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New chapter of Inter Miami-Orlando City rivalry to be written, possibly with Jordi Alba making his debut

sam sklar, south florida sun-sentinel
·4 min read

FORT LAUDERDALE — Inter Miami defender Sergii Kryvtsov was not shy when addressing the magnitude of Wednesday night’s Leagues Cup match versus Orlando City.

The Ukrainian center-back first compared it to the Klasychne derby, the major rivalry played in his home country between Dynamo Kyiv and his former club, Shakhtar Donetsk.

Then came the big one, tying it back to Inter Miami’s former FC Barcelona players and his new teammates. He said he views the Inter Miami-Orlando City matchups just as highly as El Clásico, the ultra competitive FC Barcelona-Real Madrid matchups.

“For me, it’s the same,” Kryvtsov said.

While Kryvtsov has never played in El Clásico, three of his star teammates have — Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba — plus, Inter Miami coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino coached in it.

El Clásico dates all the way back to 1902, while the Miami-Orlando in-state rivalry — also known as the “Florida Derby” — is just a few years old. It’s European soccer versus American soccer. It’s a bit different.

Messi, Busquets, Alba and Martino will get their first tastes of the Florida rivalry very soon. But Martino quickly splashed some cold water on Kryvtsov’s take, suggesting it was a reference to Inter Miami’s preparation heading into the match.

“Maybe Sergii wanted to put in context the game,” Martino said through an interpreter. “Obviously both classicals have a little bit of distance in terms of comparing both. What’s true is that it’s very difficult to predict what’s going to happen tomorrow.

“We know that Barca-Madrid has been played for many years, but I’m sure that Sergii was referring to the mindset in how we’re approaching this game.”

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Regardless, the stakes of the matchup are high. The winner advances to the round of 16. The loser is eliminated. An Inter Miami loss would put their next match on Aug. 20 against Charlotte FC when the Major League Soccer regular season resumes.

Another reinforcement could be on the way though, with Alba potentially making his debut. Martino said Tuesday that he will be available, but was non-committal on whether or not he will actually play.

Alba, a former star left-back for Barcelona who arrived in South Florida over the weekend, took part in his first two Inter Miami practices on Monday and Tuesday. He hasn’t competed in a match since mid-June, but said he’s been training the past two weeks in Spain, where his wife recently gave birth to their third child.

It’s quite possible that his Inter Miami debut will come as a second-half substitution, similarly to what Messi and Busquets did in their first game.

“I’m physically OK,” Alba said through an interpreter.

The beginning of Tuesday’s training session featured a keepaway game with a focus on one-touch play. Then, they split in half for a friendly handball competition. Messi and Busquets teamed up against Alba, but none of them scored with the required header into the net.

At one point, forward Shanyder Borgelin used his 6-foot-4 frame to elevate for a goal, otherwise there wasn’t much scoring and a few laughs to go around.

Inter Miami and Orlando City have faced each other 11 times, with Orlando leading the all-time series at 5-3-3. Orlando City took the most recent matchup, but obviously a lot has changed since then.

That match took place on May 20, just the second game of what turned out to be a seven-game losing streak for Miami. Phil Neville was Inter Miami’s head coach at the time and Messi hadn’t even announced his intentions to join the club yet.

Now suddenly with two emphatic wins under their belt, Inter Miami’s confidence is at a new high.

Messi came through with the winner in stoppage time in his first game, then followed it up with two more goals in a stomping of Atlanta United.

“We’re definitely playing with a little swagger,” defender Noah Allen said. “I think things are getting easier when we have the best players in the world come and play.”

Perhaps one day Kryvtsov will be right about his rivalry comparison.

Alba described his jump to Inter Miami numerous times Tuesday as a “project,” mostly as a reference to his desire “to win every title possible.”

But in the big picture of American soccer, a deeply-rooted rivalry in the MLS could be part of what’s missing. The first big step of that “project” may be taken Wednesday night.

“They beat us last time they came here and we’re gonna have no mercy and go at them and attack them,” Allen said.