MNUFC Lose 3-0 to Dallas
September 3, 2022 – Major League Soccer (MLS) – Minnesota United FC News Release
SAINT PAUL, Minn. – It was a tale of two halves at Allianz Field on Saturday afternoon. Following a midweek game in 95-degree heat in Salt Lake City, the Loons returned home to take on fellow playoff contenders, FC Dallas. Despite a strong first fort-five minutes, Minnesota United would lose 3-0 after conceding three times in a 5-minute stretch between the 55th and the 59th minutes.
For the Loons and their attack, there was no question the home side looked the part of a Western Conference contender throughout the first forty-five minutes. The same story could be told of the visitors while on the attack in the second half. The tide turned quickly in the second forty-five in favor of the visiting team. An own goal by Michael Boxall, followed by two goals in rapid succession from Alan Velasco and Jesus Ferreira was all FC Dallas needed to come out on top.
Minnesota would finish the match down to ten-men after a second yellow card was issued to Franco Fragapane in the 69th minute.
Minnesota will look to bounce-back next Saturday, September 10, away at Portland Timbers. Kick for Saturday’s match is set for 9:00 p.m. CT and will be broadcast on Bally Sports North EXTRA with radio broadcast on 1500 ESPN.
ATTENDANCE: 19,761
BELL BANK MAN OF THE MATCH: Defender DJ Taylor
LINEUPS:
Minnesota United XI: GK Dayne St. Clair; D Kemar Lawrence, Michael Boxall, Brent Kallman, DJ Taylor; M Robin Lod, Wil Trapp (c), Franco Fragapane, Emanuel Reynoso, Bongokuhle Hlongwane; F Luis Amarilla
Bench: GK Tyler Miller; D Alan Benitez, Oniel Fisher, Nabi Kibunguchy; M Jonathan Gonzalez, Joseph Rosales, Kervin Arriaga; F Abu Danladi, Mender Garcia
FC Dallas XI: GK Maarten Paes; D Jose Martinez, Marco Farfan, Nkosi Tafari, Em Twumasi; M Edwin Cerrillo, Sebastian Lleget, Paxton Pomykal; F Paul Arriola, Jesus Ferreia (c), Alan Velasco
Bench: GK Jimmy Maurer; D Eddie Munjoma, Joshue Quinonez, Eulanio Gomes; M Facundo Quignon, Katlego Ntsabeleng, Brandon Servania; F Jader Obrien, Franco Jara
UP NEXT:
MINNESOTA UNITED FC @ PORTLAND TIMBERS
Providence Park | Portland, Timbers
09.10.2022 | MLS 2022 Regular Season | Week 30
9:00 pm CT (BSN/CW Twin Cities/1500 ESPN)
MINNESOTA UNITED POST GAME QUOTE SHEET
HEAD COACH ADRIAN HEATH
On recurring defensive issues…
“I said to the players that I actually don’t think we played badly today. Five minutes of madness. I don’t think there’s been any difference between the two teams. With an own goal and then the third one, Boxy’s [Michael Boxall] let the guys just run off him in any, in the middle of the goal. The second one, we’ve actually got the goal, we’ve had the kickoff. And once again, this football is snobbery if it’s too much to play it forward. We’ll keep the ball and keep possession, but we don’t mind Dayne [St. Clair] doing it. It’s something we spoke about in the past. Hugely disappointed to come off 3-nil because I don’t think that we played badly today. We probably played better today than we did against Houston [Dynamo]. If I look at the full 90 minutes, the first half was good. We streaked it down to one opportunity and looked dangerous on the break. Then, it was just a little bit of quality on the final ball, but I was relatively pleased at halftime. After that, was it three in three minutes or something… I don’t know. After that again, there’s nothing in the game. You don’t win too many games when you concede three.”
On offensive issues today…
“Not playing good enough. At the end of the day, as I say, I think our work to get up there has been good today. How many on target? That tells you. Is there something wrong? We’ve got four or five unbelievable opportunities and we haven’t hit the target… and they’re clear looks. They might be 20 yards out or 18 yards out, but they’re clear looks. Should de better.”
On moving below FC Dallas to fourth in standings and looking ahead…
“Well, we have to. We’ve got five games left. We’ve got five games left. A couple here and three away. I’ll still say the same. I still think six, maybe seven points would be enough. The last two games has not helped that situation. It puts more pressure on, it gives the teams below us a little bit of a lifeline. I said before the season started, this West [Western Conference] is going to be tougher now. I think it’ll go to the wire and nothing has changed.”
On the mental makeup of the team after three consistent goals…
“As I’ve said to you, it’s five minutes of madness. You take the big punch and then you don’t’ get yourself settled and ready. We went backwards from the kickoff. The third one is like schoolboy errors. There’s not an awful lot I can say. We’ve got to erase that pretty quick and dust ourselves down and get ourselves ready because it doesn’t get any easier. We go to Portland [Timbers] who are in the same boat as us, fighting for your life to get in the right area of the league and then we got LAFC. The next two games are big for us.”
On Emanuel Reynoso’s injury status…
“He’s got a swollen ankle. He went over on his ankle again which is not ideal because it’s been lingering for a few weeks now. The one thing that we don’t like doing is Rey [Emanuel Reynoso] playing on a Saturday and not really doing an awful lot [during the week] and then being available for the following week. He’s better when he’s training hard and working with the groups. We’ll see how he is tomorrow but it’s a little bit swollen again today.”
On the general feeling after today’s match versus FC Dallas…
“Disappointed. Hugely disappointed. The run that we’ve had… it was 12 games… it was two defeats in 12 and now it becomes three. I’m disappointed because, I wasn’t disappointed on Wednesday in Salt Lake because I don’t think we deserved anything. I don’t think we played bad enough today. We could have taken something out of this game. We have to eradicate these moments of madness that we’re giving teams too many opportunities.”
On if the results of the match make him regret his approach to the Real Salt Lake game…
“No. Not at all. I don’t think that playing in 95 degree heat, at altitude, getting back at four in the morning is very good preparation for a game of this magnitude. Today, I don’t think we played badly. I thought that the group that went out there tried everything they could. I was really pleased at halftime. I thought we were the better team in the first half. Even in the second half, we’ve had a lot play where the players did not give in. They kept going and they kept going until the very end. I can’t fault them for that. As I say, five minutes of madness has cost us dearly.”.
On both Minnesota United and LAFC dropping two points…
“If you look at everybody’s fixtures, all the way through, it’s going to go to the wire because everybody is playing each other. LAFC have given themselves that cushion with the start that they had and the way that they’ve been playing. I don’t think they’re [LAFC] going to be in too much trouble because they’ll probably end up, which we know, with home field advantage and that’s what we’re all trying to achieve. Because if you get a home field advantage, this league shows that most teams make the most points when they play at home. We’ll keep trying. We’ll keep working.”
On the possibility of keeping Emanuel Reynoso out of play to help heal his ankle…
“Yeah. It’s one of the reasons for Wednesday as well. The fact that he’s tweaked it again now, we don’t know how badly. We’ll get a better idea tomorrow. For sure, we will err on the side of caution because we need him fit and healthy.”
On if Franco Fragapane’s second yellow card was out of frustration…
“Yeah, but stupid. Be frustrated but it doesn’t help anybody. He’ll be frustrated but what does that do? Now he’s not available. That doesn’t help us.”
GOALKEEPER DAYNE ST. CLAIR.
On his thoughts on conceding three goals during a short span…
“Obviously not ideal. I think after a goal goes in you try to reset and try to keep your team in for the rest of the game and even after the third goal, I thought we had a chance to come back. I trust in our attack but unfortunately it didn’t go like that today.”
On how those five minutes unravel from his point of view…
“After kind of looking back at the game you kind of try to forget about that play and move on to the next. So in the moment right now, it’s too hard to say exactly what happened in the moment there.”
On the team’s overall reflection of the loss…
“I mean we still have a game in hand on [FC Dallas] so we can definitely come back and use that to our advantage. We’ve put ourselves into a good spot leading up to this point in the season and we’d love to finish the season stronger going into the playoffs.”
On the defensive breakdown of the third goal…
“After you make a good save, it’s always frustrating to concede on the very next play so that’s definitely frustrating. But like you said, a free run, and a mistake, but we’ve all made mistakes in our career and I know that our defense will bounce back going into the next game.”
On his thoughts about conceding an own goal…
“No, I don’t think so. Definitely an unfortunate goal I think what hurt more was that we started the half so well and to concede at anytime when you think you’ve had them pinned in for a little bit is definitely a momentum swing for sure, but I think we need to do a better job bouncing back because at one-nil we’re definitely still in the game especially with the fans here.”
On what the team will do to prepare going forward after losing twice…
“The last time we won two games, and we lost two games when we went on this trip. So we’ll be looking to go on another stretch of wins as well. It’s definitely not ideal to be losing two games back to back at this point in the season but we’ve put ourselves into a good spot to still be able host a home game and to take care of business while moving forward.”
On Head Coach Adrian Heath’s post game analysis vs. Houston’s performance…
“Like I said, we started the half off so strong in the first half. I don’t think they’ve had a shot or have had very little, if anything. Defensively, we started off the game strong. We had some chances that we weren’t able to put away and sometimes, in games like this, when you don’t put away your early chances it can decide how the game can go.”
DEFENDER MICHAEL BOXALL
On conceding three goals in such a short time span…
“First half we were solid and we always had numbers on the ball. At home we want to be on the front foot and we started well in the first half and we have a few good chances. They were just picking up a few balls in between our midfield and our back line and kind of running at us and we were a little bit of sixes and sevens. It was a great ball through for their first one and I tried to take it outside of the post and just got a little bit wrong with that one. On goal two, it’s a similar thing, we need to be proactive on the kickoff and putting ourselves in the shit like we did just there and playing backwards. Half clearing the ball they’ve got the momentum coming forward again. A little half-slip and a good finish and it’s tough to take, it’s disappointing especially at home at this point in the season and at home.”
On what needs to be fixed defensively moving forward…
“It’s similar to how we were earlier on this season where for 45 minutes we were good, everyone’s minds were in the right place and doing the work and then it’s not the first time we’ve had it where in a short span we would leak two or three goals. It’s a mentality thing, we need everybody to be focused on their jobs from the get-go, from the first whistle – or on today’s occasion after halftime – everyone is kind of, it’s hard to describe. We just left ourselves open. When we defend with four or five for extended periods of time, that doesn’t lead to good things. We can cope with it in spurts and spells, but today we showed that we weren’t quite there.”
On what needs to happen in the moments after conceding to not have it snowball…
“As Adrian [Heath] mentioned, after I scored that own goal, from that kickoff we weren’t as proactive as we typically are. We played the ball backwards and a slow backwards pass and it’s ended up at Dayne [St. Clair’s] feet and that’s kind of just letting them have the momentum and that’s a tough one. That’s for starters, and then we just need to be more lively as we were in the first half. Getting our defenders on the ball facing forward and finding Emanuel Reynoso and have him, [Franco] Fragapane, Bongokuhle [Hlongwane] running at them and that’s when we are dangerous. We can get our back four set up on the halfway line and have a good attacking shape. For that five minutes, it just disappeared.”
On the importance of being in the game for 90 minutes as the club approaches the playoffs…
“We knew how good they were. Defensively everyone was at their place for 90 minutes because we know how good their front four-five players are at movement. How they set up to always look to get in behind and for the first 45 minutes we were ready for that. At home our front players are just wanting to always go forward and we got a little bit stretched. We still have five games to go and even in the last two games and even for bits in the Houston game, we weren’t quite at the level that we were during the run in the last two months. It’s awful to have this kind of result in front of our fans, but we still have five games to go. We need to really pick ourselves up. We are lucky we have these warnings now rather than late October.”
On containing the Dallas attack…
“It’s difficult. It’s not a one-man job for sure. We did well in the first half. Our whole midfield four were fantastic in winning the ball back. Robin [Lod] was outstanding with the amount of challenges he was stuck in and winning the ball back in good spots. When you are playing in the back line you can be really good for 89 minutes and then switch off for one moment and you’ve failed at your job. Whereas if you are him [Jesus Ferreira] you can do nothing for 85 minutes, pop up and you’re the hero. It’s a full concentration thing and something we need to address because those moments today put a bad stain on the game that was otherwise a pretty good performance.”
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