Inter Miami aims to end four-game road scoring drought vs. FC Dallas on Monday

Indiana Vassilev’s late-game heroics last weekend ignited the Inter Miami offense, secured a 2-1 come-from-behind win over Minnesota and gave the team an emotional lift heading into the halfway point of the season.

Coach Phil Neville hopes that fire carries over to the Monday night July 4th game on the road against FC Dallas (9 p.m., My 33).

Miami’s next two games are away against formidable opponents and scoring on the road has proven extremely difficult for the men in pink. They have been outscored 5-0 in their past four road games and their record over those games is 0-3-1.

Neville and his staff challenged the players to change their mentality on the road over the next few weeks as both opponents are among the better teams in the league. Although Dallas has only one win in the past six games, it remains in fourth place in the Western Conference. Orlando City, which Miami plays on July 9, is fifth in the East, three spots ahead of Miami.

The Dallas roster features U.S. national team players Paul Arriola, who has eight goals and two assists, and Jesus Ferreiro, who leads the team with 10 goals.

“This will be a very difficult game for us. I have seen a lot of their matches, and they are very strong in attack with a lot of speed,” Neville said. “Our coaching staff has been talking a lot the past few weeks about the away games. At home, we are very strong. We win a lot of games, and I see a team with a lot of confidence. But we have to win points away to reach our goals.”

Miami’s last goal on the road was in a 1-0 win over Seattle on April 16.

He also stressed discipline, as Miami lost the two games when its players were ejected.

“We have to keep 11 players on the field,” he said. “We also have to be more ruthless and take the opportunities that come our way, make that final pass, the final assist. We had three or four 1v1 chances against Charlotte and lost 1-0. We can’t waste those chances.”

One young player who has taken on a big role is attacking midfielder Bryce Duke. The 21-year-old came to Inter Miami from LAFC during the offseason and has proven to be “a little gem,” in Neville’s words.

Although he still has plenty of upside, he has become a regular starter and impacts games when he is on the field. Through 16 games he has already matched his minutes total from last season.

Duke arrived in January lacking confidence because he had only limited playing time with LAFC.

“What we tried to do was build him up, be hard on him, and then we put our arm around him and said `You’re a starter, you’re going to be a player, you have our trust,’ ” Neville said. “He played one game well and every time the team was being announced he was looking over his shoulder thinking, `I’m going to be left out,’ and we kept picking him and picking him. The best thing you can do is keep shoving him in the games. Now, picking starting 11s, it’s difficult to leave him out.”

Duke agrees that he is a different player now than he was in January.

“I’ve definitely grown more here because at my old team it was more you get a game here, game there, and sit for six games in a row,” Duke said. “Here, I have a stretch of games where I can show how good of a player I can be, so I’m happy for that and hope to keep it going.”

Edison Azcona, Noah Allen earn Olympic berths

The U20 teams from the United States and Dominican Republic on Friday clinched berths in the 2024 Paris Olympics, and Inter Miami is represented on both teams.

Inter Miami midfielder Edison Azcona, an 18-year-old who spent his teen years in Broward County, scored for the Dominican Republic to trim Guatemala’s lead to 2-1 and later made his penalty kick to help the DR qualify for its first Olympics. Inter Miami II defender Israel Boatwright, 16, is also on the Dominican team. Last week, DR earned a spot in the 2023 U20 World Cup. Both are firsts for that country.

The U.S. Under-20s also qualified for the Olympics, their first since 2008. Inter Miami left back Noah Allen, an 18-year-old Pembroke Pines native, came off the bench in the 3-0 win over Honduras.

“I’ve learned so much being on the national team and playing for Inter Miami really helped me coming in confident on the ball and also off the field from practicing and playing with older guys,” Allen said by phone Saturday from Honduras. “Last night there were 20,000 people in the stands and I’m not going to say I’m used to it, but I have played in tough environments in MLS and MLS Next Pro where fans scream your name. That experience helped me focus and prepare.”