Orlando City's unbeaten streak hits 6 after draw with Inter Miami
Nick Marsman saved a first-half penalty kick and added another key stop late in the second half, and Inter Miami settled for a 0-0 draw at Orlando City on Friday night.
Miami's draw was its second in as many trips north to its Florida rivals, in a game that closed the season series between the clubs. Orlando won the other game in the series, 2-1, in Miami on June 25.
Marsman's heroics in his ninth game for Inter resulted in just the club's second defensive clean sheet of the season, and its first since May 2, also a scoreless draw.
Miami (6-9-5, 23 points) lost Kieran Gibbs -- the goal scorer in its previous trip to Orlando -- to an apparent groin injury just before halftime.
Orlando (9-4-8, 35 points) ran its unbeaten run to six matches with the result, its fourth draw over that span.
American international Daryl Dike also made his first appearance since July 3 for Orlando, coming on as a halftime substitute. And club captain and leading scorer Nani entered in the 72nd minute after he departed last weekend's match early with a lower-body injury.
Tesho Akindele had a rough first half for Orlando before departing for Dike at halftime. First Marsman dove left to save Akindele's penalty kick, which Akindele earned when his header struck the arm of defender Nicolas Figal.
Then Akindele was ruled in an offside position following video review, after he redirected Robin Jansson's long-range effort inside the left post.
Inter Miami's Gonzalo Higuain briefly appeared to have scored his team-leading ninth goal of the season in first-half stoppage time, but he was correctly ruled offside on the sequence leading to his chip of Orlando goalkeeper Pedro Gallese.
Orlando's best late chance to win late came in the 84th minute, when Antonio Carlos reached Chris Mueller's cross, only to be denied by Marsman's fine diving save to his right.
Game Information
- Referees:
- Ismail Elfath
MLS Standings
Team | GP | W | D | L | GD | P |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Inter Miami CF | 34 | 22 | 8 | 4 | +30 | 74 |
Columbus Crew | 34 | 19 | 9 | 6 | +32 | 66 |
FC Cincinnati | 34 | 18 | 5 | 11 | +10 | 59 |
Orlando City SC | 34 | 15 | 7 | 12 | +9 | 52 |
Charlotte FC | 34 | 14 | 9 | 11 | +9 | 51 |
New York City FC | 34 | 14 | 8 | 12 | +5 | 50 |
New York Red Bulls | 34 | 11 | 14 | 9 | +5 | 47 |
CF Montréal | 34 | 11 | 10 | 13 | -16 | 43 |
Atlanta United FC | 34 | 10 | 10 | 14 | -3 | 40 |
D.C. United | 34 | 10 | 10 | 14 | -18 | 40 |
Toronto FC | 34 | 11 | 4 | 19 | -21 | 37 |
Philadelphia Union | 34 | 9 | 10 | 15 | +7 | 37 |
Nashville SC | 34 | 9 | 9 | 16 | -16 | 36 |
New England Revolution | 34 | 9 | 4 | 21 | -37 | 31 |
Chicago Fire FC | 34 | 7 | 9 | 18 | -22 | 30 |