4/8 GAME NOTES: Minnesota United falls to FC Dallas, 2-0

The seemingly inevitable happened on Saturday night as FC Dallas put Minnesota United to the sword, taking down the Major League Soccer newcomers 2-0 at Toyota Stadium.

The Loons were the consensus underdog headed in having continued to struggle to find their footing in the top division. Meanwhile, Dallas is an MLS club clearly trending in the right direction in recent years, winning the U.S. Open Cup and the Supporters’ Shield last season.

Even despite playing in two fewer matches this season, Dallas sat higher in the standings than Minnesota with seven points compared to four. Dallas is also considered to have one of the most robust rosters in the entirety of the league.

In contrast to all of that, however, Minnesota played organized in the first half Saturday and finally ended its infamous record of allowing a goal to the opposing team in the first 17 minutes of every match this season. But the Loons really struggled to provide anything in attack and seemed to maybe respect their opponent a bit too much, a point head coach Adrian Heath said he addressed at halftime.

“I think there’s been a big improvement on our away performances but I honestly think it’s been an opportunity wasted,” Heath said. “If we would have had a bit more belief in the first half and out ability to play, we would have caused them more problems.”

Minnesota did look better going forward in the second half, primarily after the introduction of Ibson, who seemed to be precariously left out of the starting XI.

In fact, considering Heath’s self-proclaimed mantra about how he chooses his starters, it was also curious to see the recently acquired duo of Marc Burch and Sam Cronin both handed their first starts for the club. They replaced Justin Davis and Ibson, respectively, two players who had started in the United’s first-ever MLS win. After that game, Heath said goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth would retain his starting spot because he was part of winning team, something he seemed to insinuate would constitute for all members of the team and a point he drove home again this week.

“By his own performances, he keeps his plate,” Heath said. “I think I made the comment at the weekend that I only pick players — players drop themselves. I’m a big believer in that. I don’t see too many coaches leaving people out that play well. As long as he keeps this intensity Monday to Friday in his training, he keeps working as hard as he is and playing as well as he is, then he’ll keep the shirt. It’s pretty much in his own hands.”

Maybe his policy only applies to the men between the posts. Maybe FC Dallas required a certain tactical adjustment. Nonetheless, Davis and even more so Ibson will feel hard done by and unfortunately for United it was the Brazilians impact that could have been beneficial from the start.

In the end, the story remained much the same for Minnesota: going forward they found ways to be dangerous and threatening but defensively they gave away the game before they could give themselves a fighting chance.

“We had a bit more belief [in the second half] and we started to move the ball about quickly and I think the fact that their goalkeeper’s been named Man of the Match gives you an idea of how many opportunities we created,” Heath said. “This is a notoriously difficult place to come. They are one of the best teams in the league. There were a lot of positives. I honestly think it was an opportunity missed, we should have shown more belief of our ability.”

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