Casemiro Own Goal, Emil Forsberg Finish Lift Red Bull New York Past Messi's Inter Miami 2-0 to Hold Playoff Line

Inter Miami showed up in Harrison with Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez, a three-game winning streak and the best attack in the league. Red Bull New York showed up needing points. Guess which team played like it.

RBNY beat Miami 2-0 on Saturday, Oct. 24, at Sports Illustrated Stadium in MLS regular-season play. Casemiro turned a Cade Cowell cross into his own net in the seventh minute, Emil Forsberg finished it off in the first minute of second-half stoppage time, and Ethan Horvath needed only two saves for his fifth shutout of the year. The win moved New York to 11-14-6 and 39 points and, as The Associated Press put it, kept the Red Bulls above the playoff line.

Seven minutes, one deflection

The opener started with Mohammed Sofo sliding a through ball down the right side of the box for Cowell. The winger whipped a right-footed cross across the six-yard box, it clipped Casemiro and rolled into the bottom left corner, per the Red Bulls' recap. Not the cleanest goal New York will score this year. It counts the same.

It also was not a fluke of a start. According to beIN SPORTS, Julian Hall had already turned an earlier Cowell cut-back wide of the left post with the first shot of the game. Head coach Michael Bradley said afterward that the plan was to "go after them in every sense, put them on their heels, not give them time to do anything they wanted." For the first 45 minutes, it was exactly that.

The misses that kept Miami breathing

Here is the strange part: 2-0 flattered Miami. In the 18th minute, Hall headed over from inside the six-yard box with the goal open in front of him, per beIN. Jorge Ruvalcaba missed a near copy of Hall's first chance right before halftime. In the second half, Ruvalcaba was twice stopped one-on-one by Miami goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair.

The Opta numbers cited by beIN are almost comical. New York produced 3.31 expected goals from 19 shots, with five big chances, while holding Miami to 0.81. Ruvalcaba alone led RBNY with 1.34 xG and six shots. Most nights, that kind of finishing gets punished by a team with Messi on the bench. This was not most nights.

Messi comes on, Miami pushes

Miami started Suárez as captain, with Germán Berterame and Riquelme Fillipi, who was making his first start for the club, in the front line, according to Inter Miami. Messi came off the bench after a quiet start to the second half. Miami kept the ball, finishing with 62.5 percent possession by the club's count, but possession is not the same thing as danger.

The best chance came in the 84th minute, and it was built the way Miami usually builds them. Messi slipped a pass to substitute Santiago Morales, Horvath saved Morales' shot from the right side of the box, and fellow sub Telasco Segovia smashed the rebound off the crossbar. That was as close as the Herons got. Messi finished with one shot and two chances created, per beIN, and Suárez's two shots added up to just 0.09 xG.

Forsberg closes the door

In the first minute of stoppage time, New York finally got the insurance its chances deserved. The Red Bulls credit Ronald Donkor with winning the ball in Miami's defensive third and playing Cameron Harper in; beIN described Harper intercepting a loose pass from St. Clair. Either way, Harper squared it and Forsberg lofted a finish into the net.

It was Forsberg's fourth goal of the season and the 24th of his MLS career, per the club. Harper picked up his second assist of the year. Donkor's assist was his 10th of the season, and at 21 years, 338 days old he became the youngest player in franchise history to record 10 or more in a single season.

Stats that matter

Shots: New York 19, Miami 13 by Inter Miami's count (beIN lists Miami with 12 attempts). Possession: Miami 62.5 percent. Fouls: New York 14, Miami 5. Corners: New York 3, Miami 2. Horvath made two saves. The Red Bulls did not win the ball. They won almost everything else, and the foul count says they were happy to make the game ugly whenever Miami tried to settle into it.

Some other numbers from the Red Bulls' notes: New York now holds a 7-6-1 all-time MLS record against Miami and is 4-2-0 in its last six home matches against the Herons. Tim Parker went the full 90 and passed 25,000 career MLS minutes.

What it means in the East

New York started the day in ninth, the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, after back-to-back losses including a 2-0 home defeat to Toronto, according to MLSSoccer.com. After the weekend's results, the Red Bulls sit ninth on 39 points with Columbus one point back. It is a wild-card spot, not a cushion, and the schedule does not get softer: MLSSoccer.com flagged New England and Nashville among the matches left.

Miami, already in the playoffs, fell to 15-6-10 with 55 points, and its three-game win streak is over. A loss like this will not wreck a season, but the Herons are trying to hold on to a top seed, and New England is level with them on 55. Winning the possession battle and losing the chance battle by a mile is not a great look in late October.

Both teams are back on the field Wednesday, Oct. 28. Miami hosts FC Cincinnati at Nu Stadium, and New York opens a two-match road trip at New England at Gillette Stadium at 7:30 p.m. ET.

Bradley did not sound like a coach planning to celebrate for long. "We hope that the best game is the next one," he said, per the club. With the playoff line one point behind them, it had better be.

Sources: Red Bull New York club recap, Inter Miami CF club recap, The Associated Press, beIN SPORTS and MLSSoccer.com.

Photos: Arturo Rosales Sevilla/Undrafted, Sports Illustrated Stadium, Harrison, N.J.