The Loons kicked off Matchday 8 under a cloudy Canadian sky today, with both Dayne St. Clair and Tani Oluwaseyi taking to the pitch in their home province of Ontario. On paper, the threat of Minnesota’s six-game unbeaten streak painted a dismal picture for a Toronto side that was winless in seven games. On the pitch, a significant deficit in league standings didn’t seem to matter; the two northern clubs were evenly matched, hunger and momentum canceling each other out in a scoreless 93 minutes.
Minnesota’s standard 5-3-2 met a Toronto lineup suffering from a major shortage, with no less than four defenders out on injury plus forwards Deandre Kerr and Ola Byrnhildsen. That said, DPs Federico Bernardeschi and Lorenzo Insigne were in good form, with Bernardeschi posing Toronto’s largest attacking threat. Wingback Joseph Rosales found himself battling the Italian forward one-on-one down the flank on several occasions, effectively keeping him away from center field.
The first half saw three shots, six fouls, and a yellow card on each side, making for a drawn-out back-and-forth with some evident frustration from players across the board. A formula of fouls, free kicks, and classic long throw-ins from Boxall were broken up by the occasional breakout run from Bernardeschi or some fancy footwork from Minnesota’s Joaquín Pereyra. No first-half stoppage time and no substitutes starting the second half kept the flow of the match largely stagnant.
Wingback Bongokuhle Hlongwane made an effort to play up the field, performing well on both ends before making way for DJ Taylor in the 54th minute. Taylor played a less aggressive wingback position in favor of shoring up the backline, with the tried and true combination of Michael Boxall, Nicolás Romero, and Jefferson Díaz in the middle. Romero got to the ball for a shot in the 59th minute, but Toronto keeper Sean Johnson knocked it away and kept the score nil-nil.
Samuel Shashoua replaced Wil Trapp in the midfield in the 70th minute, and Toronto’s first substitution saw Tyrese Spicer on for Derrick Etienne Jr. With ten minutes left on the clock, both teams were still searching for a catalyst to open up the match, stuck in a loop of responding to one another’s attempts but still never pushing a ball past a keeper.
Even possession was neck and neck, the Loons winding up with 49% — by far the highest percentage of the season from a team that tends toward making very intentional movements with less time on the ball.
“We’re going to have to do both this year,” Coach Ramsay said in a postgame press conference. “We’re going to have to be a team that is undoubtedly always going to be a counterattacking threat. We’re always going to be able to use big spaces the opposition gives us, and I feel like tonight we were probably some precision or a pass or two away from being a team that can create with organized attacks and longer spells of possession.”
A few late substitutions for both sides tried to spark something on the pitch, with Maxime Dominguez making his home debut for Toronto in the 80th minute alongside 23-year-old Charlie Sharp. Just after St. Clair kept Bernardeschi’s 86th-minute shot out of the net, Ramsay pulled a triple substitution. Sang Bin Jeong, Anthony Markanich, and Carlos Harvey came on for Kelvin Yeboah, Joseph Rosales, and Jefferson Díaz ahead of another Minnesota corner.
After three minutes of stoppage time, both teams walked away with one point and zero goals to their name. A 93rd-minute shot from Canadian national team player Jonathan Osorio threatened to tip the scale at the tail end of the match, but St. Clair shut it down with his fifth save of the night, cementing his fourth clean sheet of the season.
All in all, the result didn’t change much in the way of standing for either side, continuing both Toronto’s winless streak and the Loons’ unbeaten run. MNUFC will fight for three points next week, when they return to Western Conference play at home against FC Dallas.
