FC Dallas came into tonight’s match looking to break a nine-match winless streak, but Minnesota United — aiming for its first back-to-back wins of the season following Saturday’s 3-2 win over Montreal — had other ideas. With a goal and two assists for Christian Ramirez, a textbook match-winning volley by Miguel Ibarra and a clutch penalty save by Bobby Shuttleworth to preserve a lead, the Loons handed Dallas a big 4-1 loss and the sellout crowd of 22,055 fans a big home win.
“I think small margins in games change the way that the course of the game,” said Head Coach Adrian Heath. “And we know that better than most this year. Obviously, Bobby’s [Shuttleworth] save was huge. At the time it came, as well, because they were just starting to get a little bit of momentum. But after a relatively slow start, where I thought we showed them too much respect, and we should have got higher up the pitch, and we should have gotten after them a little more, after that, I think we’ve been more than competitive. And I thought we looked dangerous all night. After the first 10 or 12 minutes, every time we broke with a little bit of combination play in the middle of the pitch, we had a chance to score goals.”
Having conceded in the first 10 minutes of their last three matches, the Loons were focused on keeping FC Dallas from getting on the board right out of the gate. In the eighth minute, it looked for a moment like the pattern would continue for Minnesota United after forward Maximiliano Urruti buried a long strike in the back of the net. But another FC Dallas player had interfered with goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth and the goal was called off.
The Loons would not get away unscathed the next time, though, when midfielder Michael Barrios went at defender Marc Burch on the right wing and got far enough past him to fire a cross that found forward Tesho Akindele weaving through defenders from the left side. Akindele’s right-footed finish gave Dallas a 1-0 lead and Dallas had never lost when scoring first so far this season.
The goal was a wake-up call, though, and from that moment, MNUFC began to build up some solid possession in the final third over the next 10 minutes. Dallas kept breaking it up, but then in the 24th minute, midfielder Kevin Molino found forward Christian Ramirez peeling off his man down the middle. With nothing but goalkeeper Jose Gonzalez between him and the net, Ramirez opened up just enough to get Gonzalez to bite on the far post and then struck a burner on the ground on the near post to level the score at 1-1.
“He wants to be a number nine there in the thick end of it, in the penalty area,” said Heath. “And that’s where he should be. That’s where he comes alive, and that’s where he looks really good. You know, a fantastic ball off [Kevin] Molino for the first goal. A great finish. A great little pull off the back shoulder. And, as I’ve said on numerous occasions, we get the ball in the box, enough, he’s going to score goals.”
Eleven minutes later, it was Ramirez who would be doing the assisting. The forward found himself facing a wall of FC Dallas defenders near the edge of the box, but he dinked it over the top of them and found midfielder Miguel Ibarra streaking in from the right side. Ibarra fired a beautiful right-footed volley into the near bar to pull the Loons ahead 2-1 — a lead that would hold as the teams headed into halftime.
Minnesota had won the possession battle in the first half 54% to 46%, but FC Dallas came out looking dangerous with a high press that initially flummoxed the Loons. But in the 52nd minute, MNUFC seemed to find a solution as a flurry of activity in front of Dallas’ goal led to a strike from midfielder Ethan Finlay from the left side that just grazed the post on the right side. It appeared that the counterattack was there for the home side and momentum seemed to be swinging in their favor until Collin Martin was called for a foul on Mauro Diaz just inside the box, setting up a penalty in the 68th minute.
Shuttleworth had come up huge last week in Montreal on a penalty and he was up to the task once again. Diaz lined it up and struck a slightly harder version of Ignacio Piatti’s penalty from last week to Shuttleworth’s right and the ‘keeper read it right and deflected it safely away.
“He’s just doing his job,” said Heath. “That’s what he gets paid to do. It shows he’s doing his homework. He didn’t dive too early, which some keepers do. He waited and waited and actually guessed the right way. A really important moment in the game.”
The clutch save emphatically shifted the momentum in favor of Minnesota, and only three minutes later, Ramirez once again set up a pretty goal from the center of the box. This time, he tapped the ball ahead to Finlay on the right side and Finlay buried it on the far post to give Minnesota an authoritative 3-1 lead.
“I thought Ethan’s [Finlay] was probably the pick of the goals, with the interplay and everything,” said Heath. “I thought it was a great little combination on the edge of the box.”
In the 81st minute, Dallas’ hopes of a miracle comeback took a big hit when Akindele was sent off with a red card after colliding with Shuttleworth. Down to 10 men, FC Dallas couldn’t muster much in the match’s final minutes and forward Abu Danladi made up for a shot that rang off the post in the 80th minute by putting the cherry on the win with a goal in the 88th minute. Isolated in space against Gonzalez, Danladi got around the ‘keeper and buried it for his seventh goal of the season and finishing off Minnesota United’s first back-to-back wins of the season.
MNUFC will face another Texas team next week, this time on their home turf. On Saturday, September 30, the Loons will be at BBVA Compass Stadium for a match against Houston Dynamo. The teams kick off at 7:30 p.m. CT with pre-match coverage beginning at 7:00 p.m. on FOX 9+ and MNUFC Radio on 1500 ESPN.
Lineups
Minnesota United FC Starting XI: GK Bobby Shuttleworth; D Jerome Thiesson, Michael Boxall, Francisco Calvo, Marc Burch; M Ibson, Collin Martin (Collen Warner 86’), Ethan Finlay, Miguel Ibarra, Kevin Molino (Abu Danladi 70’); F Christian Ramirez (Johan Venegas 74’)
MIN Unused Subs: GK Partick McLain; D Brent Kallman; M Jose Leiton, Sam Nicholson
FC Dallas Starting XI: GK Jesse Gonzalez; D Hernan Grana (Roland Lamah 86’), Walker Zimmerman (Ryan Hollingshead 66’), Atiba Harris, Maynor Figueroa; M Victor Ulloa, Carlos Gruezo, Michael Barrios, Maximiliano Urruti, Tesho Akindele; F Cristian Colman (Mauro Diaz 61’)
FCD Unused Subs: GK Chris Seitz; D Reggie Cannon; M Javier Morales, Jacori Hayes
Match Events
Goals
15’ – Akindele (Barrios) – FCD
24’ – Ramirez (Molino) – MIN
35’ – Ibarra (Ramirez, Ibson) – MIN
71’ – Finlay (Ramirez, Martin) – MIN
88’ – Danladi (Unassisted) – MIN
Discipline
40’ – Calvo (YC) – MIN
42’ – Finlay (YC) – MIN
58’ – Martin (YC) – MIN
75’ – Barrios (YC) – FCD
78’ – Grana (YC) – FCD
81’ – Akindele (RC) – FCD
