Minnesota United shows conviction and character in win
Time to believe in Minnesota United
Following on last week’s 1-0 home win over the Seattle Sounders, it was another solid outing from Minnesota United on Saturday with a 2-1 win over the Portland Timbers. If pundits were questioning Adrian Heath’s side, it is time to start believing in what Minnesota United is capable of doing.
Heath, to his credit, is pressing all the right buttons. This is a team that took a recent hiccup, a 2-0 loss at the Colorado Rapids two weeks ago, and has done everything right since then. In the wins over the Sounders and now the Timbers, Minnesota United has beaten teams currently in playoff position in the Western Conference.
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And on Saturday night at Allianz Field, Heath’s team stormed back after going down in the game’s opening 10 minutes with two late second half goals. Minnesota was unrelenting on the night, registering 28 shots (Portland had eight shots).
“I think what was most impressive tonight was just the confidence to keep going , right? Like how many shots we had… [28] shots,” midfielder Wil Trapp said after the match.
“Some not hitting the target, over, whatever. Chance after chance after chance, just really easy to get frustrated, and I think you never saw our heads drop in the sense of, that was the only chance we’re going to get. We just kept plugging away and plugging away and ultimately Chase [Gasper] gets a great headers, scores and then [Emanuel Reynoso’s] pass to Robin [Lod] was just special. It’s a huge credit to our mentality to continue on, especially coming from behind.”
With the win, Minnesota United is now 6-5-3 (21 points) and sixth place in the Western Conference. The loss dropped the Portland Timbers to 6-7-1 (19 points) and below the red playoff line in the conference.
Minnesota United’s pressure
A theme from Saturday’s win was how Minnesota United continued to pile on the pressure and they didn’t relent despite the difficulty the Timbers’ blocks presented. Portland was well-organized and limited Minnesota United’s space in the attacking third.
Despite 28 shots registered, Minnesota had just six shots that landed on goal.
And even with star attacker Franco Fragapane’s injury, Minnesota United still continued to attack. In doing so, they showed a certain sense of belief as well as purpose even as they went down early and were frustrated by Portland’s defensive posture.
It would have been easy for Minnesota United to simply cave-in and say that a result wasn’t meant to be. But they continued to press and fight, finally breaking through in the 74th minute before Robin Lod grabbed the winner 11 minutes later.
“It was a belief and effort and energy. You know we kept going. I thought the second half we got about them a little bit more and made it a little bit more uncomfortable for them,” Heath said after the match.
“I thought we were too safe in our play in the first half. I don’t think we worked the final third enough, don’t think we worked the goalkeeper enough. You could say that in the second half, I felt like we were going to score.”