MLS Minnesota United FC

Loons Earn Point in San Jose

Published on August 18, 2021 under Major League Soccer (MLS)
Minnesota United FC News Release


SAN JOSE, Calif. - A little over 76 hours after facing the LA Galaxy at Allianz Field, Minnesota United headed to San Jose to square up against the Quakes. Lacking Robin Lod, Franco Fragapane and Niko Hansen, Head Coach Adrian Heath found it difficult to rotate the squad much. While the Loons would go up a man following a red card for San Jose defender Nathan in the 21st minute and capitalize with a goal from Wil Trapp in the 22nd, the Quakes stood tall and Minnesota's energy flagged, leading to a 1-1 draw following an early own goal from the visitors.

San Jose, riding an eight-game unbeaten streak, opened the game playing tough and with a lot of physicality. While Head Coach Matias Almeyda's side has moved away from their aggressive man-marking, it was clear from the outset that the home team was not going to give anything away easily. From the start, winger Cristian Espinoza dedicated himself to putting the screws to left back DJ Taylor, starting in place of Chase Gasper. It paid off for San Jose early on in the 12th minute as Espinoza captured a long diagonal pass and sent in a vicious low cross that caught defender Bakaye Dibassy's foot and went in for an own goal and a 1-0 lead for the Quakes.

But San Jose's aggression would soon go a step too far. In the 21st minute, defender Nathan flew into Dibassy with his studs up, connecting high up on the Frenchman's shin and earning a red card for the Brazilian. Minnesota wasted no time in pressing the issue. In the 22nd minute, midfielder Emanuel Reynoso sent a long cross all the way across the box from the left wing, finding a waiting Ethan Finlay who knocked it one-time in to forward Adrien Hunou. Hunou corralled it before spinning and finding midfielder Wil Trapp for a slow roller onto the far post that gave Trapp his first goal in Black and Blue and drew the game level at 1-1.

The Loons came tantalizingly close to nudging out ahead in the 27th minute as a quick counterattack found Hunou, who deked his man and finished with a chip over goalkeeper JT Marcinkoswki only to have the goal called back for an offside call. Down the stretch of the first half, several Minnesota players had decent chances go begging, including a header from Reynoso off a Finlay cross from the right wing and a solid strike by Hassani Dotson off a slick back heel from Hunou in the box. At the death, goalkeeper Tyler Miller made a full extension save to keep Espinoza's blast out of the top left corner and the teams headed into the lockers dead even.

In the second half, the Quakes continued to play conservatively with their 10 men, although they still looked for chances to get the ball out on the run whenever possible. In the 52nd minute, chaos in the box nearly led to a Minnesota goal as Reynoso floated out wide to the right and picked up the ball at the edge of the box before driving for the enplane. Stopping on a dime, he cut back inside and sent the ball into Finlay, who couldn't get a clean look at it but left it bouncing around the six-yard box. It fell to Hunou who managed a shot that was blocked and bounced back into his arm for a handball.

Both coaches would tweak their lineups as the second half wore on, with Heath taking off an injured Gregus for winger Justin McMaster and later replacing Hunou with Juan Agudelo, but the heavy legs for a Loons squad that had just played on Saturday afternoon quickly became apparent. The game devolved into a back and forth affair lacking any real tempo or flow - a situation that San Jose seemed more than happy to weather.

In the 90th minute, it looked for a moment like the Quakes would have a late opportunity to go up as substitute Cade Cowell went down in the box on a challenge from DJ Taylor, but a quick video review did not overturn the call. Having escape by a hair, MNUFC nearly got their own second goal a few minutes later in the final minute of stoppage time as they got a flurry of chances late in the box that got knocked down time and again. In the end, the Loons had to console themselves with a point on the road as they set their sights on a matchup this weekend with Western Conference leading Sporting Kansas City.

BELL BANK MAN OF THE MATCH: Midfielder Wil Trapp

LINEUPS:

Minnesota United: GK Tyler Miller; D DJ Taylor, Brent Kallman, Bakaye Dibassy, Romain Metanire; M Hassani Dotson, Wil Trapp (c), Jan Gregus; F Emanuel Reynoso, Adrien Hunou, Ethan Finlay

San Jose Earthquakes: GK JT Marcinkowski; D Luciano Abecasis, Nathan, Tanner Beason, Marcos Lopez; M Eric Remedi, Jackson Yueill, Judson; F Shea Salinas (c), Cristian Espinoza, Jeremy Ebobisse

UP NEXT

MINNESOTA UNITED FC vs. SPORTING KANSAS CITY

Allianz Field | Saint Paul, Minnesota

8.21.2021 | MLS Week No. 21 | MLS Game No. 20

2:30 p.m. CT (ESPN, MNUFC Radio on SKOR North)

MINNESOTA UNITED QUOTE SHEET

MINNESOTA UNITED HEAD COACH ADRIAN HEATH

On always saying he'll take a point on the road, and how that changes when they were up a man for 70 minutes ...

"It's obviously disappointing. I actually thought we played well the first half when they went down the man. Played more horizontal. Tried to switch the point of attack and spread them out a little bit. I thought second half we were too vertical and didn't really make the man advantage pay enough. Then when we did get into the final third, I don't think our quality was good enough this evening. I don't know how many opportunities we've had to put the ball in the box, but, I don't think their keeper has had enough to do in the second half."

On Jan Gregus' status ...

"No, it's an ankle. His ankle is sore. We'll have a better idea how he is tomorrow. He's got the ice pack on it now. He just said he felt really sore and he was running sore, so obviously he had to come off. We'll see."

On why it was such a challenge for his side to create anything in the second half ...

"Because our quality wasn't good enough. We'd gotten off of the ball in their half of the field, as I say, I don't think we play side to side enough. The overload is on the opposite side. The weaker side. When they only then start to play one up, and you keep playing in straight lines, you're not really getting what's in your numerical advantage. And when we did get it wide and when we did get overloads in wide areas... I'll just say that I don't think we had enough quality tonight."

On wanting to see Adrien Hunou with more anger and if this is something he has been trying to encourage from him ...

"Yeah. I thought he was a lot better tonight. I thought his movement was excellent in the first half. Some really good moments combining with Rey [Emanuel Reynoso] and the midfield players. So, it was a better performance for him tonight. We had a good chat on Monday about where he feels he is. He feels as though he's starting to settle in a little bit better. So, I think he'll be better for the performance tonight. I really do."

On what he thought of DJ Taylor's performance against Cristian Espinoza tonight ...

"Well, he's a difficult customer. I thought he did well in the first half. He picked his moments to get forward. Second half, I thought he didn't do as much as he could of done. And I just told him that. He's got an incredible engine. He's got really good pace. And I thought he could have affected the game more from coming in from behind the game."

On the own goal and if he saw enough defensively before the own goal ...

"Well, I thought... the problem is if you let the ball go to [Cristian] Espinoza, by the time he's picked up some pace and gathered some momentum, he's very difficult to stop. That's his strength. That's why they pay so much money for him. He's a good player. He's a handful to play against. But after that, I thought DJ [Taylor] handled him quite well in the first half. But, no, obviously when somebody smashes the ball across with so much pace, it's difficult to sort your feet out. We've seen it a million times."

On if it's hard for Adrien Hunou not to feel frustrated after having a chance or two and not scoring ...

"I'll have to see it again. I couldn't really... there's that many bodies in front of us. I didn't even know until you just said it was him who had the opportunity. I just know we had two or three bites at it. But, no, you have to keep getting in the right spots. I thought he tried to be in the right spots this evening. And if he keeps getting in there, it will turn for him. He'll start to get a goal. His confidence will start to come back. And we'll start seeing the player we know we've got."

On how it feels to have another player go down and have the squad be that much shorter in depth ...

"Obviously we've got a few injuries at this moment in time and games are coming up thick and fast. It's never ideal. But that is one of the areas we do have bodies. Ozzie [Alosno] was there, we could have done that. But, I wanted to keep Hassani [Dotson], bring Hassani in the middle of the park. And see if we could get a wide guy on to create something for us in the wide areas. But, it wasn't to be."

On Ethan Finlay's performance tonight ...

"Thought he worked hard. He didn't have the break a couple of times. I thought he made a couple of really good runs in the first half. The ball didn't quite come to him at the right time. He's been playing well of late. I thought he put a really good shift in tonight and worked hard for the group."

MINNESOTA UNITED MIDFIELDER WIL TRAPP

On how much fatigue played a factor...

"I don't think it was too much of a factor, it was more the speed of play. We were up a man, we shouldn't be tired. Sure, we did play three days ago, but at the same time we have done that before. I don't think fatigue was an issue its more just our sharpness to play quickly and move them around."

On scoring your first goal for MNUFC...

"It's a good moment, of course I wish it would have come in a win. It's always nice to score, I don't score very often so it's exciting for me. Hopefully we can continue to add more of that in the games coming forward."

On playing too vertically and not wide enough...

"That's definitely a part of it. Our spacing was also too far apart. We allowed them to isolate players. If you think about [Eric] Remedi getting tackles on 'Rey' [Emanuel Reynoso], that's a byproduct of us being too far apart. You want to try and create numerical advantages by combining close at times and then springing players wide, springing Ethan [Finlay] wide or Justin [McMaster] when he came in to create more dangerous opportunities. Most of the time DJ [Taylor] was getting the ball wide in tons of space and same thing for Romain [Metanire], but now the pass 20-30 yards that they are having to fit into a guy with a man on his back. Our spacing and proximity to each other could have been much, much better."

On lack of playing together being a cause for lack of offense...

"I think it was more about how the game was. They are a team that likes to isolate and play man for man. Especially when they are down a man it really puts them in their shell more. We tried to draw them out but we didn't do it in the most intelligent ways. We got our fullbacks on the ball, but now where does the danger come from? We really want to get the ball in to 'Rey' and in to Ethan, in to Justin in to Adrien [Hunou] and in to Juan [Agudelo] when he came in. San Jose did a good job of compacting that space. So our patience our tempo and ultimately our spacing could have been better."

On the injuries stacking up...

"We will have to assess where he [Jan Gregus] is at. It's never good to see important players go down. And right now unfortunately we have a bit of a laundry list. At the same time, it gives guys opportunities. We will be calling upon players to step up in what's a huge game against a very good team on Saturday. That's how you start to build more and more confidence in the group when players have to rise to the occasion and that's what we will be working for on Saturday."

On what San Jose did tactically after going down to ten men...

"It's interesting at times, they almost can't help themselves at times - based on how they train - to press players. They are a hard-working group. You saw [Jeremy] Ebobisse, you saw Cade Cowell when he came on, they are still working to press our centerbacks. Ultimately I think the distance between their front strikers and their midfield line was huge, the gaps there. Once again we were too far apart, the next line and then the next line. Creating those spaces, those attractions to bring players out of position could have been sharper for us."

On the assist from Hunou and how it may benefit him...

"It's great that he is involved in the plays. He did a good job of running the channels in the first half, making himself a nuisance. He's offside on the one play, but still its an intelligent run and a good finish. For him, its about being proximate to the goal, proximate to situations that result in goals. [On the goal and assist], yeah he didn't have to do much, he just laid it off to me, [just kidding], but for him its important and we need to continue to put him in situations to be dangerous for us."

On what Sporting KC brings...

"Peter [Vermes] continuously has an organized style of play. They are a hard team that is diligent in their work rate, their tackling, their defensive capabilities, their pressing. They also have quality. You look at the guys they have up front Daniel Salloi is having a great season, [Alan] Pulido is always dangerous. Khiry Shelton, another guy that can hurt you, then you throw Johnny Russell in there as well. They are a team that is able to hurt you in multiple ways and they have a good team spirit. It's going to be a difficult game for us, we know that, but ultimately right now it's about recovery, getting home and getting ready for Saturday."

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