Recap/Notebook: Loons break Seattle’s streak

Yesterday afternoon Minnesota United did the incredible, something many people thought would not happen. They vanquished the Seattle Sounders. Not only at home, not only for the first time in club history, but also an UNBEATEN Sounders squad. Something Adrian Heath had quite a bit to say about post match.

“I’m pleased for the players. I’m pleased for the supporters. By the way, I thought they were magnificent today. It might be as good of atmospheres as we’ve had in the stadium. They got us through in the end, so, hats off to them. But, no, we know they’ve got a few injuries, they’ve got a few people away. The starting eleven that they put out, there’s probably seven of them that have played most of the games this year. And, as I’ve said, everybody knows the respect I have for [Brian Schmetzer] and his coaching staff. I think they do an unbelievable job. Four finals in five years, I think it is. So, we knew it was going to be tough today. The one thing about it is, you look at the young kids they brought on at the end, big, strong, pace all around, so, I’m pleased for the players. Because, I thought, actually, for the first 35, 40 minutes we were far and away the better team. I thought once we let the game get stretched, they started to get their spare man in midfield on the ball a little bit too much for my liking. But, overall, it’s a big win for us and it sets us up nicely for next week.”

The match for a large majority of it was reminiscent of the old Thunder/Sounders matches in the old A-League and USL First Division. The match consisted of 26 fouls, 4 yellow cards, and numerous pushing/shoving/shouting matches between both sides throughout the course of the 90 minutes. Those all in addition to a surprising amount of non-calls including a clear foul on Robin Lod inside the box late in the match. In the press conference Lod would say:

“I mean I only scored one but I think we should have worried about the penalty at least on the on the situation. That’s how I felt. I haven’t seen it in the replay but as a live, I thought there was definitely there.”

However it was not long after the non-call that Lod struck back and scored putting the Loons over the top.

Lod said about his goal, “I mean I just listen to what the coach wanted and the goal on the front and obviously, Niko [Niko Hansen] bring some more pace on the right side so I mean it was a good switch I guess. Niko assisted another goal.”

DJ Taylor added about the locker room atmosphere after beating the Sounders for the first time, “Yeah, I honestly didn’t even know about that until after the game. It was talked about in the locker room after the game. You know I felt happy and proud to be a part of the club and beat Seattle obviously with the history. But yeah, my mentality was ‘they’re unbeaten, so let’s be the ones to actually beat that record and show the league what we’re here to do,’ which is obviously going to the playoffs and winning the cup.”