González: "Inter Miami Have No Room for Error Against New England"

Inter Miami head coach Cristian 'Kily' González stressed ahead of his side's crucial meeting with New England Revolution that, with two weeks of the regular season remaining, his team can no longer afford to make mistakes.

González's comments came after Miami drew 2-2 with FC Cincinnati, settling for 1 point thanks to a late goal from Riquelme Fillipi. Luis Suárez opened the scoring, but goals from Kenji Mboma Dem and Samuel Gidi within six minutes of each other put Cincinnati ahead. Having rescued a point through Fillipi's first goal for the club, Miami sit two points behind New England heading into the showdown at Gillette Stadium.

A win would secure second place in the Eastern Conference for New England Revolution. González, meanwhile, wants his players to take risks this weekend: "We have no margin for error left. It was the transition moments that hurt us; had we been better, we would have won. Now we have to realise that we are a club that needs to step forward, take risks, show character and play football without being afraid of making mistakes."

Lionel Messi, meanwhile, will be available for the match despite picking up his fifth yellow card of the season against Cincinnati. Under MLS rules, when a player goes five consecutive matches without a yellow card, red card or disciplinary sanction, one card is automatically removed from his yellow card total. Because Messi has twice completed a five-match run without a booking this season, he is not considered to have exceeded the card threshold and is not suspended.

Even with Messi set to feature, New England will go into the game full of confidence on the back of a four-match winning streak at this crucial stage of the season. In their last outing, New England were made to work hard against New York Red Bulls before running out 3-2 winners thanks to Dániel Gazdag's goal in the 83rd minute. The Revolution have reached the final five times in the play-offs yet have still to bring the MLS Cup home, but head coach Marko Mitrović believes they are on the right path.

"On the wall of our facility it says 'never satisfied' in capital letters," Mitrović said. "We can be happy when things go well and disappointed when they go badly. But we don't focus only on the result; there are other things we do on a daily basis. Satisfaction leads to complacency, and we don't want to create a complacent mentality."

PLAYERS TO WATCH

New England Revolution – Dor Turgeman: Turgeman scored twice against NYRB on Wednesday to register the second brace of his MLS career. Having also struck twice against Cincinnati in October, the young striker is, along with Lionel Messi, the only MLS player to have scored at least two goals in more than one match this month.

Inter Miami – Riquelme Fillipi: The young talent gave his side a lifeline with his crucial late goal against Cincinnati and, alongside Messi and Suárez in the attack, will be one of Miami's most important weapons.