Recap + Notebook: MNUFC continues regular season skid

Last night Minnesota United entered Kansas City, KS with a massively depleted roster. Heath set his depleted side up in a 4-2-3-1 with Adi up top. Needing Hunou in the lineup, the forward lined up as a CAM. MNUFC also came in with only six substitutes, two of which were goalkeepers. This was the result of at least four players for Minnesota United being injured along with Ozzie Alonso and Chase Gasper being out due to yellow card accumulation.

Thing did not look so bad for Minnesota United inside the first five minutes. The Loons managed to get a few very good close shots. Nothing however took, as seemed to be the case with most shots on the season.

“We had two great chances. Game changes. Better belief in the group, better belief in what we’re trying to do,” said Adrian Heath. “They have to extend, they have to push, leave themselves more vulnerable. But when I look back, we’ve had probably four really good chances this evening. Don’t think the keeper [Tim Melia] made a save. Disappointing.”

That performance would only last five minutes and fourteen minutes in Sporting Kansas City would take the lead on their first of four goals.

SKC would score again in the 36th minute and cap off the half with a penalty in the 45th minute.

Just seven minutes in the Loons would allow a fourth goal on the night, the last one thankfully for the Loons. However when it came to the performance and the goals allowed, Adrian Heath wasn’t sugar coating anything.

“Immensely disappointed but if you concede the type of goals we conceded tonight, make the mistakes that we made this evening, at a place like this, then you’re going to get punished. It was a comedy of errors, at time, at the back. Decision making was poor, with and without the ball. The one thing that we said before the game, you come here, you have to take them opportunities that come your way, and we did have some opportunities but we didn’t take them. But you give yourself a mountain to climb when you concede the goals that we did against a team that is really good in possession. I’m afraid it was a really poor night for quite a lot of our players.”

The question is, how will the Loons do in the injury department as they play again on Saturday against the LA Galaxy.

“Obviously we hope that Robin [Lod] has no reaction and comes through because I think he made a difference when he came on and got a hold of the ball,” Heath said. “Within two minutes he’s had a flash wide. His general back-to-goal play and bringing people in to the game was there for all to see. [Fanendo] Adi will be better for starting a game. We think [Emanuel Reynoso] will be available for the weekend. And we’ll go from there. We’ll regroup and hopefully, we haven’t gotten any more injuries. We’ve got the likes of Chase [Gasper] and Ozzie [Alonso] and a few others coming back.”

At the end of the night, this picture perfectly encapsulates MNUFC’s evening in KCK.