Article by Matt Lichtenstadter
When new teams come into Major League Soccer, comparing their initial roster builds is a good thought exercise. Because of MLS’ arcane roster mechanisms, spending “limits” and willingness to take risks, teams can come into the league with wildly different approaches to building a roster. Nashville and Inter Miami are coming into their inaugural campaigns with similar looking rosters on paper, but different paths to getting there. Is there a “right” way in a league that is so forgiving?
Both teams have acquired numerous MLS veterans, but have acquired them for different purposes. Nashville has brought in players like Dax McCarty, Daniel Lovitz and David Accamostensibly to be a part of their starting contingent, whereas in Miami, the only nailed on MLS veteran starter would be Luis Robles. Many of the other MLS players they’ve acquired are either veteran role players like Lee Nguyen and A.J DeLaGarza or young players looking for a chance to break through. From the outside, it looks like Nashville has built the core of its group using a large group of MLS signings, where Inter Miami has built around the edges with MLS players.
Their approaches to DP signings has also been different, even though each team only has made one signing thus far. Nashville signed Hany Mukhtar, a former German youth international midfielder who found it tough to break through until starring in Denmark. Inter Miami signed Julian Carranza, a young Argentine forward in the mold of a Diego Rossi, Brian Rodriguez or any number of other young South American DP’s other clubs have brought in. Indications also suggest Nashville might not bring in another DP until the summer at the earliest, and Inter Miami still has plenty of powder dry to make another splash, perhaps a big named splash.
Nashville has also elected to sign more veteran players overall, with their youngest player being 22, and Inter Miami has mainly signed young players outside of Robles and Nguyen. Only three outfield players on their roster as of December 5 are above the age of 27, whereas Nashville has 10. Nashville has four more players under contract than Miami, at 22 to 18. These signal that Nashville’s build might largely be over outside of the draft and another player or two, whereas Inter Miami clearly has something else up its sleeve.
In coaching, Nashville early on decided to promote the coach of their USL Championship team, Gary Smith, to the job. He won MLS Cup with the Colorado Rapids a decade, and since has bounced around the lower leagues. Inter Miami doesn’t have a coach yet, but have been linked with River Plate’s Marcelo Gallardo, a former MLS player, and Patrick Vieira, who has struggled somewhat at Nice. Whoever Inter Miami hires, it’s going to be more of a Bob Bradley/Tata Martino type hire than an Adrian Heath/Alan Koch type hire, using recent expansion teams as an example.
Comparing Inter Miami to LAFC and Atlanta United and Nashville to Minnesota United and FC Cincinnati isn’t necessarily linear, but both clubs seem to be in the ballpark of those other clubs. Nashville isn’t going to blow anyone away immediately as they don’t have a stadium and alsodon’t have the cache that Inter Miami has with David Beckham and the city they play in (or want to play in, eventually). Will Miami have Atlanta and LAFC type results in their first season? It’s too early to tell, just as it’s too early to tell whether Nashville is on a more Minnesota and FC Cincinnati track.
But the differences between the early days of Inter Miami and Nashville are plain to see, and those differences are not new in recent expansion history. Will the results on the pitch be any different?
