Tied together by this year’s Leagues Cup 2023 Finals, Inter Miami CF and Nashville SC have one other thing in common: they both joined Major League Soccer in 2020.
In three short years the clubs have already played each other eight times. Here’s how those previous matches went.
Knockout matches
Surprisingly, the Leagues Cup 2023 final is not the first time these two teams have met in an elimination match. Nashville and Miami have faced each other in two previous knockout matches. Each team has won once.
The first came on November 20th, 2020, in one of two 2020 MLS Playoff play-in matches. Nashville hosted the match at Nissan Stadium, their home prior to GEODIS Park. The match wasn’t exciting. Nashville's Randell Leal opened the scoring in the 14th minute and then the Boys in Gold put the match away with goals from Hany Mukhtar (24’) and Dax MacCarty (57’) to eliminate Inter Miami.
But the Herons got their revenge this season in the U.S. Open Cup Round of 16. With goals from Franco Negri and Nicolás Stefanelli, Inter Miami eliminated Nashville SC from the U.S. Open Cup in a 2-1 win at DRV PNK Stadium.
MLS Regular season
In six MLS regular season meetings, Nashville holds the slight advantage with a 3-1-2 record against Miami. The very first match between the two clubs took place on August 30th, 2020. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the match was played in an empty Nissan Stadium, but Nashville came away with a 1-0 win thanks to a goal from Aníbal Godoy and a clean sheet from Joe Wilis.
Their last regular season match-up took place on May 17 this season. In front of 25.839 fans at GEODIS Park, the Boys in Gold took down the Herons 2-1 with goals from Fafà Picault and Lukas MacNaughton.
In the all-time series, Nashville SC has outscored Inter Miami CF 13-6 and defending MLS MVP Hany Mukhtar is the leading individual scorer.
In just a short amount of time, both clubs have already built a competitive history between each other. The results of the Leagues Cup 2023 Final will just be another chapter in that story of the two clubs who made their MLS debuts in the same year.
