Having taken a point off the Western Conference leaders two weeks ago at home, Minnesota United came into Kansas City looking to do even better and exact a measure of revenge for a poor showing last season at Children’s Mercy Park. Although defender Brent Kallman impressed in his first start of the season and defender Tyrone Mears scored a screamer from way out to level the match early, the Loons saw bad go to worse when they went down a man in the second half. Unable to claw their way back in, the Loons ended up on the wrong side of a 4-1 road loss.
"We obviously never came to terms with their wide guy coming in field and the fullback going wide," said Head Coach Adrian Heath. "We allowed them too much space to do that. They put too many balls in our box, and I don’t think we defended it really well. We are not good enough on the road to defend like we’ve done tonight. It was too easy for them to get to dangerous areas."
Sporting Kansas City started off hot, getting an early chance off a cross from the right side by defender Graham Zusi to forward Daniel Salloi who put it wide right in the third minute. That was followed in the next minute by forward Gerso Fernandes nutmegging defender Tyrone Mears on the left side and firing a tight-angled shot that goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth saved.
The chances kept coming for SKC, who got another chance after putting together a pretty string of one-touch passing and getting the ball to Yohan Croizet on the left-hand side. Croizet’s shot was again saved by Shuttleworth in the eighth minute, but Minnesota struggled to get any kind of possession going in the match’s opening minute.
In the ninth minute, a cheap turnover in their own half led to the Loons giving up the match’s first goal. Croizet cut off a pass and quickly got it to Salloi who buried a right-footed shot onto the far post to give the home side a 1-0 lead.
A galvanized MNUFC answered quickly, though, and in unexpected fashion when midfielder Rasmus Schuller got the ball over to defender Tyrone Mears, who measured the space in front of him and positively drilled a shot from 40 yards out to level the match at 1-1 in the 12th minute.
Over the next 20 minutes, the match settled into a rhythm with Minnesota finding space between SKC’s lines on the counterattack but largely unable to build an attack through moving the ball around. In the 25th minute, a free kick opportunity near the edge of the box nearly turned into a lead for the visitors when midfielder Darwin Quintero’s curling shot took a deflection and forced goalkeeper Tim Melia to go to ground to stop the ball.
Defensively, MNUFC held its own largely through the efforts of defender Brent Kallman, who stepped in for the departed Francisco Calvo. Kallman made several timely interceptions and blocks in the box, working well with partner Michael Boxall to frustrate Sporting Kansas City.
"I felt good about the way that I played in the box but some of my clearances weren’t good enough," said Kallman. "Those are dangerous when you clear a ball and then the ball knocks down to the next level and they’ve got guys there waiting to shoot. The clearances have got to be better. I felt alright on the ball but we didn’t have the ball enough as a team. We were a little bit shaky with it. We gave the ball away a lot. I think in possession we’ve got to do a little bit better."
Unfortunately, there was only so much the backline could do as SKC ramped up their attack and began to up the pressure. In the 35th minute, midfielder Wan Kuzain notched his first MLS goal when Zusi set him up at the top of the box with a pass from the right side. The ball took a minor deflection but was headed on frame to give the 19-year-old a moment to remember that also put the hosts on top 2-1.
A few minutes later, forward Cristian Lobato doubled the lead for SKC after he knifed through a bit of lackluster defending and into the right side of the box. His strike snuck past Shuttleworth in the 38th minute and it was clear that Kansas City were doing their best to target that side of the pitch and take advantage of it.
"Down that left hand side, whether it was a lack of communication I don’t know, you can’t allow Graham Zusi – who's played most of his life in the attacking third – the amount of time and space that we did. I just thought that if we got another body in the midfield, that would allow the wide guy to get a little bit closer to him."
Through a combination of staunch defending by Shuttleworth and a little help from the crossbar, MNUFC managed to get into the locker room without further damage but still down 3-1 and with just 35% of the possession and four shots to SKC’s 18.
With midfielder Alexi Gomez replaced by Maximiano, the Loons hoped to change the tenor of the match and get back into it, but Maximiano picked up two yellow cards in less than 20 minutes of play and was ejected from the match in the 63rd minute.
"We made the change at halftime, which we had to do," said Heath. "I thought we actually started the second half quite well, and even though it’s 3-1, you think if you get the next goal you can make a game of it. But the sending off of Maxi was really the killer blow for us. After that, it was: can we keep it down?"
Playing down a man on the road proved to be too much for MNUFC to handle, and they conceded again in the 81st minute after the Loons couldn’t clear the ball all the way out of their end. Forward Gerso Fernandes found forward Diego Rubio on the left side of the box and he got around both Boxall and Mears to strike a low shot past Shuttleworth and onto the far post to make it 4-1.
"Because of the set up that we had, I didn’t think that we ever got enough pressure on their three men in midfield," said Heath. "They have the two attacking guys and then they have Ilie Sanchez who comes in there. We never really got to grips with that like we did a couple weeks ago at home."
In the 88th minute, it almost looked like Minnesota might score a consolation goal when midfielder Miguel Ibarra came roaring in on a loosely played ball and got around Melia but he couldn’t quite find the angle from the left side. He sent it back out to a streaking Abu Danladi — who came in for Christian Ramirez in the 68th minute — but Melia stood tall and got big to stop Danladi’s shot. Despite the similar result, Heath felt this was a very different match than the last one MNUFC lost in Kansas City last season.
"I felt more confident with this group this evening than I did this time last year," he said. "I can think back to the game and I don’t think we had any opportunities in the game. Even tonight, in the first half, I thought that we looked dangerous on the counterattack. Our final ball wasn’t good enough at times. But there’s no way of dressing it up: we’re very brittle on the road. We’re conceding too many goals to try and win games. The one thing it’s proved again this evening is that we’ve got a long way to go. We’re not good enough at this moment in time. We have to keep trying to chip away at the squad and bring in some people in the next window to try and make it better. That’s what we’ll try and do."
MNUFC next heads to Cincinnati to face FC Cincinnati in the fourth round of the U.S. Open Cup. That match is on Wednesday, June 6 at 6:30 p.m. CT at Nippert Stadium. The match will be streamed at ussoccer.com.
Lineups:
Minnesota United FC Starting XI: Bobby Shuttleworth; D Tyrone Mears, Michael Boxall, Brent Kallman, Eric Miller; M Ibson, Rasmus Schuller, Miguel Ibarra, Alexi Gomez (Maximiano 46’), Darwin Quintero (Frantz Pangop 75’); F Christian Ramirez (Abu Danladi 68’)
MIN Unused Subs: GK Matt Lampson; D Carter Manley, Wyatt Omsberg; M Collin Martin
Sporting Kansas City Starting XI: GK Tim Melia; D Graham Zusi, Ike Opara, Matt Besler, Seth Sinovic (Jaylin Lindsey 60’); M Roger Espinoza, Ille Sanchez, Yohan Croizet (Wan Kuzian 18’); F Cristian Lobato (Diego Rubio 78’), Daniel Salloi, Gerso Fernandes
SKC Unused Subs: GK Eric Dick; D Emiliano Amor; F D Kharlton Belmar, Gianluca Busio
Match Events
Goals
9’ – Salloi (Croizet)– SKC
11’ – Mears (Schuller) – MIN
35’ – Kuzain – SKC
38’ – Lobato (Espinoza) – SKC
81’ – Rubio (Fernandes) – SKC
Discipline
48’ – Maximiano (YC) – MIN
63’ – Maximiano (2YC) – MIN
77’ – Ibarra (YC) – MIN
