With several key players still on the way back from international duty and with an eye toward a second away match this week at Real Salt Lake, Minnesota United was faced with a challenge in how to approach their first match in the U.S. Open Cup against fellow MLS side Sporting Kansas City. Head Coach Adrian Heath took it as an opportunity to give hungry players some run and try out a few new tricks to throw SKC off its game. The gambit worked initially, but in the end, Kansas City was just too much, heading into the next round of the tournament with a 4-0 win over the Loons.
MNUFC came out in an unfamiliar formation. Their usual 4-2-3-1 was reshaped into a 5-3-2, a formation that would typically indicate a team looking to turtle up and play a very defensive match in an effort to limit mistakes. But instead, the Loons came out with a high press that caught Sporting KC off balance.
“I thought Coach set us up really well in the formation and we were doing really well,” said midfielder Collin Martin. “I think we had them in front of us. We were up in their end of the field this game, compared to last, and we were set up really well.”
The result was a corner kick for MNUFC in the second minute and then another in the ninth after forward Abu Danladi banged the ball off defender Ike Opara on the right wing. Neither came to anything, but it was clear that SKC was rattled, playing flat for the first 15 minutes of the match. Sporting KC’s preferred strategy is to play from the back, but goalkeeper Tim Melia found himself stymied as he attempted to get the ball back out to his defenders as they were closely man-marked by MNUFC attackers and midfielders.
Minnesota United worked to cut off the connection between SKC’s defensive third and the middle third of the pitch, effectively slowing Kansas City’s attack. As a result, it took until the 25th minute for the home team to earn a corner kick.
“We started the game very well, I thought,” said Heath. “And I thought we changed the shape of the team and obviously we changed a lot of the players as well, but I thought the shape worked very well for 40 minutes. We just couldn't sustain the energy levels that we needed to curtail them.”
Heading into the last 15 minutes of the first half, SKC began to solve MNUFC’s unorthodox approach and put together effective strings of possession, culminating with the team’s best chance of the match so far in the 33rd minute when forward Dom Dwyer fired an absolute rocket that veered just wide left. He followed that effort up with another five minutes later that missed wide right.
One could sense Kansas City’s growing confidence as the first half ran down into its final five minutes, with an impressive sequence that saw the ball shifted all over the final third before midfielder Jimmy Medranda’s eventual shot went over the crossbar.
It looked like MNUFC might skate into the halftime break with a nil-nil draw intact but in the 43rd minute, defender Ike Opara outleapt a couple of MNUFC defenders for a header off a corner by defender Graham Zusi. SKC wasn’t quite finished, though, as a hard shot from forward Daniel Salloi ricocheted off the left post before settling at the feet of forward Gerso Fernandes to double the club’s lead in stoppage time. Kansas City headed into the break with an 11-1 advantage in shots and a 2-0 lead.
“We gave a poor first goal away, a free header from a set piece and then the second one killed us a little bit,” said Heath. “[Gerso] had a bit of fortune when it came off the post but in the end they were worthy winners. You're talking about one of the better teams in MLS, who are really well coached and you just look at the strength and depth of this squad today. It was really apparent when they're bringing the likes of Benny [Feilhaber] on and Blessing and people like this. It's a little lesson for us that we've got an awful long way to go, but there was one or two encouraging moments in the first 40 minutes.”
Out of the break, Heath looked to shake things up by inserting midfielder Ibson for fellow midfielder Rasmus Schuller, and it almost immediately paid dividends. Ibson’s command of the midfield started a nifty give-and-go with defender Kevin Venegas that led to a strong, low cross that Melia had to gobble up to prevent a goal by a diving Bashkim Kadrii in the 51st minute. Barely two minutes later, midfielder Collin Martin rang a hard shot from at least 25 yards out off the left post.
“That's just my luck,” said Martin. “I really wanted to score a goal and I looked up on the board and we had one shot in the first half. I wanted to at least try to do something to change that.”
Whatever momentum the Loons were building, though, dissipated quickly after defender Joe Greenspan — playing his first non-preseason minutes for the team and acquitting himself admirably — fell to the turf in the 55th minute after an aerial challenge to midfielder Roger Espinoza ended with Greenspan’s head colliding with Espinoza’s chest at an odd angle. The match stopped for at least ten minutes as the medical staff attended to Greenspan, eventually strapping him onto a stretcher and carting him off to a waiting ambulance as the defender raised a hand in a thumbs up to the crowd, who responded with an ovation.
“He's got a neck injury of some description and obviously we'll know a bit better when he's had some x-rays, probably tomorrow,” said Heath. “But obviously, when someone is down that long and gets taken off on a stretcher, then obviously, you're a bit worried.”
Forced to sub in Marc Burch for the injured Greenspan, the team attempted to rally, but it was just too big a mountain for the already depleted squad to climb. They conceded a third goal to Dom Dwyer in the 72nd minute and then a fourth to Daniel Salloi in the 83rd.
“I'm not being disrespectful to this tournament,” said Heath, “but we've got a few internationals away as well and we needed to give some players some minutes and it was evident that they needed it because as the game wore on, we just couldn't sustain the physicality that you need to against a team of Kansas' ability.”
From here, MNUFC heads directly to Utah for a matchup with Real Salt Lake on Saturday at Rio Tinto Stadium. It will be a late kickoff at 9 p.m. CT with pre-match coverage beginning on My29 and MNUFC Radio on 1500 ESPN at 8:30 p.m.
Lineups
Minnesota United FC Starting XI: GK Patrick McLain; D Kevin Venegas, Joe Greenspan (Marc Burch 67’), Brent Kallman, Justin Davis, Ismaila Jome (Jerome Thiesson 75’); M Rasmus Schuller (Ibson 46’), Collin Martin, Collen Warner; F Abu Danladi, Bashkim Kadrii
MIN Unused Subs: GK John Alvbage; M Sam Cronin, Miguel Ibarra; F Christian Ramirez
Sporting Kansas City Starting XI: GK Tim Melia; D Graham Zusi, Ike Opara (Kevin Ellis 88’), Matt Besler, Seth Sinovic; M Ille Sanchez, Jimmy Medranda (Benny Feilhaber 74’), Roger Espinoza; F Daniel Salloi, Dom Dwyer, Gerso Fernandes (Latif Blessing 78’)
SKC Unused Subs: GK Adrian Zendejas; D Saad Abdul-Salaam; F Cameron Porter
Match Events
Scoring
43’ – Opara (Zusi) – SKC
45+’ – Fernandes – SKC
72’ – Dwyer (Fernandes) – SKC
83’ – Salloi (Espinoza) – SKC
Discipline
90’ – Davis (YC) – MIN
90+’ – Warner (YC) – MIN
