Well. Are you awake? A goalless draw wasn’t necessarily the energy booster I was looking for to keep me going for this one, but hey, we made it through. I even cooked up a fun intro to manifest the win, but alas, you’ll have to wait until next time, folks. Minnesota United drew 0-0 with the Vancouver Whitecaps tonight in what was an extremely defensive performance from the Loons.
A slight shift in shape — from 3-4-2-1 to 5-4-1 — saw the Loons prepare to play with numbers behind the ball, setting themselves up to do the very same thing that Austin did to them last time out. Against such a talented Vancouver team, though, that’s like playing with fire, and unless you’re darn near perfect, it’s not going to work. Luckily, your Loons have darn near perfected the art of defending, and with close to their strongest lineup on the field, that much was evident.
Despite showing off their impressive fluidity and creativity throughout the first half, a heavily rotated Vancouver squad failed to create any significant looks on goal in the first half, as an extremely compact and deep Loons defensive block forced opportunistic crosses and limited the hosts to half-chances. The ‘Caps kept coming, though, and try as they might, the Black and Blue simply couldn’t get anything going in the other direction.
The first half was akin to a chess match. The Loons took their time with set pieces, from long throws to free kicks, breaking up the rhythm of the game. The ‘Caps took advantage of their ability to find incisive passes and move off the ball. No one messed up badly enough to give the opposition a proper look, leading to a stalemate and prompting changes for the second 45. But before we get to those changes, let’s take a moment to congratulate tonight’s referee on calling Mathías Laborda for his illegal throw-in in the 21st minute. It’s not easy trying to be Boxy, Mathías.
The second half began very similarly to the first: Jayden Nelson caused problems early on, stretching the Loons with his pace and willingness to run behind. Substitutes Tani Oluwaseyi and Julian Gressel brought a bit of a spark to the visitors, but not enough to turn the tide. MNUFC found more moments to get forward, ultimately failing to capitalize because they couldn’t get numbers up the field quickly enough. By the hour mark, it seemed clear that a few more changes for both teams would be the only way to find a winner.
The additions of Brian White, Ali Ahmed, and Pedro Vite brought the Whitecaps close to full strength, and the pressure they managed to exert with their first-choice players showed it. The best chance of the game fell to Nelson in the 80th minute, but Dayne St. Clair snuffed it out calmly, preserving the point in this extremely disciplined defensive showing.
Sometimes, you simply have to take what you’re given. A point is a point in this league, as Assistant Coach Dennis Lawrence said last week, and when you can defend like that on the road, you’ll take a point against a team that has been dominating the league this season. Now, it’s time for the Boys in Black and Blue to turn their sights ever so slightly south, with their first meeting with Seattle this season set for this Sunday at 5:00 p.m. CT.
