Notebook: Loons look the part but lack the final product.

Last night Minnesota United faced off with Columbus Crew away in Columbus, OH at MAPFRE Stadium. Unfortunately for the Loons it would be the home side coming away with all three points on the night. Minnesota United was very close to getting themselves a single point on the night from a Michael Boxall goal. However Boxall was called offside and the goal called off. Adrian Heath, who is normally fairly quiet on these things, was 100% unhappy with the call.

“Yeah. And, having seen it. You know, I don’t normally complain about stuff, but having just watched it, I don’t know what the rule is anymore, because, we get told to keep the flag down and let the play finish and then we’ll have a look at it after. And, from the clip that we’ve just seen, he’s not offside. So, disappointed. And, that’ll be interesting to see what they say when they look at it. But, on the whole, I thought they would have been disappointed if they would have drawn the game, for sure. They were a good team. They’re well coached. Spent a lot of money on a lot of good players. As I said, when we played them down in Orlando, you know, I think they’re going to be there and they’re about to come at the end of the season.”

Hassani Dotson was also upset about the call after being asked if he saw the replay.

“Yea we did. It’s pretty disappointing, especially to see that maybe the officials could have waited, let the goal happen and then maybe they wouldn’t have enough evidence to overturn it. That’s football. We had the whole rest of the game to get another goal but it’s a little disappointing but it’s time to bounce back and get ready for the weekend.”

Heath however wouldn’t go without giving credit where credit is due when speaking about the Columbus Crew and their performance vs Minnesota’s.

“We obviously tried to get our shape a little bit similar to them, a 4-4-2 defensive shape and make it difficult. But, what they’re really good at, is spreading the pitch out and then they get [Lucas] Zelarayan in them little holds, and they did that better than us. They played out from their back a lot better than us this evening. And, you know, that caused us problems. Because, once you get an overload in certain areas, which they’re good at doing, and then they get people like [Lucas] Zelarayan and Pedro Santos and [Luis] Diaz on the ball. Then they become a problem. You know, they’re not top of the league by four points by accident. This is a good team. Well coached. And, I knew it was going to be really tough. But, one thing I will say, is, our lads kept going. I thought we’d get a goal off of some set piece. I was pleased for Robin [Lod] to get another goal. Is that seven, or eight, for him this season? So, that’s good for him. And, as I say, looking at the last free kick, it doesn’t look offside to me. So, maybe we can feel a little bit of a grieve. But, hey, it is what it is and then move on. It’ll be nice to have a couple of games at home just to stay at home and not be traveling. We’ll see where we are when we get to the stage where we even all the games up.”

Kei Kamara was not happy with the teams result, but really emphasized that there are things much bigger then soccer going on right now.

“Yes, yes, yes, just not a good one. Not a good one. It’s a day where, like I said again, as us, we’re coming out and participating in sports and playing soccer, but there’s something so much bigger than what the game is. Yes, tonight we played a game and we ended up not getting the points that we wanted, we’re frustrated obviously at the call at the end of the game too – that’s also another one, but something so much bigger that’s going on and hopefully people are not ignoring it because, you know, you get to watch soccer and get to be at peace and distraction for a little bit.”

Not everything was negative for Minnesota during the match however. Adrian Heath did focus on some of the bright spots. And while the result wasn’t what the team or fans wanted there absolutely was some brightness to behold.

“I thought [Emanuel] Reynoso was outstanding. Such a good footballer. And his work rate is at top-drawer. I thought Dayne [St. Clair], Dayne will be a little bit dissapointed that the second goal beat him for power and pace. Where, I thought he kept the goal very well. He looked calm all evening. That bodes well for his future. I thought the two center midfield players worked really, really hard, considering at times, they were outnumbered in there. And, obviously, it’s nice for us to get some minutes out of Kei [Kamara]. That will stand him in good step for the next couple of games at home, which, we know are going to be big for us.”

Next up for Minnesota is a Sunday night clash against Real Salt Lake at home in Minnesota. Not only that but we also know the full schedule for the rest of the 2020 season. Hassani Dotson is appreciative of that as well but mentions it’s one game of prep at a time.

“In terms of preparing for the week, preparing for the opponent, it’s always one game at a time but it’s always nice to that there’s a plan in place to know maybe we have a week to recover or this week, we gotta manage the body. So it’s nice to see it all laid out.”

Extra Tidbits:

If Dibassy will be available for Sunday:

“Yeah. Yeah, I do. Yes, we’re hoping that he’s going to be okay.”

About Kevin Molino:

“He’s a little bit tight. As I said, while we’re in these games, guys, you know, we are certainly not going to risk players like Kevin [Molino] who are important to us. You know, it might have been different if it had been a Western Conference team and a game at home. But, certainly, on the road, against an Eastern Conference team, players as well as these are, we’re not going to risk one of our better players for sure.”