The expectations entering Sunday night’s clash between Minnesota United and Los Angeles FC were hard to read. LAFC were the comfortable favorites looking at the standings, sitting at second place in the Western Conference with the best goal difference in the conference, but Minnesota had won three straight at home and appeared to have found a winning formula in the 3-5-2 during those three wins.
The result was beyond any prediction, as Minnesota took perhaps their most dominant win in their year and a half in Major League Soccer with a 5-1 thrashing of this year’s expansion darlings. While LAFC had the best of the early game and were quick to tie things up after Minnesota’s opener, this game ended in a rout.
A necessary caveat to this victory is that Los Angeles were under-strength, as Carlos Vela did not travel to Minnesota, and this year’s breakout star Adama Diomande did not enter the game until halftime. Regardless, many of the pieces of the team that comfortably beat Minnesota 2-0 in Los Angeles were featured.
For their part, Minnesota took a calculated risk with their starting lineup by not changing a single thing. The exact same lineup from last Saturday’s win over Salt Lake and Wednesday’s win over New England came out for a third start in eight days. Fatigue was the immediate question, regardless of this lineup’s clear success (three wins in three tries).
The game’s opening made it look like this was going to be an extremely challenging evening for the United defense. LAFC had four corners in the game’s first eight minutes, and last-ditch clearances and frantic headers away were the name of the game. The reassurance: no goals were allowed, and the setpieces were all easily dealt with, a continued positive in Minnesota’s improvement.
After the intense pressure of the first 15 minutes, United began to work their way into the game, with their potent counterattack at the forefront. Darwin Quintero was at his most dangerous, regularly threatening to break away from his marker and go free on goal.
Quintero’s creation was at the heart of Minnesota’s opener. Less than a minute after Ibson spurned a golden chance and an open goal on a cross from Miguel Ibarra to the center of the box, Quintero sent nearly the same ball into the box and Rasmus Schüller made no such mistake, burying his first goal for Minnesota.
The response from Los Angeles was nearly immediate, and born somewhat of United sloppiness in their own box. There were repeated failures to clear a bouncing ball before Latif Blessing hit a cross that Benny Feilhaber could not miss. Less than a minute after Minnesota led, the game was even again and it was hard to argue with the fairness of the scoreline.
Feilhaber had earlier been denied by Bobby Shuttleworth on a bullet of a drive from outside the box, and Shuttleworth was kept busy as LAFC continued to press forward and look for a critical opening. Minnesota bent but did not break, and at the edge of halftime, the game was broken open the other way.
First, United did something they have struggled to do all season: converted a chance after a corner kick. The goal was all about Christian Ramirez, after LAFC failed to clear their lines and a loose ball trickled towards the goal. Ramirez had sprinted clear of his mark and just barely beat Tyler Miller to the ball, smashing it under him for his second goal in two games.
It took less than a minute for United to double their lead. Eric Miller received a pass on the left sideline from Schüller, and his throughball for Quintero’s run was perfectly weighted. Quintero was in behind the LAFC defense, and his shot past Miller was inch-perfect to the goal’s side netting. United led by two at halftime, and the thoughts of a fourth straight home win were alive and well.
LAFC came out of the locker room with a vengeance, resuming their earlier bombardment of the United penalty area with crosses, shots and corner kicks. This time they had a stretch of five straight corner kicks in the first 10 minutes of the half, all dealt with as necessary.
Brent Kallman and Shuttleworth starred in defense, with Kallman first to every loose ball and finding two vital clearances directly in front of goal. When Kallman comfortably ushered Diego Rossi out of bounds after being left one-on-one in the final third, United’s danger period was almost over.
The end for Los Angeles came swiftly after those opening 10 minutes. Their defense appeared to be running on fumes, and Minnesota’s offense clicked into its most potent gear yet. First was a pass meant for Ramirez that snuck past both he and his defender, and no one reacted faster than Ibarra, who ran from nowhere onto the loose ball and smashed it past Miller.
The three-goal lead had been dangerous before for Minnesota, so they took no time making the lead four and escaping their personal danger zone. A beautiful team goal, starting from Quintero and moving across four United players before the killer ball from Ibarra to Ramirez at the mouth of goal.
Minnesota had never scored five goals in MLS, and Los Angeles likewise had only allowed five goals once in their single season. This was a comprehensive victory for Minnesota, who did not score in the game’s final half hour but looked by far the more likely team to do so. A debut for Romario Ibarra held nothing of importance, and a signature victory was well earned.
Adrian Heath was more than satisfied with the performance. “I’ve just said to the staff that it’s a long time since I’ve been involved with a team that, at this moment in time, every time that we attack, if we can get Darwin on the ball, we look like we’re going to create or score a goal. Virtually every time that we’re in their half of the field.”
United allowed 15 corners, which would have been an enormous question mark just two weeks ago, but the team seems to have turned a corner when it comes to defending set pieces, and did not allow any opportunities of significance.
“That’s a mentality as much as anything else,” Heath said. “Whether that’s people zone marking or man-for-man marking or a mixture of both, people are actually putting their body on the line to make sure it’s not going to be my man.”
Ramirez, who had a crucial clearing header on a set piece to go with his two goals, spoke about the changes as well. “We changed a couple things defending both free kicks and corners, more of a zonal and a couple guys man-marking and every guy’s taking responsibility of their area, and that’s my area.
“Somebody scores on that, I have to be held accountable for that, and I don’t want to be that guy. We have to continue to be strong, because so many goals come on set pieces, and once we’ve cleaned that up, things will turn around.”
The survival of LAFC’s opening blitz was critical to the result, and Kallman spoke about how the United defense adapted to the pressure.
“They were moving the ball well and they were locking us deep and we just had to absorb the pressure,” Kallman said. “Trying to pass runners on, making sure we defend the box really well, kind of bend, don’t break. We were able to do it, and then we looked dangerous on almost every break.
“We’ve got these guys that are really good in transition, you give them time and space on the ball, they’re really dangerous. I think it’s going to make teams think twice about pressing us like that, because we’re so dangerous going forward once we win the ball especially deep, so I think it worked in our favor after we weathered the storm.”
The result marked the first time in Minnesota’s short MLS history that they had won three straight games, the first time they had scored five goals and the first time they had won four straight home games. It finished a homestand in which they secured all nine possible points against three playoff-position teams, with a goal difference gain of plus-six.
“It’s a goal we set out for,” Kallman said. “Last week we said, this is a huge week for us. We know we’ve been good at home, and we knew it was a real possibility to get the nine-point week, and to finish it off in this fashion just feels really good. I think everybody’s really proud right now.”
The nine-point week did what seemed unthinkable after the struggles of June: it put United back into the MLS playoff conversation, at least for now. Minnesota is now seventh in the West with 28 points, just two points behind Salt Lake and now ahead of them in goal difference.
United next travel to Vancouver on Saturday with the goal of slaying their road demons. The team still has not won an MLS game on the road since March, and in order to remain relevant into August and September, that must change.
“As I’ve said on numerous occasions, if we want to take this towards the end of the season, keep the season alive as late as possible, we have to start to pick up some points away from home,” Heath said. The players will have two days off to recover. Their next game — as many of them put it postgame, their next “final” — will be a great test.
