Seattle Sounders FC brought the rain with them to the Twin Cities on Saturday night, showing their quality in a match that showcased Minnesota United’s work ethic, but not their finishing in a 4-0 loss. None of that was down to the capacity crowd of 22,649, who were full-throated in their support throughout and provided yet more evidence that soccer is on the rise in Minnesota.
“I think it showed that we’re relevant in the city, which is something that we wanted to be,” said Head Coach Adrian Heath of the sellout. “I think it’s a testament about how the game is growing. I think it’s a testament of what we’re trying to achieve here. And the crowd have been great. They can see the guys are trying. At times, we've been short of quality. That’s pretty evident. But I can’t fault the players tonight for lack of energy, and lack of work rate and desire. We’ve just got beaten by another team, with better quality."
The opening minutes of the match saw Seattle grabbing control of the run of play and showing little intention of letting up. In the fourth minute, midfielder Jordan Morris got into the open along the left side and scooted a low cross in front of goal to forward Will Bruin, but Bruin couldn’t put a foot on it and the ball bounced harmlessly out of bounds past the right post.
A few minutes later, midfielder Nicolas Lodeiro got a good look directly in front of the net, but sent the ball wide left. For their part, the Loons threatened a few times, including in the eighth minute when defender Ismaila Jome sent a beauty of a long pass over the top to midfielder Kevin Molino. Molino got his head on it, but the ball sailed wide right.
In the very next minute, a crazy sequence saw an MNUFC pass ricochet off a Sounders FC defender and back into Minnesota’s half. Midfielder Clint Dempsey worked the ball through a clutch of defenders and knocked it ahead to Bruin, who finished it smoothly and gave the visitors a 1-0 lead.
The Loons, though, kept working to level the match. Thirteen minutes in, forward Abu Danladi — playing up top in place of the injured Christian Ramirez — got out ahead of the Seattle defense and sent the ball past goalkeeper Stefan Frei and into the net, but was called offside. Shortly after, Jome once again crossed a pretty ball in, this time to midfielder Sam Nicholson, but the Scotsman couldn’t get his header on frame.
“I thought we started the game well,” said Head Coach Adrian Heath. “We got [Danladi] in some good, opportune moments and maybe he rushed his finish a little bit, but he’s showing glimpses of what we thought he could do. He kept the center backs honest all afternoon. I think we’ve had some good performances tonight.”
In the 19th minute, Seattle doubled its lead off a short corner kick. Midfielder Gustav Svensson sent the ball toward the goal from the right wing and found an unmarked Dempsey in the box for the header and the 2-0 lead. Throughout, Sounders FC looked the consummate professionals, confident in where the players were headed on the pitch and moving cleanly and aggressively.
The Loons were clearly feeling the absence of Ramirez as their hard work was frustrated time and again in the final third. Time and again they worked the ball into Seattle’s box but couldn’t find a strong shot, often getting turned away and then having to recover on the counterattack. Twice in the closing moments of the first half Morris got out on the counter, but the first time, goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth closed him down and the second time he was called offside to keep the match 2-0 heading into the break.
“I thought between both boxes we actually played some really good football tonight,” said Heath. “And at 2-nil, even at halftime, I thought if we scored the next goal, we would have an opportunity to maybe keep ourselves in the game. We also knew that every time that they broke on the counterattack, with the pace that they’ve got, with [Jordan] Morris’ pace and [Clint] Dempsey and [Nicolás] Lodeiro’s guile, that we were going to leave ourselves susceptible. We had a couple of really good opportunities at 2-nil today to go to 2-1. To keep the crowd involved. To keep everybody engaged in the game.”
The second half was largely more of the same, with MNUFC working harder overall and winning the possession battle, but not coming up with the finishers. They struggled to put any heat on Frei, although Nicholson struck an encouraging blast from long distance that glanced off Frei’s fingertips and went over the crossbar in the 57th minute. The team’s best chance to pull within one came in the 61st minute when defender Jerome Thiesson sent a cross in that found Danladi unmarked in front of goal, but the forward’s header went high and into the crowd.
Sounders FC put the match out of reach in the 71st and 73rd minute with a pair of goals from Morris and Dempsey, making for an ultimately disappointing night on the pitch, even though the energy provided by the sellout crowd held strong throughout.
“At the end of the day, we got beat by a very quality team,” said Heath. “Don’t let us kid ourselves here. They’ve got internationals in nearly every position on the field, that’s taken them however many years, continually improving and improving to put it together. And we have to be realistic about that. You know, I don’t know what they paid for their front four, you know, whatever they paid for [Nicolás] Lodeiro, whatever they paid for [Clint] Dempsey, to bring him back, and salary, etc. They’ve got one of the best young strikers in the country in Jordan Morris. And then they’ve got a really experienced goal scorer in the division in [Will] Bruin. So they’re a quality side. They won the whole thing last year. Let’s put it in perspective. And we’ve been able to compete tonight.”
Minnesota United now gets a week off to regroup before heading west to once again face Seattle, this time at home at CenturyLink Field. That match kicks off late on Sunday, August 20 at 9:00 p.m. CT and will be broadcast on FS1 and MNUFC Radio on 1500 ESPN, with pre-match coverage on the latter beginning at 8:30 p.m.
Lineups
Minnesota United FC Starting XI: GK Bobby Shuttleworth; D Jerome Thiesson, Michael Boxall, Francisco Calvo, Ismaila Jome; M Sam Cronin, Ibson (Collin Martin 80’), Miguel Ibarra (Johan Venegas 69’), Sam Nicholson, Kevin Molino; F Abu Danladi
MIN Unused Subs: GK Patrick McLain; D Brent Kallman, Jermaine Taylor; M Collen Warner; F Brandon Allen
Seattle Sounders FC Starting XI: GK Stefan Frei; D Kelvin Leerdam, Roman Torres (Tony Alfaro 75’), Joevin Jones, Chad Marshall; M Cristian Roldan, Gustav Svensson, Nicolas Lodeiro, Jordan Morris (Aaron Kovar 76’), Clint Dempsey; F Will Bruin (Brad Evans 64’)
SEA Unused Subs: GK Bryan Meredith; D Oniel Fisher; M Harry Shipp, Jordy Delem
Match Events
Goals
9’ – Bruin (Dempsey) – SEA
18’ – Dempsey (Marshall, Svensson) – SEA
71’ – Morris (Lodeiro) – SEA
73’ – Dempsey (Jones) – SEA
Discipline
68’ – Jones (YC) – SEA
84’ – Cronin (YC) – MIN
Attendance: 22,649
