Inter Miami beat Atlanta United 2-1 at home in Game 1 of the MLS playoffs to go one step closer to the conference championship. The victory puts Miami up 1-0 in its best-of-three series against the Five Stripes. Game one: done.
✅ @InterMiamiCF take a 1-0 series lead to Atlanta. pic.twitter.
com/GMnxK1s9xL Atlanta entered this match with everything going against it: the team arrived in Florida after a brutal week of qualifying, playing one match in Orlando and one in Montreal before traveling back down to Fort Lauderdale to face Miami for six days. Things didn't improve for Atlanta in the opening minutes. It conceded a goal to Miami in the first ninety seconds when Luis Suarez poked a ball through its scrambled defense, then lost two players to injury in quick succession.
By the time the 30th minute rolled around Atlanta was down one goal, two players and two substitutions, and it looked utterly exhausted. Slowly, though, Atlanta found its way back into the game. After struggling to break through Miami's excellent right-sided defender David Martinez, Atlanta started sending quick balls the other way, catching left-sided defender Marcelo Weigandt off guard.
Nine minutes later, Saba Lobzhanidze — the man who scored three goals against Miami over the course of 2024 — found the breakthrough. He caught onto a gorgeous pass from left-back Pedro Amador and slotted a surgical shot into the Miami goal. Against all odds, Atlanta was level.
You know what time it is. ⌚ Saba Lobjani.
