the speed on the flanks and the two kinds of anchors in Mota and Gregore, I think we will be able to get after teams in moments.
The new pieces that were shown on Sunday will need time to gel. It is more difficult in a compressed season due to the World Cup.
Henderson said that consistency is the key word. We are going to focus on being consistent. Some of that comes down to that balance of experience, the guys that we have added into the group and the experienced guys that we kept here.
The league's sanctions were designed to hurt, and they have made the goal of consistency difficult. As it relates to Miami's depth, this is obvious. An injury to center-back Damion Lowe forced Neville into an uncomfortable dilemma in which he opted to play Brek Shea as a left-sided center-back in a three-back system instead of going to a four-back system or relying on one of the younger defenders on Miami. He switched to a four-back alignment in the second half.
They have no choice but to keep going. It is up to the entire organization to deal with the sanctions.
Henderson said that in the last six months to a year, they were just pushing forward, not thinking about the sanctions. Let's build our team, the best we can be successful this year.
Henderson has had to contend with more than financial penalties when it comes to building out Miami's roster. He recalled that when he arrived, there were no processes or personnel in place to recruit players. When he first arrived in Miami, Henderson estimated that there were 160 player reports in the database. There are more than 1,000 now. The data analytics and scouting departments have been built out since his arrival, and that should improve the odds of Miami having more hits than misses.
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