Loons Draw LAFC 1-1
September 13, 2022 – Major League Soccer (MLS) – Minnesota United FC News Release
SAINT PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota United and LAFC both entered Tuesday night’s match at Allianz Field with the intention to break out of their respective slumps. That desire created a contest full of fight and equal opportunity to grab three points. But at the final whistle, both sides left with a point apiece following a 1-1 draw behind goals from Minnesota’s Brent Kallman and Los Angeles’ Carlos Vela.
Much of the match was balanced between the Black & Blue and the Black & Gold: Possession barely favored LAFC with 53 percent, shots were two away from even (12-10, Minnesota), corners (10-8, Minnesota), crosses (17-12, Minnesota) and fouls (16-15, Minnesota) were also nearly level. But two moments made a huge impact for both sides. For MNUFC in the 45th minute, midfielder Emanuel Reynoso took a corner kick, sending the ball into LAFC’s six-yard box. Defender Brent Kallman leaped to create the chance and headed it into goal, giving the Loons the 1-0 lead late into the half. On the opposing end, LAFC found space at the top of the box during the 64th minute, with Carlos Vela capitalizing on the shot and scoring to equalize the match at 1-1. Both Minnesota and Los Angeles would have dangerous chances at goal throughout the remainder of the match – including a stoppage-time moment when Reynoso had the ball in front of LAFC’s empty goal but was tackled just outside the box – but the contest eventually ended in a 1-1 draw. With the result, Minnesota United notably snapped its three-game losing and scoreless streak.
Minnesota United heads on the road this weekend to face Sporting Kansas City on Saturday, September 17 at Children’s Mercy Park. Kick for Saturday night’s contest is set for 7:30 p.m. CT and will be broadcast on Bally Sports North EXTRA and The CW – Twin Cities, with local radio broadcast on 1500 ESPN.
ATTENDANCE: 19,861
BELL BANK MAN OF THE MATCH: Defender Brent Kallman
LINEUPS:
Minnesota United XI: GK Dayne St. Clair; D Kemar Lawrence, Brent Kallman, Michael Boxall, DJ Taylor; M Wil Trapp (c), Kervin Arriaga, Mender Garcia, Emanuel Reynoso, Robin Lod; F Luis Amarilla
Bench: GK Tyler Miller, Eric Dick; D Alan Benitez, Oniel Fisher, Nabilai Kibunguchy; M Jonathan Gonzalez, Joseph Rosales, Niko Hansen; F Abu Danladi
Los Angeles FC: GK Maxime Crepeau; D Jesus Murillo, Eddie Seguro, Kellyn Acosta, Sebastian Ibeagha; M Ilie Sanchez, Latif Blessing, Gareth Bale; F Cristian Arango, Carlos Vela, Denis Bouanga
Bench: GK John McCarthy; D Giorgio Chiellini, Antonio Leone; Jose Cifuentes, Sebastian Mendez; F Kwadwo Opoku, Cristian Tello
UP NEXT:
MINNESOTA UNITED FC @ PORTING KANSAS CITY
Children’s Mercy Park | Kansas City, Kansas
09.17.2022 | MLS 2022 Regular Season | Week 32
7:00 pm CT (BSN/CW Twin Cities/1500 ESPN)
MINNESOTA UNITED POST GAME QUOTE SHEET
HEAD COACH ADRIAN HEATH
On if the match result feels like one point earned or two dropped…
“You never turn a point down. I’ve always said that. I thought we did more than enough to have won the game.”
On the press being too high against LAFC leading to Carlos Vela’s goal…
“No, it’s a quality finish by a quality player. And I always say it, if you give… I’m sure when we’ll watch it and think we could have done better before it gets to [Carlos] Vela. But from there, he produces them moments, don’t he? That’s why he’s had the career he has. That’s why he’s playing at the level that he has. Them moments, split moments, make the difference between top, top, top players. That’s what they have. They have them moments. As I’ve always said, if you give time and space, an opportunity to top players, invariably, you’re going to be punished. He’s still 25 yards out and he’s putting it in the top corner. Hats off to Carlos, he’s a quality player but I think that’s overshadow what’s been a really, really big performance from our guys when you consider what’s been put in and got nothing back for it in Portland. The last three games, I couldn’t have asked any more. I said we had five minutes of madness against [FC] Dallas. But you look at the last three games, I think there’s a big argument that we’ve been the better team.”
On the state of the pitch…
“That’s because they wear slippers now and not football boots. Don’t get me going on that. No. The pitch is fine. Pitch is lovely. I’ll show you the pitches when I played. Was that deep in mud after four weeks of the season. This is a carpet. If you wear slippers, you’re going to fall over.”
On Robin Lod being subbed off for an injury…
“Yes, yeah. We’ll have to see tomorrow. He’s really tight and tender at this moment in time.”
On the officiating in this game …
“You saw what happened… just write about it. We know what the rules are. Time wasting: you get a yellow card… apparently. Maybe not. I guarantee you, if that was us in LA [Los Angeles]… just write about it. You write what you see. You know what the rules are. It’s no good is having memos and then having meetings that you’re not tolerating time wasting. That’s first half, by the way. A game changing decision. At this stage in the season, you can’t have decisions that maybe affect results. It’s too important. There’s too many things at stake for everybody. “
On Emanuel Reynoso being not as active in the box as previous games…
“No, he wanted to try and go and find the ball. [He] didn’t think he was getting enough of the ball in the first half. The thing is, he can create from anywhere. The problem is, once we get so open when Rey’s [Emanuel Reynoso] the back man, if we do turn it over cheaply, invariably, we’re not in good shape behind the ball. Considering he’s hardly trained, I thought he did a big shift this evening.”
On the card given to Emanuel Reynoso now suspending him for the upcoming match and if it was necessary…
“No. It’s not necessary. We’ve had it too much this season. Something that we’ve spoke about. We have three or four players who have missed games through yellow cards and I can understand it if they’re tough tackling people who have to go for the ball because that’s the way they play but that’s not Rey [Emanuel Reynoso].”
On Emanuel Reynoso’s suspension and how it will affect corner kicks and set play situations…
“Whoever is playing in Rey’s [Emanuel Reynoso] spot, whoever is doing it, we have enough quality to put the ball in the right spots, for sure. Tonight, I thought we showed a lot of desire to get on the end of it.”
On his concern having three games left in the season…
“Not concerned. I know that we’ve played well the last three games. There’s probably seven or eight teams below us that would rather be where we are.”
On the team keeping mentally engaged after encouragement from Kervin Arriaga…
“You have to keep your discipline. It’s very hard when these guys have been working since January to be in this position. Every game and every point is vital to everybody and there’s emotion. I played. I know what it’s like. Me telling them, ‘Hey, keep your heads in the heat of the moment,’ sometimes it’s difficult but it’s cost us dearly with some of the yellow cards we have. There’s no doubt about that. But I can’t fault the players tonight. I really can’t.”
On Abu Danladi’s frustration playing and soon after exiting the game…
“Yeah. He could have gotten sent off. We couldn’t take that chance. Not against this team.”
On where the one point puts Minnesota United with three games to go…
“It puts us a point closer to where we want to be. We know we’re going to San Jose [Earthquakes]. Vancouver [Whitecaps] at home and then Kansas [Sporting Kansas City]. It’s places we’ve won in the past. You have to go and win at least one of them, I would think, on the road and then see where the rest of the results go. If we keep performing like we have done tonight, then we’ll give ourselves a really good chance.”
On how close Emanuel Reynoso was to not playing today…
“He’s felt good. He trained today and did quite a bit on Monday without any reaction. At the end of the day, you govern by how the players feel and he said he felt well. I think his performance showed that. Even at the end when we break in, he’s putting sprints on to get into the box. It’ll be a frustration because as I’ve always said, you don’t want to be without your better players, certainly at this stage.”
On Robin Lod’s injury…
“I think it’s a calf strain. I think. There’s too much going on at halftime to get a full analysis, but I’ll find out in a minute. Hopefully it’s not too bad. I think he was erring on the side of caution.”
On Jonathan Gonzalez and his performance…
“I thought he did well. I thought he picked his moments. Got out to the ball, closed it when we need him to. Put a couple of good passes in at the end to get people in. He’s a good footballer. At this moment in time, we’re still working to get him in the team. It’s difficult with the players that we’ve got.”
On the upcoming schedule and giving players time to heal during breaks…
“Hopefully Robin’s [Lod] not too bad and by the end of the week… We know that [Bakaye] Dibassy’s got long-term injuries. If we can keep the group that was available at the weekend, add Rey [Emanuel Reynoso] to it and Fraga [Franco Fragapane], that might be enough to sort us out and get us over the line.”
DEFENDER DJ TAYLOR
On his views of the game, and the bigger picture…
“It’s kind of disappointing to be honest. Especially at home we have that killer mentality that we want to win all our games at home. Obviously, we have a good opponent like LAFC, and we want to show what we are against them, who we’re trying to be, and who we have been this year, which I think is top three in the league for sure, so to walk away with just a point is disappointing for our standards.”
On Emmanuel Reynoso’s suspension vs. Kansas, and how it affects dead ball situations and set pieces…
“I think it has a little impact. Obviously you know Rey [Emanuel Reynoso] and his quality so we always miss him when he can’t play. But he gets a little rest as we continue this playoff push so that’s another way to look at it. But, I think we’ll definitely miss him but either way, kind of the big thing this season that’s been good for us is that whoever steps in is ready to do their job and that’s how we’re going to look at it against Sporting Kansas City.”
On the way LAFC’s midfield pressed in today’s game that resulted in the equalizer…
“Yeah, LAFC is good on the transition so I definitely realized that when the ball hit the back of the net, we were kind of stretched out as a team, you know maybe it was better for us to drop off and stay compact. But either way, when [Carlos] Vela gets the ball we have to know we can’t let him shoot with his left foot. You know how good he is and all he can do. So how can we force him on his right as a back line. I think we were close on keeping that clean sheet, I think we definitely deserved it but we have to keep going.”
On Brent Kallman’s goal…
“Super happy for him! Obviously from my point of view I can see exactly how it built up and everything. So just happy for him and happy for us to get that goal, it was huge. I think we were getting close on getting that second one all game too.”
On his thoughts on getting someone at the end of the set piece and score…
“It seems like we create a lot of chances, especially on set pieces but we’re not finishing them so it’s kind of been the story all season but to see BK [Brent Kallman] do it today was huge. I think its huge for us as a group when we score first especially for all the games where we play our best, we’ve always scored first and we’ve finished the game with that mentality, it helps us defensively knowing that we’ve had this first goal that we’re going to win this game.”
On his takeaway of leaving with one point and three games to go…
“I have no idea to be honest, I’ll look at the standings tomorrow or whatever. For us, it’s still all about scoring three points every game. So when we go to KC [Sporting Kansas City FC] we need to get these three points.”
On what it was like playing and defending against Gareth Bale…
“It’s definitely a challenge, an opportunity. I think soccer is all about opportunities, it’s about taking them you know. It’s not everyday that you know, a guy from North Carolina gets to play against Gareth Bale you know since he’s played overseas. So for me, it’s embracing the challenge, and showing them what I can do, showing the world what I can do and I think that’s what I did today.”
On the state of the pitch, players slipping today and if it happened to him…
“No, so I actually got some metal spikes for this game since last game I slipped and it led to a goal. So I made sure I had metal studs, so I actually wasn’t slipping today but you know, kind of as the temperature drops a little bit, I think the field does get a little slippery so guys start slipping a lot more so maybe everyone should start wearing more metal studs.”
On his ability to be ready…
“Yeah, I think for me it’s kind of been a mentality thing whether the coach puts me on the left or puts me on the right. You know I just do my job and what he asks of me and at the end of the day it’s his decision and I gotta respect it but for me it’s just about helping my teammates and when it’s my turn to play, it’s my time to play.”
On the congestion with the schedule, and the international games…
“Yeah, the break will be good for us. I think we’ll still work hard and maybe have a couple of days off but I think the whole thing is mentally, you get to rest, relax, and kind of refresh for a little bit before we make that real final push into playoffs where we wanna be and hopefully win the MLS Cup.”
On time wasting and yellow cards…
“If you kick the ball away you get a yellow card. I think the league and the refs have been a lot more strict on that this year. So it’s been kind of tough when you see some guys kick the ball and the ref doesn’t do anything and the other times you barely kick it and you get a yellow. So it’s tough.”
DEFENDER BRENT KALLMAN
On dropping points from winning position and the big picture view…
“I think we just try to be positive, take the positives from it and move on to the next game. I like that we came out and played well in the first half that’s a good sign after putting in probably our best road performance of the year and getting nothing from the game, to come out in the first half and play well was a really good thing to see. It shows the mentality of the group. We have to do the same thing, take the positives from this game and roll them into the next one.”
On scoring tonight…
“Those are big moments. It’s an area where I can really have an effect on the game if I can find the net, so I’m really happy to be able to do that, give us a chance. Rey [Emanuel Reynoso] puts in a lot of quality, so there’s that belief every single time we get a deadball that I believe that it’s going to come. So you just have to be ready and do something with it. This time it worked, so I’m happy.”
On missing Emanuel Reynoso next game due to yellow card accumulation and how that impacts services on set pieces…
“Whoever is on them we just have to be ready to put the ball on the end. I think I have scored a couple [times] off of Joseph [Rosales] too. I don’t know if he’ll be on the field necessarily but we have guys that can serve balls in, put them in the right areas and n a give us a chance.”
On the team playing well, but not always getting the results…
“I was thinking about this today before the game. In my mind I was doing a poker analogy, there’s a lot of variance with poker, and it can be the same thing with soccer games. You kind of saw it with the Portland game – we had better chances and we still lose the game. That can happen a lot in soccer. The key is to not let that effect your next performances. You start thinking, ‘oh are we playing bad?’, then it starts effecting your play. Being mentally strong enough to say we can dust that one off and keep playing strong and positive.”
On the ten seconds before Carlos Vela’s goal…
“We got stretched, we lost a little bit of discipline with the shape. I haven’t seen it back yet, but I have a decent idea. It’s just one of those moments where the game was getting a little crazy and if we can stay disciplined and keep our lines we can force teams to play around us and not come right down the middle.”
On what it means as a guy from Woodbury, Minnesota to play against someone like Gareth Bale…
“I don’t care. I just don’t care. It’s the same as playing against anybody, I don’t care. But I do care when the refs give special treatment to players, that’s when I care.”
On the reaction on the field when Cristian Arango kicked the ball away…
“We were trying to say that that’s a yellow. It’s human nature, I think the referee gets tight in that moment because he knows the impact of it. But, it wasn’t his choice. It was Arango’s choice to kick the ball away. He did it to himself. Any other player gets a yellow there. Obviously everyone is disappointed because he didn’t get sent off because he made the choice to do it, but sometimes the referees get put in tough positions.”
On having family in the crowd tonight and what it meant to score in front of them…
“It was good. I had my son there, it was cool. I feel like I am playing for more than just myself now.”
On having a more regular schedule towards the end of the season…
“It will help, especially since we are a little banged up, so that will be important. Guys can get more healthy and we should be able to go into games feeling better and having a little more gas in the tank. I think that’s only going to help us.”
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