Columbus Crew flip the script on Inter Miami with epic Leagues Cup comeback | MLSSoccer.com

Just as he did on that memorable night, Ramirez was a catalyst, a useful reference point for the Yellow Football Team’s dynamic attack as they posed IMCF new questions. He thumped home Max Arfsten’s cross to halve the deficit, and cleared space with off-ball runs on the next two game-changing plays.

“We knew when we scored the first goal – we know us,” said Cucho Hernández, whose cross found Diego Rossi for the game-winner. “And we know we did this many times, and we are so happy for that.”

The defending MLS champions flipped the game on its head in a ferocious, dizzying 14-minute span, reeling off three goals and clinging to their sudden lead with frazzled desperation as Miami threw everything at them in the final moments as the stadium transformed from morose to euphoric.

“A hard game against a good team,” said Farsi. “Unfortunately we didn’t start the game very well, but second half, I think we adjust a couple of things and yeah, we put our hearts and we gave everything. At the end of the day, we said, ‘second half, no regrets, we have 45 minutes to come back.’ Even after the second goal, we just kept pushing; we were in this situation before.

“They were pressing man-to-man in the first half, so there’s a lot of space in behind. If we’re able to move the ball right, left, we’re going to create space … and in counterattack as well, I think we had a lot of space.”

When referee Iván Barton blew his whistle for the final time, the noise spiked once more, the Leagues Cup’s reigning holders dethroned.

“I didn’t like the first half. I didn’t like the energy that we had. I was not happy with the energy because we can miss passes, we can miss something tactically and so on, but we need positivity,” said Nancy.

“In the second half, this is who we are. Last year, we had good moments because we came back from behind, so I’m not surprised. I’m really happy to have a game like this, because we suffered, and it was good to have a better competitive spirit and to be front-foot to win the game.”