Playing for the first time since a pair of home wins in Week 5, MNUFC traveled to Utah to face a Real Salt Lake team who spoiled the Loons’ home opener. With newcomers Adrien Hunou and Franco Fragapane in tow — but with Fragapane unavailable due to a paperwork issue — Minnesota also welcomed back Bakaye Dibassy from injury but did not bring midfielder Emanuel Reynoso, who was held out for a leg injury. The Loons started slow and conceded early, but got some late heroics from sub Niko Hansen to come back and earn a 1-1 draw on the road for their first road points in 2021.
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Chalk it up to the bye week, to Reynoso being unavailable, or to something else entirely, but for whatever reason, MNUFC came out of the gate flat against Real Salt Lake. The game’s opening minutes found the Loons doing a decent enough job on defense, but unable to figure out exactly how they wanted to attack the home side without the offensive nous of Reynoso.
Before they could sort themselves out, though, Real Salt Lake struck first in the 13th minute. Lining up a free kick from distance, the Claret-and-Cobalt played it short to Aaron Herrera, whom midfielder Hassani Dotson failed to close down. Herrera’s arcing free kick found midfielder Damir Kreilach unmarked on the near post and Kreilach finished it across his body and onto the far post to give RSL a 1-0 lead.
Forward Adrien Hunou — making his MLS debut — showed flashes of the speed that will make him an effective weapon, as well as a willingness to press in defense. His movement was solid, but his overall effectiveness was limited as the Loons struggled to get him the ball in advantageous positions. In the 23rd minute, a cross from defender Romain Metanire nearly found him in the box and throughout his stint, both Metanire and defender Chase Gasper kept nearly connecting with him on crosses from the wings.
Through the final 15 minutes of the first half, Minnesota showed a bit more life and spark, but the visitors remained unable to really put the screws to goalkeeper Zac MacMath, who got his first minutes of the MLS season with David Ochoa away for international duty. On the other side, goalkeeper Tyler Miller made a number of quality saves to keep Minnesota in the game as the attack worked to find an opening, but the teams headed into the tunnel with the home side holding a goal advantage.
In the second half, Head Coach Adrian Heath went to his bench in the 65th minute in the hopes of getting a lift from attackers Ramon Abila and Niko Hansen, who came in for Adrien Hunou (who is still getting to game fitness after joining the team last week) and Jacori Hayes, respectively. The move shifted Dotson to a central role and Hansen out wide to the left wing.
In the 75th minute, RSL sub Justin Meram profited from a turnover by the visitors as he sent in a long range shot that looked like it was headed for the upper right 90, but Miller was there to go full extension and spear it away. The save kept the Loons within striking distance and three minutes later, they would cash in. Gasper sent in a cross on the near post from the left side and Hansen got a head on it, sending it on goal from short range. MacMath punched it away, but directly back at Hansen and the ball trickled in behind RSL’s keeper. It was Minnesota’s only shot on goal, but it turned out to be enough.
Real Salt Lake piled forward to try to get a goal and snatch back another two points, but a strong performance by Miller down the stretch kept them from getting a second goal and when the final whistle blew, Minnesota got away with their first road point of the year in a comeback 1-1 draw.
ADRIAN HEATH ON EARNING A POINT ON THE ROAD
"[Tyler Miller] made a couple of big saves at the end. But, before that, I thought we controlled the possession for long periods of the game. Certainly something that I thought we deserved. They’ll probably think that they deserved all three with the opportunities they had late on, but, when you consider the amount of ball we had, I’m pleased. And, it’s, what? Seven points out of nine? We’re trending in the right direction.”
NIKO HANSEN ON WHERE THE TEAM IS AFTER SEVEN GAMES
“We’ve dealt with a lot. Guys coming in, injuries – there’s been quite a bit of adversity that we’ve had to deal with this year. We’ve done as much as we can. Watching from the outside, we just needed to keep being dangerous, keep being an attacking group, which we have. We have some amazing talent on this team to do those things so we just need to get together. And now we have these next three weeks to really get everybody back in, to get everybody on the same page. It’s a really, really dangerous group when you look at it at training, look at it on paper. We got some firepower moving forward.”
BELL BANK MAN OF THE MATCH
GOAL BREAKDOWN
- 13' | An excellently taken free kick from RSL. The home side goes short and catches Minnesota napping as Herrera sends the ball in to Kreilach who finishes cleanly past Miller. 1-0
- 78' | Chase Gasper's cross finds Niko Hansen diving onto the net and the ball goes off Hansen, into MacMath, then off Hansen again and it trickles in. 1-1
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UP NEXT
FC DALLAS vs. MINNESOTA UNITED FC
Toyota Stadium | Frisco, Texas
06.19.2021 | MLS Week No. 8 | MLS Game No. 8
7:30 p.m. CT (The CW Twin Cities, Bally Sports North, MNUFC Radio on SKOR North)
