Loons Flounder in Midweek Match at Vancouver

Minnesota United FC visited the Pacific Northwest, a place they have had a huge lack of success in, for the third and final time this year. Coming into this game MNUFC had lost to both Portland and Seattle by a combined 9-1 out west, and that luck didn’t change tonight.

The Loons were short a few players as Francisco Calvo was back home in Costa Rica as he and his wife welcomed their newborn son into the world a few days ago. Kevin Molino was out due to illness while Christian Ramirez started the match as a sub, as he is still recovering from a hamstring injury suffered in July.

In normal fashion for a MNUFC match, the opponents started off dominant holding possession for most of the first five minutes. In the 5th minute the Whitecaps Marcel de Jong fired a beautiful long pass from the midfield line to the top of the box where Yordy Reyna took a touch and chipped it over Bobby Shuttleworth for the first goal of the night.

Vancouver would manage to get another shot attempt in the 9th minute, missing just to the right. The Loons finally got their first attempt at goal in the 14th minute when Sam Nicholson took a fairly weak shot towards the center of the net that was easily stopped.

In the 20th minute the Loons conceded a pair of corner kicks that didn’t result in much success for the Whitecaps. Minnesota United then gained three corner kicks between the 22nd and 23rd minute, the last of which was, unsuprisingly, overshot to the far post and easily snagged by the keeper. In the 31st minute Vancouver struck again as Erik Hurtado deflected in teammate Brek Shea’s shot for goal number 2.

A few minutes after the goal, the Loons earned a corner that resulted in a Johan Venegas header that would miss high and wide left. The final 10 minutes of the first half had a good amount of fouls that was all capped off with Michael Boxall getting a yellow card for unsporting behavior in the 45th minute.

In the 2nd half, Collen Warner was given a yellow card in the 51st Minute for unsporting behavior. Adrian Heath used his usual allotment of two subs (editor’s note: he knows we get three, right?) in the 62nd minute when Joseph Greenspan subbed in for Brent Kallman and in the 72nd minute when Christian Ramirez subbed in for Sam Nicholson. This was Superman’s first appearance since suffering a hamstring injury on July 29th against DC United.

In the 88th minute Vancouver would wrap it all up with their third goal of the night as Freddy Montero sent a cross in that Brek Shea finished with a header. A few minutes later the match finished up with Vancouver the winners 3-0.

Minnesota United FC will face Montreal Impact this Saturday at Saputo Stadium in Montreal before coming back on 9/23 for their second to last home game of 2017.