Minnesota United returned to the Pacific Northwest a week after facing the Portland Timbers to square off against Seattle Sounders FC at CenturyLink Field. Head Coach Adrian Heath shuffled his lineup, putting in goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth in place of Matt Lampson and handing defender Carter Manley his second MLS start after an injury to March Burch last week. After a winless start to the year, Seattle came in hungry and healthier than they’ve been and left sated with all three points in a 3-1 win despite a stronger second-half showing from the Loons where they had opportunities to draw level.
Minnesota was on the back foot from jump, with Seattle earning its first corner kick in the first minute of the match after Manley went down as the Sounders muscled their way into the box. Midfielder Nicolas Lodeiro’s cross found defender Romain Torres’ head and Torres fired it straight into the ground and nearly lobbed Shuttleworth but the ball went just over the goal.
The Loons struggled early on to get through the middle of the pitch with Seattle playing very wide in the midfield and effectively shutting down the path to the wings. With forward Abu Danladi getting the nod in the starting XI over Christian Ramirez, it was clear that Head Coach Adrian Heath’s plan for the away match was to play aggressive early on, but Danladi struggled to find the gaps, often drifting offside and not presenting much of a threat.
On the other end of the pitch, Seattle tested the defense early and often with multiple forays into the box and long distance shots as well. In the 23rd minute, the Sounders successfully broke down Minnesota’s defensive shape with a series of strong possession that ended with a blast from midfielder Gustav Svensson from beyond the box that found the upper left corner. The lead up featured defender Nouhou overlapping deep into the left wing and then playing the ball to midfielder Ozzie Alonso, who played it to Cristian Roldan for an assist out to Svensson.
Seattle’s 1-0 lead would be doubled in short order when a streaking Roldan drifted out to the left wing and opened up an angle for a cross to forward Will Bruin, who put a left-footed shot away softly into the bottom left corner to make it 2-0 in the 25th minute.
“It’s all desperation football then, because you know if it goes to 3-nil the game is virtually over,” said Heath. “Every time you attack and you attack with numbers to try and get back in the game, you leave yourself vulnerable, so it’s a conundrum that we have to solve because I know that we can play. I’m not sure is we know at this moment in time how to win. And there’s a big difference between playing well and winning games.”
In the final 20 minutes of the first half, the Loons began to show signs of life with improved play through the middle getting them better looks in the final third. Their first decent chance came in the 42nd minute when midfielder Darwin Quintero dribbled the ball directly into the teeth of the defense and opened space down the right side for Danladi who couldn’t quite settle the ball before firing it and missing wide right. The teams headed to the halftime break with Seattle up 2-0 and winning 56% of the possession, but looking a bit more vulnerable down the stretch.
Heath took off midfielder Ethan Finlay prior to the start of the second half as a precaution following a knock he took in a challenge from Cristian Roldan toward the end of the first half, replacing him with Sam Nicholson. Finlay’s exit was followed a few minutes later Danladi’s, also a precaution as he’d gotten his right ankle crushed a couple times. He was replaced by Christian Ramirez.
“I thought Christian did well when he came on,” said Heath. “I thought he gave us a bit of life and he can be pleased with what he did.”
The lineup change injected further life into a Minnesota offense that had looked more lively at the end of the first half and the Loons got their first decent crack at goal in the 56th minute. Defender Jerome Thiesson crossed the ball from the left wing into the box and found Miguel Ibarra floating off his defender’s shoulder. Ibarra headed the ball solidly, but more or less directly at goalkeeper Stefan Frei, who locked it up.
In the 58th minute, Shuttleworth — getting his first start of the year — made back-to-back saves on Cristian Roldan and Bruin in short order to keep the match at 2-0. Minnesota kept the pressure on the offensive side, showing more aggression and initiative. The offense eventually broke through in the 66th minute when Nicholson sent a cross from the left wing to Quintero on the right side and Quintero dinked a pass high over the 6-yard box and found Ramirez waiting on the left side. Ramirez knocked a lofted header onto the far post for his first goal of the year, making it a 2-1 match and giving the Loons a new lease on life.
Over the next 20 minutes, Minnesota continued to threaten, much as they did against Portland last week down the stretch, but once again could not find the breakthrough. Seattle worked to slow the match down and play for possession, a tactic that worked better and better as Minnesota began to tire of throwing themselves forward. The Loons last best chance came in the 89th minute when a cross from the left side drew Frei out of goal. He barely got a hand on it, but it fell to defender Francisco Calvo who couldn’t thread the needle between the Seattle defenders and the post as he fired it into the side netting.
Seattle added a third goal at the death when a sloppy turnover gave forward Clint Dempsey and midfielder Jordy Delem a 2-on-1 break that Delem finished for his first MLS goal.
“The problem that we have is that we started so slowly again and I’m honestly at a loss to explain that,” said Heath. “We can’t speak about it enough, we can’t show people enough, and it’s the third or fourth time on the road that it’s happened and I feel like a broken record. I said it last week, we can’t give teams a head start. We just can’t do it and I don’t know what the issue is. Because it’s not like we’re not warming up properly, it’s not like we don’t speak about it in the dressing room, but I will repeat what I said last week: We cannot give teams a three-goal or two-goal start and expect to win a game. I know we’re capable of playing the type of football that we played in the second half, but it’s catch-up football all the time. It’s desperation football and we have to take so many risks and chances to create these opportunities. It has to be addressed. Now whether that’s the shape of the team, whether that’s personnel, but it can’t continue.”
Minnesota returns home to TCF Bank Stadium for a match against Houston Dynamo on Saturday, April 28 at 7:00 p.m. CT. Pre-match coverage gets under way at 6:30 p.m. on FOX Sports North and MNUFC Radio on 1500 ESPN.
Lineups
Minnesota United FC Starting XI: GK Bobby Shuttleworth; D Carter Manley, Michael Boxall, Francisco Calvo, Jerome Thiesson; M Rasmus Schuller, Ibson, Miguel Ibarra (Mason Toye 84’), Ethan Finlay (Sam Nicholson 46’), Darwin Quintero; F Abu Danladi (Christian Ramirez 52’)
MIN Unused Subs: GK Matt Lampson; D Brent Kallman; M Harrison Heath, Collin Martin;
Seattle Sounders FC Starting XI: GK Stefan Frei; D Kelvin Leerdam, Roman Torres, Chad Marshall, Nouhou Tolo; M Gustav Svensson, Osvaldo Alonso (Magnus Wolff Eikrem 75’), Nicolas Lodeiro, Cristian Roldan, Alex Roldan (Clint Dempsey 60’); F Will Bruin (Jordy Delem 90+‘)
SEA Unused Subs: GK Bryan Meredith; D Jordan McCray; M Victor Rodriguez, Handwalla Bwana
Match Events
Goals
23' – Svensson (C. Roldan, Alonso) – SEA
25' – Bruin (C. Roldan, Lodeiro) – SEA
66' – Ramirez (Quintero, Nicholson) – MIN
90'+ – Delem (Dempsey) – SEA
Discipline
58’ – Tolo (YC) – SEA
87’ – Leerdam (YC) – SEA
