Minnesota United Records Eighth Shutout in 0-0 Draw

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MLS Minnesota United FC

Minnesota United Records Eighth Shutout in 0-0 Draw

May 29, 2025 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Minnesota United FC News Release


VANCOUVER, B.C. - Minnesota United battled to a hard-fought 0-0 draw on the road against Western conference leaders Vancouver Whitecaps FC on Wednesday night. Minnesota now turns its attention to another tough road test as the team travels to face Seattle Sounders FC on Sunday, June 1 at Lumen Field.

7' - Vancouver's winger, Jayden Nelson, received possession at the top of the 18-yard box and quickly played a pass to Tate Johnson making a run down the left flank. Johnson sent a cross into the center of the box to connect with Daniel Ríos, who was positioned near the top of the six-yard line, but Ríos' shot went wide left of goal.

20' - Dayne St. Clair made an effortless save after Vancouver Whitecaps FC was awarded a free kick about 15-yards out from the 18-yard box. Sebastian Berhalter sent the ball into the box, but the Canadian international goalkeeper punched the ball out of the dangerous area.

47' - To start the second half, Vancouver made a dangerous run when Jayden Nelson quickly took the ball up the left side of the pitch and into the left flank, but veteran center back Michael Boxall was on his hip, redirecting the shot for St. Clair to scoop the ball up.

56' - Boxall delivered a long switch from the defensive third to find Rosaleson the left flank in the attacking third. Rosales attempted a cross, but a deflection off Mathías Laborda redirected the ball dangerously toward goal before it was ultimately collected by Yohei Takaoka.

80' - St. Clair made a crucial diving save after Nelson fired off a close-range shot from the penalty mark to keep the score 0-0.

GOAL SUMMARY

None

DISCIPLINARY SUMMARY

VAN - Sebastian Berhalter (caution) - 73'

MIN - Nicolás Romero (caution) - 76'

MIN - Anthony Markanich (caution) - 90'+1'

NOTABLE STATS

8 - Dayne St. Clair earned his eighth clean sheet of the season, following a 0-0 draw where he made three saves against the Vancouver Whitecaps.

100 - Tani Oluwaseyi played in his 100th career game for club and country (89 league games across Minnesota United, San Antonio FC and MNUFC2, plus 11 games for the Canadian national team).

250 - Michael Boxall appeared in his 250th game across all competitions for Minnesota United, including regular season, MLS Cup Playoffs, Leagues Cup and Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup).

ATTENDANCE: 17,012

BELL BANK MAN OF THE MATCH: Michael Boxall

LINEUPS:

Minnesota United XI: GK Dayne St. Clair; D Joseph Rosales (Anthony Markanich 60'), Nicolás Romero, Michael Boxall ©, Jefferson Diaz (Owen Gene 60'), Bongokuhle Hlongwane (Julian Gressel 46'); M Robin Lod (Tani Oluwaseyi 46'), Wil Trapp, Carlos Harvey, Joaquín Pereyra; F Kelvin Yeboah

Substitutes Not Used: GK Alex Smir; D DJ Taylor, Morris Duggan; M Hoyeon Jung; F Darius Randall

Vancouver Whitecaps FC XI: GK Yohei Takaoka; D Tate Johnson (Sam Adekugbe 83'), Bjørn Utvik (Tristan Blackmon 46'), Ranko Veselinovic ©, Mathías Laborda; M Jean- Claude Ngando, Andrés Cubas, Sebastian Berhalter (Pedro Vite 75'); F Jayden Nelson, Daniel Rios (Brian White 61'), Emmanuel Sabbi (Ali Ahmed 61')

Substitutes Not Used: GK Isaac Boehmer; D Edier Ocampo; M Damir Kreilach, Jeevan Badwal

UP NEXT:

MINNESOTA UNITED FC @ SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC

Lumen Field | Seattle, Washington

06.01.2025 | MLS 2025 Regular Season | Match 17

5:00 p.m. CT (MLS Season Pass/1500 ESPN)

MINNESOTA UNITED POST GAME QUOTE SHEET

HEAD COACH ERIC RAMSAY

On if he thought the team made a statement in their performance...

"No, I wouldn't say we made a statement in any way, and it was for us, a really poor performance that everyone would be really frustrated with. But there are elements to the performance that ultimately gets over the line and gets a good point at a very difficult place [BC Place] to come against a team [Vancouver Whitecaps FC] that is flying very high with a lot of confidence and has obviously struck a better balance than we might have expected in terms of how the team looked tonight, and they were fairly strong all the way through. So, I feel like whilst it's one of those performances that we will be ruing a lot of how we use the ball, we'll be really frustrated with ourselves in terms of the number of easy giveaways and unforced errors that led to the performance feeling like it lacked any fluency whatsoever. I have said to the players at the end that if you're coming to a place like this at the moment and you're not going to win, don't lose and don't concede and the way in which we saw the game out, the willingness, the discipline, energy, fight, all the words that characterize this team, you saw that. It certainly wasn't a performance that I would be riding home about in no way was it a statement. It's a very good point on the road and I'm sure, over the course of the coming weeks and months, we will look back at this as a really important one."

On the inability to connect passes...

"I'm not going to make excuses on behalf of the players here because number one, they wouldn't want me to and we're a very inward looking team when it comes to that sort of stuff, but it's a very difficult pitch to play on, and when you're not in the habit of playing on that type of pitch, it does take its toll. Even relative to turf pitches, it doesn't play well and I find that for us it felt like we were very nervy on the ball and as a consequence of being nervy on the ball, we played passes that, almost shirked responsibility to the extent we played easy passes down the line, that you can almost guarantee you're going to get intercepted or put the player that receives the ball in a really tricky position. We weren't nearly brave enough to go back inside the pitch and switch, and it was just so stark, the moments at which we did do that and we showed the composure to find the middle or take the extra pass across the back and get inside their shape. We had some relatively good moments, we always lacked the final pass and we were really sloppy around the top of the box, and I don't think threatened in any meaningful way, but the root of the lack of fluency was exactly that. It was almost a shirking of responsibility when it comes to how we use the ball in the middle third, so not pretty food for thought in terms of how we move forward and the messages that we really push. But again, I stress that points on the road in MLS, particularly against the top teams are not easy to come by, so I have to be balanced in how I evaluate that for sure."

On changing the play by bringing on Tani Oluwaseyi in the second half...

"That's probably a point to make as well, we've really tried to make sure the team looked different and felt different at various points in the game when we felt like we weren't getting any momentum. We obviously lacked the fluency in the first third to be able to break their pressure well and turned the ball over very cheaply, particularly on the right hand side. So, I felt like the points at which we were slightly more direct, we were slightly more aggressive with how we used the ball, we looked better, we looked more comfortable. Tani [Oluwaseyi] obviously feeds that, Tani's athleticism, ability to stretch the pitch, ability to cause real problems in the more chaotic moments of the game are always an edge for us, and it did open the game up to an extent, then we wanted to balance that with how we use Julian [Gressel]. Julian is more of a passer than Bongi [Bongokuhle Hlongwane], he's going to use the ball in a more measured, more balanced way, and he's going to try and get back inside the pitch. Bongi's obviously a winger playing there, a very direct winger, a one-versus-one winger that wants to attack and plays at a really high rhythm. I wanted the team to feel very different after halftime, of course, and it's not necessarily a reflection of Rob [Robin Lod] nor Bongi being any worse than any of the other players on the pitch, and I made that very clear. And then once we got past the first 10, 12 minutes of the second half, it didn't feel like we'd really progressed in any meaningful way in terms of the overall performance and Owen [Gene] and Ant [Anthony Markanich] came on and I would say, they also added. So the second half was certainly more balanced. It felt like it was more open for the good and bad in our case, but the step forward from halftime was important and I'm glad we certainly for the middle period of the second half looked like a team that could compete on an even keel with them [Vancouver Whitecaps FC]."

On how Joaquín Pereyra will learn to play through being fouled...

"He had a tricky night, Joaquín [Pereyra], for that, the use of the ball around the top of the box. We're now so accustomed to Joaquín being so clean and the root of a lot of the good stuff we do around the top of the box and we were just missing that precision in those situations today. And obviously a lot of the good stuff we do has Joaquín at its root, and the fact that he again wasn't able to get much rhythm, much continuity on the ball for lots of fouls, which I felt were sort of eventually punished with a yellow card. I'm not normally one that picks up on that sort of stuff, but certainly, I felt like that could have happened far earlier and it would have given Joaquín a much better platform to play on, but he's obviously a marked man for a reason. We've got to find ways of making sure that we have other tools at our disposal when we attack the box because the opposition is certainly making it difficult for him."

On what went well on the defensive side...

"I think we defended the box really well. I don't think, for the sort of rhythm and the momentum that they had as they were attacking their end, towards the end of the game, I don't think we gave up huge clear-cut chances, and I think we showed that side of our game that we do so often, which is a real determination to keep the ball out of the net. So I'm surprised that we are where we are when it comes to clean sheets over the course of the year.

I think that will certainly take us to the top of the table across all 30 teams, which is really impressive, and that points to the players' mentality. It points to the connection that the back line has. It points to the level of communication. It points to how, as a team from top to bottom, we make ourselves really difficult. And it's a really important characteristic when you come to play a team like this that's in such good form and such good rhythm. You know for sure you are going to be defending the box for certainly large spells of the game. I think in that sense, we showed that real grit and resilience that I love about this team."

On tying the last two games...

"To be honest, it's frustrating to have drawn two games in a row, but I think there's an element of us feeling that way about the last two draws. And I think the thing with the table at this moment is momentum is really important. The teams around you aren't gaining any points on you by beating you, and we're holding up really well in that sense. I made the point yesterday when we spoke that we're not, unfortunately, yet at the point where we're able to string successive wins for long periods of time. But what we are doing is proving that we are a very difficult team to beat, and we're not losing many games, which is so important. And we're sticking in there at the top of the table, which is a sign of a team that is certainly positioned with a really good platform to progress as the weeks and months and seasons go on. And that was, I suppose, our best in one sense difficult to beat, hard to break down, very well-organized, disciplined, aggressive but, at our worst in another."

On what Kelvin Yeboah and Tani Oluwaseyi do to get involved in the attack...

"They contributed significantly defensively, but that was characteristic of the team, had a tough night. I would say with use of the ball and how, as a team around the top of the box, we lacked precision, lacked detail. And as a consequence, more often than not, the combination play led to the ball being turned over as opposed to us when we are at our best. As you've seen over the course of the last month, there's been periods where, in those exact situations with the same players, with the same distances and level of pressure from the opposition, we've been really good, and we've created some really good chances. We're obviously lacking that really clean link-up play tonight from all players. As a consequence of that, they suffered, and I mean, of course, they played their part there, and they would be the first to say that."

DEFENDER MICHAEL BOXALL

Thoughts on tonight's performance...

"Not great. I think in the first half, we were extremely flat, not a lot of energy. And then, on the other side of that, I think Vancouver [Whitecaps FC] kind of plays a style at home where it's similar to us, where they stay compact, and then we just didn't do a great job. We kind of played into their hands [where we're] just not moving the ball quick enough, not enough energy. But yeah, definitely a flat performance from us, for sure."

On the defensive performance as a team...

"I think we, obviously, know our job on the inside of the ball, and as the game went on, we kind of had to grind that one out. They had a few scary moments there in and around our box, but the boys were kind of putting their bodies on the line to protect Dayne [St. Clair]'s goal. So, all in all, it could be an important point, but I think when we come out flat on the road, it feels disappointing with a performance like that."

On what has been causing the "flat" performances against the Vancouver Whitecaps in recent matchups...

"I'm not sure. I mean, Vancouver is always a difficult place to play. I mean, it's probably one of the worst turfs in the league. The atmosphere isn't great, so it's one you have to get yourself up for. But, I mean, it's our job to do this. So I think we need to find ways to find that spark. Even when we're trying to turn the game into going long and competing for second balls, I don't think we did the short five-yard sprints to make sure we're in the spots to pick up second balls, and then just make runs so it makes things easier for whoever's on the ball. We just lacked that tonight."

On the contribution Julian Gressel and Tani Oluwaseyi had in the second half...

"I think Julian [Gressel] was a good outlet for us. He's a smart player, and he makes the right decision more times than not. And when we can play out through that side, and we can restart the ball a bit more, and we have a few more passes higher up the field, it helps us build a bit more momentum. But we just couldn't trust anything in the final third. Obviously, Vancouver has proven they're one of the best teams in the league, and they're tough to break down. So, yeah, we just have to be a bit sharper, a bit better. We're just lacking a bit."

On being promoted by the club's social media team for the upcoming MLS All-Star Game...

"I want zero extra attention. Honestly, midseason awards, it's not kind of why we play this game. You want to be up for the awards at the end of the season. So we just need to keep pushing and make sure we're improving. And, obviously, we've got a tough test on Sunday, so we got to get ready for that one."

On what it will take for the team to win against the Seattle Sounders...

"I mean, defensively, we know our jobs, and it's always been tough at Seattle, but I think we keep that same gutsy defensive effort, but then we need to make more of our chances off set pieces. And then, obviously, with the ball in the final third, just rotate the ball long enough where we have enough time to get our wing backs up and get more numbers in the final third. Obviously, recover from tonight and make sure we're fresh to really give it a proper go on Sunday."

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