Inter Miami – New York City. Forecast and announcement for the 1/2 finals of the MLS playoffs

On Sunday night Inter Miami will accept New York City at Chase Stadium in a matchup that will determine the Eastern Conference champion and MLS Cup finalist.

The meeting will begin on November 30 at 01:00 Kyiv time. The main referee of the match will be the American John Freemon.

Inter Miami

Miami convincingly defeated Cincinnati 4-0 in the Eastern Conference semifinals and advanced to the conference finals for the first time in their history. Inter Miami will face New York City, who are in top form after beating Supporters Shield winners Philadelphia Union (regular champions) 1-0 in the Eastern Conference semi-finals.

Inter Miami are playing their best football since Lionel Messi joined the team and are clear favorites among the four remaining teams in the 2025 MLS Cup playoffs.

Unless Miami wins the MLS Cup, 2025 will be just the second year in Messi’s career that he has not won a team title. At the same time, their approach to the game becomes even more intense due to the nearing end of the careers of Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba, who are currently among Miami’s best players in this playoff.

Fans should expect a very similar, if not identical lineup to the one that played against Cincinnati, with the only possible change being the return of Ian Frey to the starting right guard position after that. Against Cincinnati, Marcelo Weigandt played because of Frey’s minor injury sustained while playing for Jamaica.

Javier Mascherano had to give up Luis Suarez’s start against Nashville in Game 3 of the series because of a suspension, and then Luis had health issues. Therefore, in the match with Cincinnati, Mascherano put 19-year-old Matteo Silvetti in the position of central forward, and it paid off – Mateo distinguished himself with a goal and an assist.

Messi is expected to be reliable again – Leo now has six goals and six assists in four games. As for the injured, only David Ruiz and Ryan Sailor will be missing from Miami’s lineup.

New York City

New York City would have had a much better chance in this match if the team’s top scorer, Alonso Martinez, had been available to play. Unfortunately for coach Pascal Jansen’s team, Martinez suffered an injury during the World Cup qualifiers for Costa Rica.

New York City has virtually no forward options. In the semifinal against Philadelphia, 38-year-old Maxi Morales scored the only and winning goal, but his level is not as stable as in past years – his career is coming to an end.

If the team manages to score, it will probably be one of the newcomers, Nicolas Fernandez or Hannes Wolff. By the way, Wolf has 11 goals in 33 matches of the regular season.

With the exception of these three players, things are not going well in attack. This is where the importance of defense comes into play. However, a dry run against record-scoring Miami seems out of the question.

Forecast

Inter Miami and Messi on the move, New York City did the Herons a big favor by getting past Philadelphia in the conference semifinals as clear underdogs. New York clearly has problems on offense, and given the level of play in MLS, it is offense that plays a bigger role in the outcome of the match than defense.

Messi and company are deserved favorites of the match. Taking into account the additional and no less important factor of the home stadium – the handicap (-1) at Inter Miami looks like an interesting option.