Jean-Philippe Mateta insists he and Wilfried Zaha have cleared the air after their public spat last week. The Crystal Palace striker said, after scoring his first goal for France, that team-mates at Palace had laughed at his dream of playing for his country, and named Zaha as one of the players involved in the mockery, leading to a furious response from the FC Charlotte star.
Wilfried Zaha has launched a scathing attack on Jean-Phillipe Mateta, branding claims from his former Crystal Palace team-mate “disgusting”. The Ivory Coast international has not taken kindly to seeing a French forward that he once shared a dressing room with make comments that could be interpreted as him being a “bully”, with Zaha eager to get his side of the story across.
Lionel Messi has been defended by Inter Miami head coach Javier Mascherano after missing a penalty against Charlotte. Having been handed a golden opportunity to open the scoring in the Herons’ latest MLS fixture, their talismanic skipper saw a woeful Panenka attempt easily kept out by Kristijan Kahlina - who barely had to move in order to make a notable save.
Inter Miami returned to MLS action with a heavy 3-0 defeat away at Charlotte FC, as Lionel Messi missed a Panenka-style penalty with the score still at 0-0. Dean Smith’s side celebrated their ninth straight win, climbing to third place in the Eastern Conference with 53 points, while Miami sits eighth with 46.
Inter Miami head coach Javier Mascherano confirmed Friday that Lionel Messi is fully fit and ready to feature against Charlotte FC this weekend as MLS resumes following the international break. The Miami manager confirmed that Messi trained with the first team following his return from World Cup qualification duty with Argentina.