Minnesota United FC: Dibassy deal pays off beyond expectations
Minnesota United FC exploded in teamwork to stop Seattle Sounders last week. Defender Bakaye Dibassy sealed the narrow shutout.
Scouts stayed up late updating their evaluations of Minnesota United FC defender Bakaye Dibassy. After the team’s 1-0 shutout against Seattle Sounders, their statistics and ratios weren’t good anymore.
Dibassy put in a career performance for his United squad against the best side in MLS. Scouts rated him about as high as they’ve scored anyone in MLS this season.
He got in a dribble plus won two aerials and as many tackles.
To be certain, United’s score of one owes credit to midfielder Robin Lod, with an assist by forward Niko Hansen.
It’s Dibassy who gets credit for the zero the Sounders received.
Dibassy also showed up in the United attack. He got in two key passes, plus took a shot. Scouts haven’t credited him before with any strengths in passing, except some competency with short ones. So passing is one of the areas now being rewritten in Dibassy reports.
But he’s paid for defense. His greatest strength comes in blocking and interceptions. In every stage of play, once he’s completed those two tasks, he enjoys moving to the attacking half. Near the box, he becomes dangerous to opponents with a cross or quick, short pass.
Since acquiring Dibassy from Ligue 1 in France, the team has kept him at center back, where he excells. Scouts did note that he has some success at left-back and in at least one game, he played both positions.
Even with room to improve, scouting reports praised Dibassy as one of the top backs in France in versatility. United technical director Mark Watson said his scouts had tracked the defender intensely for the past two years for that reason.
Even while keeping their scouting goals discreet, word got out. Other teams learned that Minnesota claimed discovery rights to Dibassy. Early in the process, Minneosta wasn’t willing to pay the transfer fee to Amiens SC. So DC United moved in.
DC got very close to inking a deal for Dibassy. Then MLS got shut down due to the pandemic.
Those conditions changed everything. The ball landed back in Minnesota United’s court. And their front office got the deal done.
Next. Atlanta United gets hotter in the mess department. dark
The team isn’t obligated to disclose full details of their negotiations, nor the full results. But in initial releases, United assured everyone this is a deal that’s made everyone happy.
After beating the best team in MLS, it’s proved that Bakaye Dibassy has delivered even more than negotiations asked.