Missed chances sink Minnesota United as Kansas City steals 1-0 win
Minnesota United battled against Sporting Kansas City at Allianz Field on Saturday evening, ultimately falling 0-1 to Sporting after a late goal by Gadi Kinda.
12’: Kansas City’s Johnny Russell had Sporting’s first solid chance at goal with a run towards the back post, catching a cross from Daniel Salloi. Russell, within six yards of the net, took a shot off the bounce but missed high above the bar.
14’: Minnesota answered back with an opportunity of its own. Emanuel Reynoso slotted a through ball to Teemu Pukki on the run towards goal. Pukki attempted to place a shot on target, but the Sporting defense put space between Finnish international and the goal, ultimately deflecting the shot once it was taken.
19’: In the goal area, Reynoso got possession of the ball and made a backheel pass to Franco Fragapane with a run behind. Fragapane played across the top of the box for DJ Taylor to run onto. Taylor’s shot was saved in the bottom corner of the goal.
34’: Sporting Kansas City put the pressure on in the 34th minute when Logan Ndenbe struck a shot, making Dayne St. Clair dive and punch away the ball. The ball was redirected toward the six-yard-box, allowing Erik Thommy to catch the rebound. With a chance to capture the lead, Thommy’s attack was stopped by Michael Boxall.
37’: Reynoso fired off a shot on target from outside the box, bending into the center of the goal and forcing Tim Melia to stretch out and punch away the shot over the crossbar.
57’: In transition, Minnesota United had a fast break by switching the field. Ethan Bristow ran down a lofted ball near the touchline and drove towards goal. Bristow centered his pass to Fragapane who hit a one-touch shot, just missing over the bar.
66’: After putting multiple, consecutive shots on goal, the Loons had a near breakthrough. Pukki held his run to stay onside and received a pass to get him into a 1v1 with Melia. Pukki laid the ball across the center to Ismael Tajouri-Shradi, who was able to connect, but his shot was blocked by Jake Davis.
74’: Reynoso dribbled towards goal with time and space. Instead of choosing the shot for himself, the Argentine played into the feet of Pukki, who took the shot but was saved by Melia. Sporting was able to clear the ball before MNUFC had another chance to score.
80’: Minnesota United was awarded a free kick in its attacking third. Reynoso took the attempt, and Boxall redirected the ball with a header into the back of the net. The goal was ruled offside.
84’: Sporting Kansas City scored the go-ahead goal when Roger Espinoza delivered a ball to the far side of the field to Gadi Kinda. Kinda took his touch around Ethan Bristow and buried his shot to take the lead.
90’+4’: After receiving a through ball, Mender Garcia ran up the right wing and near the 18-yard box. Garcia then connected a pass to Sang Bin Jeong who was making a run at goal, with a one-touch shot attempt just barely missing wide of the post. The game ended at 1-0 in favor of SKC.
With the loss, Minnesota United sit eighth in Western Conference regular-season standings with an 9-9-10 (W-L-D) record and 37 points.
GOAL SUMMARY
0-1, SKC – Gadi Kinda, assisted by Roger Espinoza (84’)
DISCIPLINARY SUMMARY
Caution, MIN – DJ Taylor (24’)
Caution, SKC – Andreu Fontas (44’)
Caution, SKC – Daniel Salloi (90’+1’)
Caution, SKC – Gadi Kinda (90’+5’)
ATTENDANCE: 19,685
BELL BANK MAN OF THE MATCH: Michael Boxall
LINEUPS:
Minnesota United XI: GK Dayne St. Clair; D Ethan Bristow, Bakaye Dibassy, Michael Boxall ©, DJ Taylor; M Jan Gregus, Hassani Dotson, Bongokuhle Hlongwane, Emanuel Reynoso, Franco Fragapane; F Teemu Pukki
Bench: GK Clint Irwin; D Brent Kallman, Devin Padelford, Zarek Valentin; M Joseph Rosales, Wil Trapp; F Sang Bin Jeong, Ismael Tajouri-Shradi, Mender García
Sporting Kansas CityTeam XI: GK Tim Melia; D Logan Ndenbe, Andreu Fontàs, Dany Rosero, Jake Davis; M Erik Thommy, Nemanja Radoja, Remi Walter; F Dániel Sallói, Alan Pulido, Johnny Russell
Bench: GK John Pulskamp; D Robert Voloder, Tim Leibold; M Gadi Kinda, Roger Espinoza, Danny Flores; F Khiry Shelton, Willy Agada, Stephen Afrifa
UP NEXT:
MINNESOTA UNITED FC @ LA GALAXY
Dignity Health Sports Park | Carson, California
09.20.2023 | MLS 2023 Regular Season | Matchday 33
9:30 p.m. CT (MLS Season Pass/1500 ESPN)
MINNESOTA UNITED POST GAME QUOTE SHEET
HEAD COACH ADRIAN HEATH
On the missed scoring chances in the second half…
“Well obviously, hugely disappointed. I think that if you reflect on the game, it’s not a fair result. I’m looking at what Dayne’s [St. Clair] had to do during the game. I thought our forward play in the first half was not where it could’ve been and not where it has been. I thought we gave the ball away too much. Second half we were a bit better: we got a few more bodies forward, played with a little bit more urgency, played with a little bit more quality, and had a little bit better final ball. It was always going to be tight and the first goal was always going to be massive. We had a couple of great chances to get the first goal, we didn’t take them, and then you always leave yourself susceptible when you’re pushing as many men forward as we were.”
On what he thought of the Sporting Kansas City goal…
“It’s a foul in front of me. Rey [Emanuel Reynoso] gets his shirt pulled, that’s clear as day for anybody to see. But I think we should have done better at the other end. I thought Ethan [Bristow] and Bakaye [Dibassy]… their guy got in too easy.”
On what he said to the locker room at halftime…
“I just said to the players that we need more urgency and more energy in our play and in the game, and I thought we brought that in the second half. Most of the second half was played in their [Sporting Kansas City] half of the field if it weren’t for a couple of decent saves. But more importantly, I felt we should have done better with the opportunities that came our way.”
On what he saw on Teemu Pukki’s scoring opportunity…
“There were a lot of bodies in front of me, but listening to the guys and everybody, it’s one of them that he [Teemu Pukki] thinks he should have scored.”
On what he thought of the team’s defense tonight…
“I thought Ethan [Bristow] had a good first half, actually. You know it’s never easy against Johnny Russell, and I thought he handled him pretty well. Overall, I thought he was just better this evening. It’s just disappointing, really, because as much as I thought they looked pretty dangerous in the first half, they didn’t really create an awful lot. To not come away with anything is a disappointment.”
On if a loss like this can negatively impact the team emotionally…
“We have to make sure that it doesn’t. What do we have six [matches] left? As I said a few weeks ago, we’re probably going to need to win four or five of those [remaining] games. But we still need to win at least two, I would think, to give ourselves a good opportunity of making the playoffs”
On if he was able to get a good look at the Michael Boxall offside call…
“Yeah, I couldn’t see from where I was. I’ll have to look at it again.”
On how he feels about having to play Sporting Kansas City for the third time later this season…
“It’s not ideal when you don’t play some of the other teams at all. The one thing is we’ll have to play better than we normally do. It’s not been a good place down there for us in the past, down at Children’s Mercy [Park]. A I said, we’ve got six games left. We know what we’ve got to do and if we do that, we’ll give ourselves a good chance.”
On if tonight’s loss is a missed opportunity for placement in the standings…
“It would have made it extremely difficult for Kansas [Sporting Kansas City] had we won this evening. We would’ve gone eight points clear with a game in hand to them. Now we’ve probably thrown that initiative away. We’ve still got a game in hand on them. If you look at everybody’s fixtures, everybody’s playing each other all the way through to the end. So, I don’t think what I said to you a few weeks ago will change. Out of those six, we’re probably going to need at least two I would think, two wins, at least.”
On if the match was affected by not having Miguel Tapias and Wil Trapp tonight…
“No. I had a lot of faith in the front four before the game. As I said to them at halftime, I thought we needed a little bit more from the four front players.”
On why Wil Trapp didn’t play tonight…
“Wil [Trapp] after the game last Saturday, trained for the first time on Friday. He’s been ill. He’s been off of it with an illness. I just didn’t think that was the right preparation for a big game like this.”
On Miguel Tapias’s injury timeline…
“We’re hoping maybe for Wednesday. It was maybe touch-and-go for the game today, but [Bakaye] Dibassy will be a lot better for the game that he’s had. If we have to go with Dibassy for the game in LA [Galaxy], then that’s what we’ll do.”
On the challenge to play three days later…
“LA [Galaxy] are playing now and they’re going to be playing against us again on Wednesday, so it’s the same for everybody. Travel is not ideal but it’s the same for everybody. Let’s get on with it.”
On if you have to have a positive mentality moving ahead…
“You do. You have to at this stage of the season. There’s no feeling sorry for yourself. We’ve got a game again in three days. We’ve gotta make sure we’re ready and prepared. And we will be.”
DEFENDER MICHAEL BOXALL
On coming out of the match against Sporting Kansas City without a point…
“It’s beyond frustrating. When you have one or two big chances to go ahead – that [conceded goal] might have been one of the only shots on goal that we conceded – it’s just a mess at this point. It’s so frustrating because 80 or 90% of it [the match], we were right there. Not quite going in at one end and [getting] that one [shot] in and then all it takes is them, the one chance that we slip up at the other end, and we come away with nothing.”
On the loss at this point of the season…
“I don’t think it’s the timing, I think it’s because it’s a similar thing [that happened] throughout the whole season at home; we’re unable to score and we’ve only won a handful of games here which isn’t good enough. From the performances, it seems like it’s so close but then you look at how we’ve done here [at home] and it almost feels like you are nowhere near it.”
On getting a chance to look at the offside goal…
“I saw it on the screen. It looks like it was the right call. What was it, like half a yard, maybe a foot or so? It’s just a split second of timing.”
On the defensive performance…
“A last minute change for Bakaye [Dibassy]. He’s an absolute class professional. He only found out at the end of training yesterday that he’d be going 90 minutes. For him to stay ready and be ready and put on a solid performance – I’ve played a lot of games with him – I wouldn’t expect any less. He was solid. Ethan [Bristow], we didn’t see a lot of Johnny Russell who always causes a lot of defenders a lot of problems, so give him [Ethan Bristow] his credit for keeping him quiet. I think we’ve got to look at ourselves collectively to do a little bit more to make sure we get a clean sheet.”
On the goal conceded…
“A counter-attack. They [Sporting Kansas City] had numbers and everyone worked their ass off to sprint back 80-90 yards. In those times, you’re diving in when you shouldn’t. You’ve just got to try and keep them wide. Calling back from our game knowledge is not the freshest. But, yeah, could we have done better, I’m not sure. I’ll have to check that out.”
On Emanuel Reynoso being fouled in the attacking third…
“I don’t know who didn’t see it. You want these, supposed, competent referees not to make dumb mistakes in moments that lead to game-making decisions. Referee was not far away, the linesman was right there. The fourth official was there. One of them has got to do their job and make the right [expletive] call. That was pretty frustrating, not too happy about that. Every week you expect better, but every week you get surprised.”
On the result affecting the team mentality with six games left…
“As I said before, the performance was there and we carried on the momentum. We dropped one game in the last handful or so. It’s not the end of the world. Everything is in our hands. We go on the road now where we’ve been pretty good. A quick turnaround. LA [Galaxy] is a tough place to travel but we’ll freshen up and get ready for that.”
On the challenge of a quick turnaround…
“It doesn’t matter. Whatever games are coming, whenever they’re coming, we’ll be ready. Whether it’s tomorrow, whether it’s a week away, we’ll be alright.”
MIDFIELDER HASSANI DOTSON
On how the team feels after the loss…
Pretty disappointing feeling in the locker room. We know it’s crunch time, but it’s a quick turnaround for Wednesday so we have to think about stuff that we can improve on, make the most of it and get the three points on Wednesday.
On how tight the standings are in the Western Conference…
Normally this time of the year, we know it’s pretty competitive in the West for the majority of the teams. We know that we need to start collecting some wins if we want to push to make the playoffs.
On Teemu Pukki’s chance…
No, I didn’t get a good look at it. That’s something I’ll probably do tonight, rewatch the game. That stuff happens but we have to be more clinical in finishing our chances as well as give our forwards another chance to go and win the game for us by keeping the clean sheet. It’s not on one person, we have to do it collectively. First half was not good enough, in my opinion, so we have to go back to the drawing board and get three points away from home.
On the goal conceded…
I thought it was a foul earlier on Rey [Emanuel Reynoso], if I can recall properly. It was a foul, maybe a second yellow. Then they just countered, a little slippery bounce, and then he [Gadi Kinda] finished it. They took their chance they got. It is what it is.
On the adjustment at halftime…
It was mostly the run of play. First half, they knew they saw a lot of the ball. The second half the big key point for us was don’t turn the ball over first pass or win the ball. Once we win it, take a little bit of time and then when you see an opportunity to go, then go. We felt like in the first half, we rushed a little bit too much. We were too excited to get the ball and then that caused them to back down our throats again.
On Hassani’s relationship with Jan Gregus…
Good. We have good chemistry from the years prior. He’s [Jan Gregus] a good midfielder, same with Wil [Trapp] and Kervin [Arriaga]. I have no problem playing with anyone or anywhere. He’s happy to be back. He’s a good player.
On the final six games of the season…
At this point in the season, you can’t take no complaints. Everyone is playing important matches. It is tight and quick turnarounds, but we just have to focus on what we have to do and we have to win.
Courtesy: Minnesota United FC