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Minnesota United heads to the land of poutine to take on a top Eastern Conference squad in Montreal Impact on the road tonight. The Loons enter have looked impressive as of late with a 7-1 victory over Cincinnati one week ago and a midweek 3-1 victory over a tough San Jose Earthquakes side. Minnesota has been on a roll as of late scoring two US Open Cup wins, a friendly win over Forward Madison and two wins in MLS.
This however does leave them in a precarious position with the amount of games they’re playing will start taking a toll on the club. Since June 25th they have played two matches per week and that will not stop anytime soon. After this road match in Montreal they’ll play New Mexico United on Wednesday followed by FC Dallas next Saturday, Aston Villa the following Wednesday (June 17th), before their two games per week slate ends on June 20th in Salt Lake City.
The Impact currently sit 3rd in the Eastern Conference with 30 points entering this evenings match with a very tight race in the East with the 2-6th place teams sitting only four points apart from top to bottom. The West is nearly just as close of a race with only 3 points separating the 3rd-7th place teams in the conference.
With the starting XI identical for the last two MNUFC matches it would not be a surprise to see the same or nearly the same XI line up for tonight’s match. Metanire is still on International Duty with Madagascar, who will play the Democratic Republic of the Congo tomorrow in the Round of 16 in the African Cup of Nations. Abu Danladi’s status has improved since Wednesday as he is listed as questionable for tonight’s match.
Ignacio Piatti will be out for the match with a knee injury he suffered back in May and Midfielder Clement Bayiha will also be out for Montreal with a quad injury. MNUFC manager Adrian Heath told reporters “[Saphis Taider] has obviously picked up where [Ignacio] Piatti left off.” When asked about Piatti’s absence from Impact and Taider in his spot while he is injured.
MNUFC looks to make three straight league victories tonight at 6:30. Match coverage begins at 6:00 on FOX Sports North and SKOR North along with the FOX Sports Go App and ESPN+ for out of market fans.
Staff picks:
Jacob Schneider: 4-2 Loons, Molino with a brace and assist
Seth Steffenhagen: 2-1 Loons
Eli Hoff: 3-1 Loons
Ashle Norling: 2-2 Draw
Tim McLaughlin: 2-1 Montreal
Colin O’Donnell: 3-1 Montreal, Quintero off the bench with a goal