On Saturday night, Orlando City became just the third team in MLS history to overcome a three-goal deficit and win, storming back from 3-0 down to beat Inter Miami 4-3 at Nu Stadium. It was, as MLS itself put it on its own website, the greatest comeback in league history.
What followed postgame said just as much about this club as the result itself.
Franco Panizo, a veteran soccer reporter whose work has appeared here at Awful Announcing, noted that the club sent its younger players out to face the media while Lionel Messi, Rodrigo De Paul, and Luis Suarez were nowhere to be found. Panizo has not been credentialed by Inter Miami since the club declined to issue him one for Nu Stadium’s opening match earlier this season, ending six straight seasons of perfect attendance, so he was there Saturday night as a fan, relaying the postgame scene through the reporting of credentialed colleagues Andrea Yanez and Jose Armando.
Embarrassing how Inter Miami puts the younger players up to face the postgame music with the media after a 4-3 home loss to rival Orlando City.
Meanwhile, leaders Lionel Messi, Rodrigo De Paul, and Luis Suarez hide in the shadows.#InterMiamiCF #Messi pic.twitter.com/H7gJGuGZIR
— Franco Panizo (@FrancoPanizo) May 3, 2026
When Yanez asked Noah Allen, one of the younger players put up to face reporters, whether it’s tough to be one of the faces after rough results regularly, Allen’s answer was honest.
“Yeah,” he said. “I’m not going to lie, yeah.”
Tremendous question from colleague @andreyanez07 to Noah Allen as to whether it’s tough to be one of the faces to have to regularly face media after rough results:
Allen: “Yeah. I’m not going to lie, yeah.”#InterMiamiCF #Messi pic.twitter.com/mEOGAmKgPz
— Franco Panizo (@FrancoPanizo) May 3, 2026
Inter Miami entered the match unbeaten in 11 straight games, and had been so dominant in the first half that Messi — in his 100th appearance for the club across all competitions — scored a stunning strike to make it 3-0 before halftime.
Messi is magical. 🔮 pic.twitter.com/v2PlU1vLuX
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) May 3, 2026
Orlando, a team near the bottom of the Eastern Conference that hadn’t won away from home all season, proceeded to score four unanswered goals. The loss also extended Inter Miami’s winless run at Nu Stadium to four matches, a remarkable and embarrassing fact for a club that generated enormous fanfare around the stadium’s opening last month.
None of the postgame accountability issues are particularly new for this organization. Inter Miami has always operated as if the normal rules don’t apply to it, whether that’s how it builds its roster, how it handles credentials, or how it handles accountability after bad results. Saturday night was another reminder of the gap between the global brand Inter Miami wants to project and the way it actually conducts itself when the moment demands something more.
