Who is Ben Sweat?

By Jeff Rusnak

In the nearly two decades between the end of the Miami Fusion and the launch of Inter Miami, local knowledge of MLS players has gone from “very knowledgeable” to “who are Ben Sweat, Mikey Ambrose, Grant Lillard and Luis Argudo?” The short answer is they are among the 18 mostly unfamiliar names acquired so far by Inter Miami with the bigger signings – and the naming of a coach – still to come.

The longer answer is that they and the others – Robles, Powell, Nguyen, Ulloa, DeLaGarza, Pellegrini, Carranza, Makoun, Kiesewetter, Chapman, Norman, Acosta, McCarthy and Meredith – will provide the core of Inter’s roster for the MLS opener at Los Angeles FC on March 1, and at home to the L.A. Galaxy on March 14 at the new Lockhart Stadium site. Inter will add to its roster at the MLS SuperDraft of college players on Jan. 13, where it has the first pick.

Since that beautifully doomed 2001 Fusion team was disbanded while in peak form, the ones we used to know – Pablo Mastroeni, Preki, Diego Serna, Ian Bishop, and most recently goalkeeper Nick Rimando – have all retired, many into coaching or front-office roles. Rimando finished his record-setting MLS run last year, 19 seasons after getting his debut in Ray Hudson’s first game as coach in 2000.

Only midfielder Kyle Beckerman remains, at age 37, with Real Salt Lake. Like Rimando, Beckerman has been an indelible American player in MLS, with 488 games and 40,772 minutes to his name. Just three of those games totaling 124 minutes came with the Fusion as a teenager.

After the Fusion was officially abandoned on the morning of Jan. 9, 2002, the team’s followers, including myself, moved on to other teams in other leagues, with cable TV and streaming services feeding the interest. MLS existed on the fringe as the closest league geographically, but distant in the pecking order behind La Liga, the Premier League, Serie A, etc.

Long after it seemed MLS would never return to the historic Lockhart site, Inter Miami begins the next chapter as part of a 26-team league that is on course to triple in size since the Fusion’s demise. Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Wayne Rooney have moved on, but Carlos Vela (LAFC) and Josef Martinez (Atlanta) return as the leading goleadores from 2019. Inter Miami is expected to enrich the international player pool in 2020 with the addition of at least two designated players, with Manchester City’s David Silva reportedly still a target.

The internationals are easy enough to pick out in MLS. That still leaves the question, who is Ben Sweat and the other squad players who are expected to provide quality throughout the roster? Sweat’s bio page at the Inter Miami website lists him as a 6-foot-2 left back, age 28, from Palm Harbor, near Tampa. He played 78 games over three seasons at New York City FC and made two appearances for the U.S. National Team in 2018. More telling, he has nine career assists, suggesting he’s accustomed to joining the attack.

Sweat and a handful of MLS veterans – midfielders Lee Nguyen (239 MLS games) and Victor Ulloa (170), defenders A.J. DeLaGarza (261) and Alvas Powell (134), and goalkeeper Luis Robles (238) – appear to be savvy selections by Sporting Director Paul McDonough. Their experience is a counter-weight for the signings of three South Americans, each just 19: Argentine attackers Matias Pellegrini and Julian Carranza, and Venezuelan defender Christian Makoun.

McDonough did the start-ups for new teams in Orlando City and Atlanta United, so he knows how to work a system that is unique to MLS. Atlanta won the MLS Cup in its second season and Inter is also expected to compete for trophies on an accelerated timeline.

The first challenge in year one is to give fans an exciting and winning game-night experience that makes them feel as though their time and money are well spent. Any success beyond that will depend on how well the first coach pieces together players he didn’t select, and the quality of the star talent that has yet to sign.

Dec. 2019