The Saturday evening game against the Seattle Sounders had been characterized by many, including Adrian Heath and Francisco Calvo, as the most important game of Minnesota United’s season.
It was their last home game for seven weeks, against a streaking Seattle team, and a defense of their own four-match home winning streak.
Minnesota led the great majority of the game 1-0, but this only made the heartbreak greater as Seattle first scored on a penalty in the 90th minute to tie the game, then got a 97th minute winner from Will Bruin to crush United’s dreams of a playoff position, an extension of the home winning streak and the positive result they needed before the upcoming five-game road trip that could end their season.
For Seattle to take three points from this game was not necessarily an unfair result.
The Sounders had been completely dominant in the first 15 minutes of the game, and the second half was almost entirely one-way traffic. Minnesota’s goal was the first moment that play shifted, and the goalscorer was the least surprising name one could imagine.
Once again, United took the lead at home through a remarkable display of skill from their scientist, Darwin Quintero. Quintero tracked a loose ball down at the edge of the penalty box, and created the split-second of time and space needed to get a shot into the left corner of Stefan Frei’s goal.
His form is incredible, and United were off and running.
The goal was the start of Minnesota attaining balance in the game. Seattle continued to have the better of the possession, but no longer did it seem like every attack required a last-ditch clearance or intervention. The first moments that Minnesota came to rue after the final whistle came just before halftime.
First was a remarkable opportunity from the most notable of Heath’s two changes in the Loons’ lineup from their previous fixture, the debuting designated player Ángelo Rodríguez. Rodríguez was taken down in the box going for a header, but recovered for a second cross and his header beat Frei but smashed off of the left goalpost.
Rodríguez had no greater chances than this and left the game after 60 minutes, but his debut had plenty of promise. While he sometimes was more passive than he could have been, he was often involved in passing sequences in all parts of the field, and had an extremely solid defensive stop just before leaving the game, a moment of note for the game’s starting striker.
Quintero hit the post just before the half as well after escaping the Seattle defense to go one-on-one with Frei, but Frei got just enough of a leg to the shot to deflect it off the post. Minnesota led at the half, but 1-0 never seemed like it would be enough if Seattle rediscovered their early momentum.
Sure enough, the second half began with even more Seattle pressure and possession, and Minnesota fell further and further from relevance. The Loons were spared not once, but twice by the referees. First was a VAR check on a block by Calvo, which hit his lower arm but was deemed incidental. Then Seattle had the ball in the net, but Raul Ruidiaz was just offside.
That was just at the hour mark, and the possession in those five minutes was at its most absurd for Seattle. The MLS game stats had the possession for the Sounders between minutes 55 and 60 at 93.8 percent, and that felt about right.
Minnesota had no possession, and no passing out of the back worked.
The lead held, even through that, and United continued to defend well enough. Bobby Shuttleworth saved a couple of headed chances, and the sight of Ibson taking the ball into the corner in the 81st minute to stall for time seemed a pretty clear indication of the Minnesotan intention for the game’s close.
Perhaps the most paralyzing moment of Seattle’s tying goal was that it came immediately after Minnesota’s single best chance to extend the lead. Miguel Ibarra blocked a cross and the counterattack was off to the races. Quintero, Ibson and Ibarra were into Frei’s box three-on-one, and Frei’s eventual save on Quintero’s shot was magnificent.
The problem was that Ibarra’s block had immediately drawn cries for handball from the Seattle players, and VAR was not kind to the home side this time. The penalty was given, Ibarra received a yellow card and Nicolas Lodeiro scored in the first minute of stoppage time, immediately stripping his shirt off and flaunting himself to the Minnesota supporters’ section.
The danger was now that Minnesota would get nothing from a game it had led for 70 minutes, and sure enough, Seattle made United pay a second time. Minnesota had opportunities of its own: a blocked shot from Collin Martin, a Quintero cross just barely recovered by Frei.
The opening came from nothing.
A lifted pass towards Ruidiaz should have been cut out by either of Brent Kallman or Michael Boxall, but Ruidiaz beat them both and flicked a header past them to a now completely unguarded Bruin, who chipped Shuttleworth and finished the game.
Had Minnesota won this game, they would have moved into a tie for the sixth and final playoff position in the Western Conference. They lost, and now Seattle has passed them in the standings to drop them to ninth, with the looming road trip requiring every point possible.
Heath’s opening comments to media after the game were very complimentary of Seattle’s pedigree and quality, but it was extremely easy to draw the inference between what Seattle had and Minnesota did not, both in this game and on the season.
“Obviously bitterly disappointed,” he said. “I thought after the first 15 minutes we started to control the game, got a good goal, had two or three really good other opportunities to go two up and that might have done it. Second half, I don’t think we ever really got going. It was going to be a breakaway to go and get the second one, and I thought they played well in the second half.
“They showed the quality of the players that they have. They’ve been to two finals the last two years, that’s the reason they’ve been there. They’ve got really good players, which has taken them four or five years to put together. Adding pieces of Lodeiro, now Ruidiaz, and that’s what you’re coming up against, you’re coming up against quality.”
The decision by Heath to not make a third substitution as Seattle chased the game was a confusing one to the outside viewer. While Abu Danladi had come on for Rodríguez and Martin had entered for Rasmus Schüller, Heath still had Wyatt Omsberg and Eric Miller as possible defensive substitutions plus Romario Ibarra and Christian Ramirez for offensive adjustments.
“The way the game was going, I thought they were more likely to win the game,” Heath said. “But I also thought the way they were pushing men forward, that we might get a breakaway, as we did on a couple of occasions.
“The one we had, I know they brought it back for a penalty, but I thought the break that we had, we missed the chance, I thought we were capable of that for most of the last fifteen minutes. So that was why I didn’t want to change it, I didn’t want to put another defender on because then we would have attracted more and more pressure.”
The impact of the loss in a game considered their most important of the season was clear to Heath. “It’s disappointing, you know? Our home form’s been really good, and it was the 89th, 90th minute and it was still 1-0.
“To come away with nothing is a little bit of a killer blow, to be honest. But, when the six minutes went up, I thought the worst, I’ve gotta be honest, because they were in the ascendancy. Our quality to move up the field out of the back was disappointing, and they kept putting the ball in our box.”
The debut of Rodríguez over Ramirez was another point of contention, as Ramirez had played his best games of the season in the last weeks after breaking out of his June dry spell. Francisco Calvo was critical of comparisons between the two in his comments.
“I was getting to Twitter, and I see some comparisons — Christian and Rodríguez,” Calvo said. “I don’t think it’s good, because that doesn’t help the team. [Rodríguez] is going to get more confidence, and it’s the coach’s selection. Christian’s been doing good work, but if you pick Rodríguez he has to play.
“So I ask you guys, don’t do that type of comparison. You’re from here [Minnesota], so I think you need to support the team. Sometimes you need to write something bad because that’s what you sell — the bad things. But I think Ángelo is a good player and he’s going to bring a lot of options.”
For his part, Rodríguez was understandably disappointed with the result but was prepared to look ahead to the team’s upcoming fixtures and what can improve moving forward in his connection with the squad and with Quintero in particular.
“We tried to have an understanding between each other,” Rodríguez said of Quintero through translation. “We had a couple of good plays. I think we’re getting to know each other and well, that was the first game. Now, in these five games that we have to play on the road, we hope to play well and get good results.”
The immediate need to point fingers at either Rodríguez or Ramirez — or Heath’s decision between them — feels misguided. Rodríguez was influential in his entire spell on the pitch, often more than Ramirez has been in some of his appearances this season, and for his first game in MLS it seemed a satisfying hour of play.
The greater impact of the result is what it means for the team moving forward and how the team can recover from a defeat of this magnitude. The locker room was nearly silent during player interviews, a remarkable contrast from the music and joy of the previous four home games, all victories.
Calvo summed it up well.
“All of us, we are disappointed, because we lose the game in what, two, three minutes?” he said. “And that can’t happen even more at home. Now, sometimes you make mistakes that cost the game, but now we need to get past this as a team and put our heads up.
“Now it’s a big challenge for us. We know if we want to go to playoffs we should win our games at home, but now we have five straight games away and it’s a big challenge. I think we are a really good team, and I believe in all my teammates, and I’m pretty sure we can take some points away.”
Calvo’s words will provide as much hope as words can, but United need results now. Their first fixture of these five is at the Los Angeles Galaxy, and the fact remains that Minnesota has not gotten a point on the road since March 10. If they cannot change that, the playoff dream will be over before the month of August ends.
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