Saturday was meant to be the reassuring return home for Minnesota United. After Wednesday’s letdown in Los Angeles, they needed one.
Sure, it was their third game in eight days with a cross-country trip in the middle, but San Jose was dead last in the Western Conference and hadn’t won since their season opener against Minnesota.
Instead, the frustrations of Wednesday returned, the defensive miscues were the same as ever and United’s home winning streak was snapped in an embarrassing 3-1 loss to the Earthquakes.
The game’s start was as bad as it could possibly have been. Within thirty seconds of FOX Sports North’s Kyndra de St. Aubin’s opening comment of “Don’t allow an early goal,” Magnus Eriksson had broken free down Minnesota’s left, crossed over Jerome Thiesson and tripped over Thiesson’s trailing leg for an easy penalty call.
Eriksson made no mistake from the spot and United was down 1-0 almost before they had touched the ball. It took United a good fifteen minutes to get into the game, with the early spell after the penalty being some of the worst soccer they’ve played at home this season.
United was late to every ball, off on every pass, beaten on every header and just not right. One wondered if the lengthy minutes of the week were catching up to players like Darwin Quintero, Alexi Gomez, Thiesson and Miguel Ibarra, each of whom played the entirety of the two previous games.
However, a second San Jose goal didn’t come, and Minnesota began to play their way into the game, as openings began to come first for Quintero and Ibarra, then Thiesson down the left side. Their opening goal, though, was no team beauty but a remarkable strike by the returning Christian Ramirez.
Ramirez snapped up a turnover by the San Jose defense right at the right corner of the 18-yard box and immediately hit a flawless shot into the top-left corner of the goal. Quakes goalkeeper Andrew Tarbell was caught completely out of position and had no chance to stop the goal, Ramirez’s season opener.
The chemistry beginning to develop between Ramirez and the attacking three midfielders behind him is clear, and Minnesota was completely dominant after tying the game.
Chances came from everywhere: Thiesson crosses from the left, Eric Miller beating his man down the right, Quintero and Gomez counterattacking at high speed and Ramirez and Ibarra looking to finish things off.
Ramirez came the closest to a second goal with a shot that Minnesota would come to regret in the second half, an open hit from four yards out that he hit into the ground and off the bottom of the crossbar in the 41st minute.
For all of Minnesota’s dominance and creation in the latter part of the first half, they had only Ramirez’s moment of brilliance and a tied score heading to halftime.
As Adrian Heath said after the game, “Goals change games.” Minnesota had failed to take the lead, and they would pay dearly for it in the second half.
Even the opening of the second half looked good for the Loons, as Quintero had a decent case for a penalty just after halftime with an uncalled foul just inside the 18-yard box. Six minutes later, Ramirez was fouled badly by San Jose’s Harold Cummings, already on a yellow card, and Cummings did not receive a second yellow card.
The refereeing would be a key point of discussion after the game, as multiple members of United felt that it had been below-par at both those points and throughout the game. San Jose’s second goal had nothing to do with the men in yellow, though.
The goal was a matter of perseverance for San Jose’s Chris Wondolowski, who came on as a sub early in the second half. Wondo got into the box and was swarmed by United defenders and appeared to be stuffed. United never cleared the ball, Wondo found an opening to get a cross to Danny Hoesen, and the Quakes were ahead again.
The third goal was soon to follow, as a Hoesen shot from the edge of the area was blocked by Francisco Calvo and cleared away. However, play was stopped and the video review system caught Calvo’s arm blocking the ball. A second penalty was awarded, Wondolowski buried it, sinking the Loons.
While San Jose’s results have not been good this season, bringing in the second-most prolific goalscorer in MLS history off the bench is a potent weapon. Wondolowski’s goal (his 136th career, nine behind Landon Donovan for most all-time in MLS regular season play) and assist set the Earthquakes on the track to victory.
Minnesota’s potent attack continued to find openings, but the second San Jose goal pushed the frustration past the smart combination play of the first half. Gomez, in particular, had three shots from outside the penalty area after Minnesota fell behind that were optimistic at best.
Minnesota had late opportunities to draw closer through a header off the post from Calvo and more chances for Miller down the right, but nothing was scored and no goals changed this game for them. While the boos during and after the game were directed at the refs, one could understand if fans had turned their attention to the players.
“It’s a difficult one to explain,” Heath said after the game. “I actually thought for probably thirty-five minutes in the first half, it’s as good as we’ve played. Every time we got some momentum in the game, every time I thought that we were more likely to go and get the next goal, we make a bad decision, a poor choice and it ends up in the back of the net.”
“Guys are working really hard, guys are running, guys are doing their jobs,”Miller said afterwards. “Defensively and offensively, we’re just making some critical errors and it’s costing us goals.
“Obviously you kind of saw it both ways tonight, they made a huge error, Christian with the incredible goal to capitalize on it, and then we had a couple errors as well that they capitalized on. I think that’s kind of the way the league is now. There are so many good guys that if you make little errors, other teams are going to capitalize.”
Deserved or not, Calvo has taken the brunt of the blame this season from fans and media. With his arm and the cross around him from Wondolowski putting him squarely in the frame of two of San Jose’s goals again, his name will be in the thick of the discussion again.
When asked about Calvo, Heath deferred. “I don’t want to talk about individuals at this moment in time,” he said. “I want to see the video back and go over it again, and we’ll determine what we thought the problems were.”
Calvo did not mince words in his comments. “It’s not good. We don’t feel happy to give three points away. We try, two penalties. I think the referee was embarrassing. I don’t want to talk too much about the referee but he was terrible. For me, he was totally terrible.”
“We need to be together now as a group, as a team, because it’s a big chance for the media to talk bad things about our team now. But we have to be together as a team. It’s the only chance. We need to be stronger than anyone.”
When asked about more about the refereeing, Calvo said, “If you call all the fouls, you have to call all the fouls for both teams. I think he was calling more fouls for them and not for us. For example, in my challenge with the head (against Florian Jungwirth, late in the game), I win the ball and then he called a foul on me.
“I think the referee wasn’t good. I’ve never seen that guy in my life in this league. I think we as a team need more respect, because all the referees come here and they do whatever they want.”
Heath, too, commented briefly on the refereeing. “I’ll be speaking to Howard Webb. I’ve not mentioned referees and I didn’t want to do it all season, but I’ll be having a chat with him on Monday.”
Webb is the general manager of the Professional Referee Organization, which provides referees for MLS games.
The refereeing was a talking point, but United have to change something they can control to fix this.
“It’s making teams earn things a little more,” Miller said. “I think we give a lot of cheap goals here. I think a lot of times with, just the way that we’re so good going forward, we leave ourselves a little exposed at the back. I think that’s something that we have to find the right balance of.”
Whether the changes should come in personnel, formation or just in mentality, the fuel from the gritty 10-man win over Vancouver last Saturday is long gone. These were three points United had to have, and they came away empty-handed.
