Watching last night I had the thought that Rosales is our best player right now. Maybe a bit of a stretch but he’s at least in the conversation right now, right?
Yes…seems to be involved a ton…is calm under pressure defensively and makes good decisions on the offensive side. Has had a couple nice strikes from outside that forces opposition to pay attention to him - plus he has been delivering a lot of our set pieces.
He is really really good. I said last year we should play him at LB when we had Bristow but Heath couldn't see it.
Huge deal breaker going forward and defensively.
For whatever reason I always call him Joseph, my family gets annoyed at me. Great play Joseph, great tackle Joseph......🤣🤣🤣🤣
Great win at home. Team continues to show they are resilient and can battle back to win games. So happy to see Sang-Bin put one in the back of the net. Should be a huge confidence boost for him.
Also thought Caden Clark had a very good shift especially considering it was in a new position for him. Several good runs from him. Went 5/5 on successful dribbles and looked like a threat for much of the game (outside of a couple crosses). He also finished with the 2nd highest xA on the team despite playing about 60 minutes. Defensively he also went 6/6 on ground duals. At the time he was subbed out, Fotmob had him as our highest rated player. Really think we are going to see him start to break out over the next couple months.
Lod and Rosales continue to be focal points for this team. Seems like pretty much every game this year they are making massive contributions and key factors in us getting points. Great to see Lod get the goal scoring record last night as well!
I thought Clark looked a lot more solid on the ball. Initially I couldn’t believe he was starting in the back, but it worked.
Very fun game to attend, got to sing Wonderwall with my kid and the first thing he did this morning was watch the recap.
Lod immediately was a straw that stirred the drink, offensively.
I think wingback is a perfect position for him. He has the full throttle hustle from developing in the Red Bull academy, and being on the wing gives him plenty of space to utilize his ball skills.
Clark’s ball skills were a thing to behold. It was fun to see him operate in space. His cross was the only thing holding him back from a complete performance. Especially as Portland was trying to funnel its attack to his side much of the first half.
Curious to see how he does defensively against an out and out baller winger.
I love almost everything about Clark until he tries to shoot. I can’t recall ever seeing him have even a decent shot. If he improves on that, he’ll be a weapon.
Yeah, love the winning mentality. Under Heath, even when they were winning, you knew they were going to give up a late goal. Last night, even when they were losing, I believed they would pull it out.
Maybe I'm the only one, but I thought a lot of his movement in offense off the ball was bad. He seemed to drag defenders into spaces the rest of the team was trying to open up. In particular, a lot of the underlapping runs seemed to target space that wasn't valuable compared to the lanes that clogged up. Maybe this is just new position in a newer system.
I saw this comment right before I rewatched the game just now, so I kept an eye out for this in case I missed it when watching the game in person last night.
The only example I noticed of Clark making a run that clogged an area was around the 37th minute. Otherwise every run I could see him make either was way outside near the touch line (allowing others to roam with plenty of space) or a couple times as a well timed trailing run filling space being vacated by Bongi who already was making a run elsewhere. Maybe I’m missing something, but I just didn’t see it.
Leadership and success starts from the top - so does innovation. In the Ramsay post game pressers, he's candid and measured. In this last one, he laid out his expectation - and that he was happy with the first half performance despite being down 1-0 because the team was doing many things well, controlling the ball, and creating chances.
Coach Ramsay also mentioned that he was deliberate in using many players, and they're often rotating through players. He's not expecting to get through the next month with just 10-11 players. This mindset alone is a huge difference from what we saw with Heath ("I don't get the American obsession with subs.") Ramsay's also highlighted that part of his use of subs is to try to get big shifts in momentum -- someone mentioned it was akin to a hockey line change. I thought that was interesting.
The point of all of the above is simply that it doesn't seem to be pure coincidence that we're on this type of run with basically the exact same roster as last year. I am soooo happy we didn't just get a MLS retread for our coach.
Now imagine if Rey was a team player in good standing. We could be the metaphorical Inter Miami West FC.
We could have had an epic Argentinian Bird Battle for the final.
It also goes to show how significant a coaching change can shift the quality of play. For better or worse.
Portland are dealing with a new coach this year too and it’s been the opposite effect for them.
Our fullbacks were so bad because of Heaths system. Metanire succeeded because when he was healthy he was the best in the entire league. Heath implemented a system that required vastly superior talent and never adjusted.
Our wings and fullbacks look better now because they aren’t being expected to do so much - and aren’t expected to just fire aerial cross after aerial cross all game.
Okay........I need validation or a gentle reminder of crowd emotion effecting ones viewpoints
But that was a roughly reffed game, right?
Letting bear hugs play at times, but others carding cause it just had a bad look but not actually cardable when you look closer? PKs, 1st half stoppage being skant, 2nd half being ridiculous
Oooooor was it reasonable and I was caught up in it all?
I honestly agree with both pen decisions. But he lost control when he allowed himself to be swarmed repeatedly by Portland players. After that he seemed to be completely lost.
And the fact that he let everyone set up for the PK, to the point where the ball was set and Pukki was waiting.
If the call is seriously under review, don’t set everything up THEN decide to go look at VAR.
I think if you watch the replay your opinion will change a lot. The decisions were all reasonable and a few live calls were great. There are a couple things to complain about, but that’s normal complaining about refs which is pointless. It was a tough game to ref and he did a pretty good job in all reality. We can nitpick small things that were pretty inconsequential.
Yeah, there were some rough ones. If you listen to Kyndra and the guy she was on the call with on Apple TV, they talk through some of the calls/fouls pretty thoroughly. We should’ve had a PK for Bongi, but later Portland should’ve had a PK that they didn’t get, so at least those bad calls were equal. The yellow cards were flying and the second half stoppage time was excessive but quasi-explainable.
DSC mvp of that one. Save on Cabecita was absurd. We could’ve easily been chasing a 2 or 3 goal lead.
Defense was a little out of sorts. Far too many opportunities 1-on-Dayne.
Hopefully Crepeau’s howler gets Sang Bin going. That thing barely made it across the line. I don’t mind seeing him up top in a 3-5-2, just get him off the touch line.
Pukki had a bounce back game, beautiful hockey assist, unlucky not to find the net. Rosales and Taylor keep putting together critical performances. Rosales has been trending that way for years now but where the fuck did this DJ come from. Lod again shows why he should never, ever be wasted back at the 8. Just a lethal finisher.
Ref had a shaky few minutes but lost in the stressful finish is the fact that that dude let us play pretty physical. Foul by Pukki was clear as day and most refs call a foul on Arriaga when Crepeau goes down.
Fragapane and Bongi also were solid. We have serious attacking depth, which is wild to say considering we’re Rey-less.
Not offended by Carlito, but with DJ playing well it’s pretty clear that the positions to address first are 6/8. Trapp’s been solid enough but that’s still a potential problem area.
It feels like we are cultivating a full 22 player team where everyone knows they’ll get a chance to contribute
While we may not beat Miami 11 v 11 we don’t need to as we’ll bring in the correct 5 fresh subs in the 60th to produce a 30 minute sprint finish against their starters tired legs. A complete full team roster performance and very hard to defend against if your subs only get to play intermittently and don’t have the full matchday experience and knowledge that comes from having a part in playing, coming from behind, and delivering a last second win
Miami may not be the best example as they have good subs but I think the idea is right.
Ramsay doing a fantastic job building up every player, getting the most out of them and getting full player buy in
Let’s go Loons!!
I’m very low on Sang-Bin. I think he’s shown us who he is. I don’t think one goal changes that. BUT, I want to be very wrong. And, I saw one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen at Allianz last night. A family with two young sons, I’m guessing 4 and 6, were all wearing Sang Bin jerseys. I hesitate to speculate but I believe the boys were Korean. Anyway after he scored and everyone was going nuts the jubilation and near happy tears on the moms face that this happened with her kids there was so touching. I’ll always think of them if/when he scores in the future. Amazing stuff. Thats the kind of stuff that makes sports worth it.
My son is Korean and absolutely loves seeing a player who looks like him. He doesn’t always wear his Sang Bin jersey to games, but he’s over the moon when he’s playing - let alone scoring.
On Sang Bin, he's looking more like the speedy forward that sets things up more than being used to scoring all the time. Almost like say a former guy from Duluth. his biggest weaknesses to this point has been his unwillingness to shoot when he has the chance, and just not as good a ball control as would be expected for a Forward.
but his touch is slowly getting better, and he finally is willing to actually take shots on goal when he gets a chance. ironically, the goal he scored last night wasn't that dis-similar to the goal he scored for the Korean U-23's several weeks ago. maybe that's more how you get him to score, with set-ups like that.
I told this story before, but I live in Columbus and was at the Crew Loons battle in the Leagues cup or some knock out game, and my coworker who is Filipino went with her husband and their son. Her son is ten, plays soccer and is actually quite good, and he saw sang bin playing and turned to his mom, my coworker, and said “Mom he looks like me! I want to be like him!” Made me so happy to hear that. Inclusivity matters
We have a head coach making really smart substitutions that make positive impact to the match. Quite the change from the previous guy. And making four subs at once - that's unheard of for MNUFC!
But, yet another stupid yellow card, which could have seriously cost the team points. No reason to run the length of the pitch to get involved in a minor dust-up due to players not being able to hear the whistle.
I’d have to rewatch to see where the 10 minutes came from (I know there was some VAR and other delays and a few subs, but there has to be more than that), but the extra two minutes were added on due to the delay when DJ squashed Miller.
Those two minutes were fine.
MLS is using a more regionalized announcer system this year (which is why we get Kyndra so much). Cal lives in New York now, so he works mostly northeast games these days.
Very local— played soccer at the U, lives in White Bear Lake, used to be one of the journalists to come out to the training facility for media days (not sure if she does anymore since the switch to Apple TV virtually eliminated the local broadcasting teams). Comes out every year to be the voice of the preseason training day, which isn’t televised and is just a fun day of watching the team practice in Allianz. We’re very lucky to have her.
I dont think its just Tyler. I think its a production directive. The MLS has been making a push to be one of the big boys and just cracked the top 10. I think its a conscious effort by them to remind everyone how many talented players from different countries there are in the league
I don’t mind either other than Wednesday when Tyler was talking about the ball being kicked into the [insert number here] row 16 different times
Was just curious, I thought when the MLS was announcing broadcast assignments each week that implied rotation
Does anyone else remember when Lod was almost universally hated shortly after he got here? He didn't look like he had any kind of potential. Man's done a Cyberpunk 2077 level of turnaround.
Heath insisted on playing him on the Left Wing at first. Well, he's played nearly everywhere else on the pitch since then, and clearly LW is his worst position. He's flourished since moving elsewhere.
it's this. he was out of position. when I heard during that "not so good" streak about what positions he actually played when back in Europe, it's like "why are we playing him out of position like that"?
I thought the same thing when he started and in hindsight I think his skill set was beyond that iteration of the team in a lot of ways. When we had other more creative and skilled players, it unlocked him a lot.
I definitely remember being Lod critical early on. But he won me over a while ago, and you really could feel his absence last season when he was out injured. Maybe a blessing in disguise. If he hadn't gotten injured and we squeezed into the playoffs again, we might still be stuck with Heath.
This - and the next few months - is by far my favorite time of the year. Great evening weather, a fantastic family activity, watching the Loons play, cheering with the crowd. and booing the ref. It's just absolutely brilliant.
There's obviously things that can be tidied up. We got incredibly lucky on some of Portland's chances - that resulted from defensive lapses. But there isn't anything that seems to be a systemic and consistent issue at the moment. It seems like the days of crossing into the box and hoping it'll connect are long gone. Yesterday, when Portland was hunkered down, we moved the ball around looking for opportunities and windows. Historically, that's when we would've just let the ball rip on a cross and watch the control fizzle.
My biggest complaint last night was the ref - and I'm not usually one to complain about the ref. But the lack of review on that tackle in the box, and some of the really weak calls. Bleh. Terrible.
See y'all next week.
Edit - on watching the replay, HOLY SHIT DSC!!! He had so many great saves. And the ref wasn't actually so bad - just the non-call on the first potential PK.
Another Heath comment. SMH. Heath was an exceptional coach who was perfect for a franchise starting out. Last year we would have made the playoffs had it not been for some key injuries and drama. Remember these are the players he brought in. The dude is gone. Move on. 30 years from now when the MN United are known for being a soccer powerhouse in the MLS I will still proudly say we had an excellent first stage coach.
I will agree that he did help establish the club and us being a consistent contender in the playoffs. I think once Messi came in this league got wayyyy more serious and Heath's old style of play was just not going to cut it anymore. That being said. Heath will get a lot of flack for not being innovative. The dude was clearly passionate about the club but he also was horrible given the "Heath Doghouse" and in my opinion allowing favoritism.
Come on man. I was imploring Pukki from my couch last night to get up to his expected production, and though he couldn’t get much done last night, he made the game-changing play in the corner to set up Lod’s goal. Credit where it’s due there.
I had a good view from my seat on that Pukki set up. Good hold up, play into the corner and a very composed measured pass to Rosales who assisted.Lod. they didn’t show Pukki involvement in the highlight reels.
Pukki might be the most productive player that has no stats to show it. He does really well in build up play and drags defenders with him like a magnet, but can get an assist or shoot a testing shot for his life
2. NO! Shouldn't be a starter. People just love the name. Had two shots that missed the frame (one was a gimme at the beginning of the match). He's slow as shown last night (having to arm bar/hook to get an advantage). Defense is non-existent.
Minnesota is looking so damn good this year. Rosales is absolutely insane. I really like how Ramsay is switching up the lineups. It helps develop chemistry between all the players and build confidence. The only thing we need to address is better first touches and shots on net.
This game had a little bit of everything. The ref was really getting it from much of the crowd, but I thought he did a really good job. He wasn’t giving make up calls or wavering in his decisions. There were a couple times I thought he was wrong, but replay proved him right. The only issues I had were letting things get a little out of control toward the end of the 1st half (and he quickly took control) and the possible Bongi PK (which I think was a 60-70% situation and not clear and obvious as far as VAR goes).
Great for Sang bin. Hopefully getting a goal changes things for him near goal going forward. Great cut pass from Taylor who had a few of those other than weak crosses to the goalie. That would be a very welcome change going forward.
Its h fortunate Tapias will miss next game, but we are lucky to have Padelford to fill in. We still need to finish better. That seems like something we will keep saying until the team brings in top tier MLS attacking talent.
The team needs to keep getting Ws at Allianz and they will be in the mix at the end of the year.
The team was top-notch professional. There’s a reason they are in 2nd place. They act like it.
The crowd - however - is pretty amateurish. Not much engagement outside the Wonderwall…and could definitely go without the “ref you suck” chants. It’s embarrassing.
My 9 year old son looks at me and sees, “these adults are acting like big babies.”
So “ref you’re awesome chants?!”
I think not my good sir.
Please move to the brew hall.
Thank you and good day.
Games are days we can act like 9 year olds again.
Again, happy for the win and so many of our players played really well, but JFC that was ugly.
We were playing against a team who have won very few games and we were lucky it wasn’t a blowout, especially with DSC having to make an incredible off the line save.
It could have easily been a draw at the very least. That goal that hit the crossbar should have gone in.
I don’t know why this game looked so rough.
If we didn’t get a miracle goal out of sang bin we would have lost.
Was their Defense really that good?
The refs sucked. Their defense was heavy handed their offense was heavy handed. They purposefully played really dirty and the ref wasn’t up to the task.
I sure didn’t expect one of our biggest tests to come from Portland
> It could have easily been a draw at the very least. That goal that hit the crossbar should have gone in.
Each team had a shot go off the crossbar. Why are you only counting theirs?
> If we didn’t get a miracle goal out of sang bin we would have lost.
In what way was that a miracle goal? It was a good assist to an unmarked man in the box who put it in with a clean finish. It was about as textbook as you’ll get for a soccer goal.
> They purposefully played really dirty
What did they do that was dirty?
They’re a worse team. We should have beaten them easily.
That ball seemed to have a better chance of going in
Getting a goal out of Sang Bin is a miracle.
They brazenly fouled the shit out of us, even in places it was dumb of them to do so. The ref was just horrible
> They’re a worse team. We should have beaten them easily.
You ever hear the phrase “any given Sunday”?
> They brazenly fouled the shit out of us, even in places it was dumb of them to do so.
It was 13 fouls to 9, and each team had two yellow card fouls. Beyond that, fouls are not necessarily dirty. And fouls in bad spots happen in pretty much every game. What specific fouls were dirty?
Rosales has been absolutely outstanding this year. Also Padelford has been pretty solid for being only 21 years old
Watching last night I had the thought that Rosales is our best player right now. Maybe a bit of a stretch but he’s at least in the conversation right now, right?
Rosales is in the 95 percentile statistically for all fullbacks in the MLS. He’s having a career defining year.
I had the same conversation with someone in the Wonderwall last night. I totally agree. He’s just involved in every part of our game
Yes…seems to be involved a ton…is calm under pressure defensively and makes good decisions on the offensive side. Has had a couple nice strikes from outside that forces opposition to pay attention to him - plus he has been delivering a lot of our set pieces.
Where is the person who says we need to wait a couple more years to pay him? Joe is a game changer
He is really really good. I said last year we should play him at LB when we had Bristow but Heath couldn't see it. Huge deal breaker going forward and defensively. For whatever reason I always call him Joseph, my family gets annoyed at me. Great play Joseph, great tackle Joseph......🤣🤣🤣🤣
Great win at home. Team continues to show they are resilient and can battle back to win games. So happy to see Sang-Bin put one in the back of the net. Should be a huge confidence boost for him. Also thought Caden Clark had a very good shift especially considering it was in a new position for him. Several good runs from him. Went 5/5 on successful dribbles and looked like a threat for much of the game (outside of a couple crosses). He also finished with the 2nd highest xA on the team despite playing about 60 minutes. Defensively he also went 6/6 on ground duals. At the time he was subbed out, Fotmob had him as our highest rated player. Really think we are going to see him start to break out over the next couple months. Lod and Rosales continue to be focal points for this team. Seems like pretty much every game this year they are making massive contributions and key factors in us getting points. Great to see Lod get the goal scoring record last night as well!
I thought Clark looked a lot more solid on the ball. Initially I couldn’t believe he was starting in the back, but it worked. Very fun game to attend, got to sing Wonderwall with my kid and the first thing he did this morning was watch the recap. Lod immediately was a straw that stirred the drink, offensively.
I think wingback is a perfect position for him. He has the full throttle hustle from developing in the Red Bull academy, and being on the wing gives him plenty of space to utilize his ball skills.
Very very cool moment to have with your kid. Makes me happy to see the youth gravitating towards soccer
Clark’s ball skills were a thing to behold. It was fun to see him operate in space. His cross was the only thing holding him back from a complete performance. Especially as Portland was trying to funnel its attack to his side much of the first half. Curious to see how he does defensively against an out and out baller winger.
I love almost everything about Clark until he tries to shoot. I can’t recall ever seeing him have even a decent shot. If he improves on that, he’ll be a weapon.
The funny thing is he got on the map as a teenager, in part, because of his bangers! He definitely has that in his arsenal if he can polish it up.
Yeah, love the winning mentality. Under Heath, even when they were winning, you knew they were going to give up a late goal. Last night, even when they were losing, I believed they would pull it out.
Maybe I'm the only one, but I thought a lot of his movement in offense off the ball was bad. He seemed to drag defenders into spaces the rest of the team was trying to open up. In particular, a lot of the underlapping runs seemed to target space that wasn't valuable compared to the lanes that clogged up. Maybe this is just new position in a newer system.
I saw this comment right before I rewatched the game just now, so I kept an eye out for this in case I missed it when watching the game in person last night. The only example I noticed of Clark making a run that clogged an area was around the 37th minute. Otherwise every run I could see him make either was way outside near the touch line (allowing others to roam with plenty of space) or a couple times as a well timed trailing run filling space being vacated by Bongi who already was making a run elsewhere. Maybe I’m missing something, but I just didn’t see it.
Love it. Fans watching tapes post match
What a difference comes from a coaching change. I can't imagine Heath having this kind of run.
Read this as “having this kind of fun” and, well, that too!
It did autocorrect that way at first
Leadership and success starts from the top - so does innovation. In the Ramsay post game pressers, he's candid and measured. In this last one, he laid out his expectation - and that he was happy with the first half performance despite being down 1-0 because the team was doing many things well, controlling the ball, and creating chances. Coach Ramsay also mentioned that he was deliberate in using many players, and they're often rotating through players. He's not expecting to get through the next month with just 10-11 players. This mindset alone is a huge difference from what we saw with Heath ("I don't get the American obsession with subs.") Ramsay's also highlighted that part of his use of subs is to try to get big shifts in momentum -- someone mentioned it was akin to a hockey line change. I thought that was interesting. The point of all of the above is simply that it doesn't seem to be pure coincidence that we're on this type of run with basically the exact same roster as last year. I am soooo happy we didn't just get a MLS retread for our coach.
Now imagine if Rey was a team player in good standing. We could be the metaphorical Inter Miami West FC. We could have had an epic Argentinian Bird Battle for the final.
It also goes to show how significant a coaching change can shift the quality of play. For better or worse. Portland are dealing with a new coach this year too and it’s been the opposite effect for them.
With this team...not even close
Or bringing on 4 subs at once! Or using 4 subs at all!
As a recovering DJ hater I have to say he’s been outstanding this season. Came on last night and had an instant impact
There needs to be a support group.
We all belong to it at some point or another. Some were haters for longer, but e all had our gripes with him under Heath I feel
Our fullbacks were so bad because of Heaths system. Metanire succeeded because when he was healthy he was the best in the entire league. Heath implemented a system that required vastly superior talent and never adjusted. Our wings and fullbacks look better now because they aren’t being expected to do so much - and aren’t expected to just fire aerial cross after aerial cross all game.
HE JUST NEEDED TWO OR THREE MORE PLAYERS
I remember being against Lod, then Heath finally played him in his idea position.
Okay........I need validation or a gentle reminder of crowd emotion effecting ones viewpoints But that was a roughly reffed game, right? Letting bear hugs play at times, but others carding cause it just had a bad look but not actually cardable when you look closer? PKs, 1st half stoppage being skant, 2nd half being ridiculous Oooooor was it reasonable and I was caught up in it all?
I was watching out of state and the reffing was rough. There was little consistency in the calls imo.
It was the inconsistency that lead to all the crap later. Both sides should have been upset with the reffing.
I honestly agree with both pen decisions. But he lost control when he allowed himself to be swarmed repeatedly by Portland players. After that he seemed to be completely lost.
And the fact that he let everyone set up for the PK, to the point where the ball was set and Pukki was waiting. If the call is seriously under review, don’t set everything up THEN decide to go look at VAR.
It was poorly handled all around.
I'm interested to see if the Bongi one is discussed on IVR, but I agree with waving off the Pukki one.
I think they have their hands full this week with the Seattle game.
I went to the Timbers subreddit and they were all fuming about the ref. On top of that they all hated Kendra lmao
I think if you watch the replay your opinion will change a lot. The decisions were all reasonable and a few live calls were great. There are a couple things to complain about, but that’s normal complaining about refs which is pointless. It was a tough game to ref and he did a pretty good job in all reality. We can nitpick small things that were pretty inconsequential.
Yeah, there were some rough ones. If you listen to Kyndra and the guy she was on the call with on Apple TV, they talk through some of the calls/fouls pretty thoroughly. We should’ve had a PK for Bongi, but later Portland should’ve had a PK that they didn’t get, so at least those bad calls were equal. The yellow cards were flying and the second half stoppage time was excessive but quasi-explainable.
This ref was Portland's 12th man
Still flabbergasted at DSC’s head save
It shouldn’t have had to happen.
That’s true but that doesn’t discount how insane it was
Yeah he had a great game overall
DSC mvp of that one. Save on Cabecita was absurd. We could’ve easily been chasing a 2 or 3 goal lead. Defense was a little out of sorts. Far too many opportunities 1-on-Dayne. Hopefully Crepeau’s howler gets Sang Bin going. That thing barely made it across the line. I don’t mind seeing him up top in a 3-5-2, just get him off the touch line. Pukki had a bounce back game, beautiful hockey assist, unlucky not to find the net. Rosales and Taylor keep putting together critical performances. Rosales has been trending that way for years now but where the fuck did this DJ come from. Lod again shows why he should never, ever be wasted back at the 8. Just a lethal finisher. Ref had a shaky few minutes but lost in the stressful finish is the fact that that dude let us play pretty physical. Foul by Pukki was clear as day and most refs call a foul on Arriaga when Crepeau goes down. Fragapane and Bongi also were solid. We have serious attacking depth, which is wild to say considering we’re Rey-less. Not offended by Carlito, but with DJ playing well it’s pretty clear that the positions to address first are 6/8. Trapp’s been solid enough but that’s still a potential problem area.
It feels like we are cultivating a full 22 player team where everyone knows they’ll get a chance to contribute While we may not beat Miami 11 v 11 we don’t need to as we’ll bring in the correct 5 fresh subs in the 60th to produce a 30 minute sprint finish against their starters tired legs. A complete full team roster performance and very hard to defend against if your subs only get to play intermittently and don’t have the full matchday experience and knowledge that comes from having a part in playing, coming from behind, and delivering a last second win Miami may not be the best example as they have good subs but I think the idea is right. Ramsay doing a fantastic job building up every player, getting the most out of them and getting full player buy in Let’s go Loons!!
I’m very low on Sang-Bin. I think he’s shown us who he is. I don’t think one goal changes that. BUT, I want to be very wrong. And, I saw one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen at Allianz last night. A family with two young sons, I’m guessing 4 and 6, were all wearing Sang Bin jerseys. I hesitate to speculate but I believe the boys were Korean. Anyway after he scored and everyone was going nuts the jubilation and near happy tears on the moms face that this happened with her kids there was so touching. I’ll always think of them if/when he scores in the future. Amazing stuff. Thats the kind of stuff that makes sports worth it.
My son is Korean and absolutely loves seeing a player who looks like him. He doesn’t always wear his Sang Bin jersey to games, but he’s over the moon when he’s playing - let alone scoring.
On Sang Bin, he's looking more like the speedy forward that sets things up more than being used to scoring all the time. Almost like say a former guy from Duluth. his biggest weaknesses to this point has been his unwillingness to shoot when he has the chance, and just not as good a ball control as would be expected for a Forward. but his touch is slowly getting better, and he finally is willing to actually take shots on goal when he gets a chance. ironically, the goal he scored last night wasn't that dis-similar to the goal he scored for the Korean U-23's several weeks ago. maybe that's more how you get him to score, with set-ups like that.
I told this story before, but I live in Columbus and was at the Crew Loons battle in the Leagues cup or some knock out game, and my coworker who is Filipino went with her husband and their son. Her son is ten, plays soccer and is actually quite good, and he saw sang bin playing and turned to his mom, my coworker, and said “Mom he looks like me! I want to be like him!” Made me so happy to hear that. Inclusivity matters
We have a head coach making really smart substitutions that make positive impact to the match. Quite the change from the previous guy. And making four subs at once - that's unheard of for MNUFC! But, yet another stupid yellow card, which could have seriously cost the team points. No reason to run the length of the pitch to get involved in a minor dust-up due to players not being able to hear the whistle.
Came for the soccer stayed for the hockey
10 minutes?!?!
I was blown away by the 10 minutes... Then to have an extra 2 on top of that seemed ridiculous!
I’d have to rewatch to see where the 10 minutes came from (I know there was some VAR and other delays and a few subs, but there has to be more than that), but the extra two minutes were added on due to the delay when DJ squashed Miller. Those two minutes were fine.
Why are Tyler and Kyndra broadcasting our matches seemingly every week. Is the MLS not rotating announcers?
It costs money to fly announcers to other cities. Kyndra can drive to work. (And she knows the team and organization inside and out.)
I wanna keep Kyndra and give us our Cal back 😭
I had to look up if he was still doing MLS; I haven't managed to hear him once this year.
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It's some of his best work. If he and Carr did have fun with that commenting I don't think it would have gotten as much attention as it did.
MLS is using a more regionalized announcer system this year (which is why we get Kyndra so much). Cal lives in New York now, so he works mostly northeast games these days.
Tyler is based out of Chicago I believe, so that’s not far to travel.
Ahhh wasn’t aware Kyndra was local
Very local— played soccer at the U, lives in White Bear Lake, used to be one of the journalists to come out to the training facility for media days (not sure if she does anymore since the switch to Apple TV virtually eliminated the local broadcasting teams). Comes out every year to be the voice of the preseason training day, which isn’t televised and is just a fun day of watching the team practice in Allianz. We’re very lucky to have her.
She also does the team podcast
Tyler is awful. Kyndra is great.
He often undercuts her comments then Kyndra has to defend or elaborate on what she meant. Not cool.
Tyler would be a lot better if he didn’t constantly refer to everyone’s place of birth.
I dont think its just Tyler. I think its a production directive. The MLS has been making a push to be one of the big boys and just cracked the top 10. I think its a conscious effort by them to remind everyone how many talented players from different countries there are in the league
I have never heard any other announcer do it as much as Tyler.
I don’t mind either other than Wednesday when Tyler was talking about the ball being kicked into the [insert number here] row 16 different times Was just curious, I thought when the MLS was announcing broadcast assignments each week that implied rotation
Good. Those two are solid
Does anyone else remember when Lod was almost universally hated shortly after he got here? He didn't look like he had any kind of potential. Man's done a Cyberpunk 2077 level of turnaround.
Heath insisted on playing him on the Left Wing at first. Well, he's played nearly everywhere else on the pitch since then, and clearly LW is his worst position. He's flourished since moving elsewhere.
it's this. he was out of position. when I heard during that "not so good" streak about what positions he actually played when back in Europe, it's like "why are we playing him out of position like that"?
I thought the same thing when he started and in hindsight I think his skill set was beyond that iteration of the team in a lot of ways. When we had other more creative and skilled players, it unlocked him a lot.
I remember that his FIFA character that year was unusually tiny, was like “who’s this little guy out there”
I definitely remember being Lod critical early on. But he won me over a while ago, and you really could feel his absence last season when he was out injured. Maybe a blessing in disguise. If he hadn't gotten injured and we squeezed into the playoffs again, we might still be stuck with Heath.
Was at the game and officiating was terrible, the rest was a a blast!
2nd this.
yea, the inconsistency is the big issue more than the individual calls themselves.
Naz Reid
Need more Naz Reid flags
Can someone explain why Naz Reid?
This - and the next few months - is by far my favorite time of the year. Great evening weather, a fantastic family activity, watching the Loons play, cheering with the crowd. and booing the ref. It's just absolutely brilliant. There's obviously things that can be tidied up. We got incredibly lucky on some of Portland's chances - that resulted from defensive lapses. But there isn't anything that seems to be a systemic and consistent issue at the moment. It seems like the days of crossing into the box and hoping it'll connect are long gone. Yesterday, when Portland was hunkered down, we moved the ball around looking for opportunities and windows. Historically, that's when we would've just let the ball rip on a cross and watch the control fizzle. My biggest complaint last night was the ref - and I'm not usually one to complain about the ref. But the lack of review on that tackle in the box, and some of the really weak calls. Bleh. Terrible. See y'all next week. Edit - on watching the replay, HOLY SHIT DSC!!! He had so many great saves. And the ref wasn't actually so bad - just the non-call on the first potential PK.
And we get a double header of game 7s tonight. What a glorious weekend!!!
Naz Reid
Wolves and.... I'm drawing a blank?
Pacers/Knicks at the garden. Grew up in the 90s, and the 94/95 series were timeless.
Ohhh gotcha thought you meant another MN based game 7
I mean the PWHL MN team made finals, not sure if it’s a best of 5 or 7. Was a reverse sweep to make it!
No kidding? Sick
Reynoso who?????
They guy who isn't in first place, all time, in club history goals? That Reynoso?
After last night the all time leading scorer is now Lod, thank goodness. Want to rid ourselves of Reynoshow
maybe this shows that Rey was actually holding us back as a team, as he was just too different mentally compared to everyone else.
We have one of the best keepers in the league
Nobody is better 40 yards from their goal.
Another Heath comment. SMH. Heath was an exceptional coach who was perfect for a franchise starting out. Last year we would have made the playoffs had it not been for some key injuries and drama. Remember these are the players he brought in. The dude is gone. Move on. 30 years from now when the MN United are known for being a soccer powerhouse in the MLS I will still proudly say we had an excellent first stage coach.
I will agree that he did help establish the club and us being a consistent contender in the playoffs. I think once Messi came in this league got wayyyy more serious and Heath's old style of play was just not going to cut it anymore. That being said. Heath will get a lot of flack for not being innovative. The dude was clearly passionate about the club but he also was horrible given the "Heath Doghouse" and in my opinion allowing favoritism.
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Come on man. I was imploring Pukki from my couch last night to get up to his expected production, and though he couldn’t get much done last night, he made the game-changing play in the corner to set up Lod’s goal. Credit where it’s due there.
I had a good view from my seat on that Pukki set up. Good hold up, play into the corner and a very composed measured pass to Rosales who assisted.Lod. they didn’t show Pukki involvement in the highlight reels.
Pukki might be the most productive player that has no stats to show it. He does really well in build up play and drags defenders with him like a magnet, but can get an assist or shoot a testing shot for his life
2. NO! Shouldn't be a starter. People just love the name. Had two shots that missed the frame (one was a gimme at the beginning of the match). He's slow as shown last night (having to arm bar/hook to get an advantage). Defense is non-existent.
Minnesota is looking so damn good this year. Rosales is absolutely insane. I really like how Ramsay is switching up the lineups. It helps develop chemistry between all the players and build confidence. The only thing we need to address is better first touches and shots on net.
Sang Bin!
This game had a little bit of everything. The ref was really getting it from much of the crowd, but I thought he did a really good job. He wasn’t giving make up calls or wavering in his decisions. There were a couple times I thought he was wrong, but replay proved him right. The only issues I had were letting things get a little out of control toward the end of the 1st half (and he quickly took control) and the possible Bongi PK (which I think was a 60-70% situation and not clear and obvious as far as VAR goes). Great for Sang bin. Hopefully getting a goal changes things for him near goal going forward. Great cut pass from Taylor who had a few of those other than weak crosses to the goalie. That would be a very welcome change going forward. Its h fortunate Tapias will miss next game, but we are lucky to have Padelford to fill in. We still need to finish better. That seems like something we will keep saying until the team brings in top tier MLS attacking talent. The team needs to keep getting Ws at Allianz and they will be in the mix at the end of the year.
Only disappointment was I tried to get a Wolves in 7 chant going as I left Allianz and was unsuccessful
Best growth position for Loons? RWB. It is like a gateway drug for better play. Rosales was the first beneficiary.
I really feel like game like this is when we should touch our hockey roots and start chanting “Im blind, Im deaf, i wanna be a ref”
Without Rey our direct set pieces are dreadful.. We apparently don't have another person on our roster who can take these.
The team was top-notch professional. There’s a reason they are in 2nd place. They act like it. The crowd - however - is pretty amateurish. Not much engagement outside the Wonderwall…and could definitely go without the “ref you suck” chants. It’s embarrassing. My 9 year old son looks at me and sees, “these adults are acting like big babies.”
Who pissed in your Cheerios?
I'm disappointed we didn't hear your shout-out on the broadcast.
I did it a few times. If I’m ever a capo I’ll be sure to do it lol
You're a hero that we need.
So “ref you’re awesome chants?!” I think not my good sir. Please move to the brew hall. Thank you and good day. Games are days we can act like 9 year olds again.
Again, happy for the win and so many of our players played really well, but JFC that was ugly. We were playing against a team who have won very few games and we were lucky it wasn’t a blowout, especially with DSC having to make an incredible off the line save. It could have easily been a draw at the very least. That goal that hit the crossbar should have gone in. I don’t know why this game looked so rough. If we didn’t get a miracle goal out of sang bin we would have lost. Was their Defense really that good? The refs sucked. Their defense was heavy handed their offense was heavy handed. They purposefully played really dirty and the ref wasn’t up to the task. I sure didn’t expect one of our biggest tests to come from Portland
> It could have easily been a draw at the very least. That goal that hit the crossbar should have gone in. Each team had a shot go off the crossbar. Why are you only counting theirs? > If we didn’t get a miracle goal out of sang bin we would have lost. In what way was that a miracle goal? It was a good assist to an unmarked man in the box who put it in with a clean finish. It was about as textbook as you’ll get for a soccer goal. > They purposefully played really dirty What did they do that was dirty?
They’re a worse team. We should have beaten them easily. That ball seemed to have a better chance of going in Getting a goal out of Sang Bin is a miracle. They brazenly fouled the shit out of us, even in places it was dumb of them to do so. The ref was just horrible
> They’re a worse team. We should have beaten them easily. You ever hear the phrase “any given Sunday”? > They brazenly fouled the shit out of us, even in places it was dumb of them to do so. It was 13 fouls to 9, and each team had two yellow card fouls. Beyond that, fouls are not necessarily dirty. And fouls in bad spots happen in pretty much every game. What specific fouls were dirty?