It’s a new era for Minnesota United FC this season. New leadership, new manager, new playing style.
In Seattle, though, the Loons are forever the same: second-best.
Minnesota lost 2-0 on their latest visit to the Emerald City, giving them a perfectly imperfect record in view of the Space Needle: nine tries, nine losses.
Jordan Morris put the Sounders in front in the 28th minute, out-jumping and out-bumping defender Kervin Arriaga and powering home a header from an attacking free kick for Seattle. Paul Rothrock doubled the lead in the 57th minute, a tap-in after a cross behind every Loons defender.
It hardly matters that Seattle was in tenth place in the Western Conference entering the weekend, while the Loons were near the top of the standings. On a night that the Sounders celebrated the club’s 50th anniversary, it feels like Seattle could have gotten a win even if they’d run out their starting lineup from Soccer Bowl ’77.
A big part of the reason for that is that the Loons were once again operating with something resembling half a healthy squad. Nine players were missing at kickoff, due to a combination of injuries, suspensions, and international call-ups – and five seconds into the match, they lost another. Devin Padelford, challenging for a header off the second kick of the game, clashed heads with Seattle right-back Alex Roldan, and both left the game and were replaced with concussion substitutes.
Padelford’s injury led to a major formation shift, as Caden Clark switched from right back to left back, Sang Bin Jeong moved from an attacking role to play right back, and striker Jordan Adebayo-Smith came on to replace Padelford and play up front.
Given the missing players and the immediate change of personnel, it’s perhaps not entirely surprising that the Loons managed to go the entire night without a single shot on target.
“It was really messy. It was a very difficult set of circumstances for lots of reasons, all of which are fairly obvious,” said Loons manager Eric Ramsay.
When center back Michael Boxall also left the game at halftime, after turning his ankle in a collision with Morris, it meant that Minnesota was missing seven of the nine players that had made ten or more starts this season before Saturday’s game – as well as striker Tani Oluwaseyi, the team’s leading scorer.
Midfielder Moses Nyeman was sent off for a late tackle in the closing stages as well, adding to the Loons’ roster woes with the automatic one-game suspension that comes with the red card.
With two more games in the next seven days, and no signs that the roster crunch will abate any time soon, Minnesota is now facing the toughest challenge of Ramsay’s first year as manager.
“In some senses, I really relish the challenge of being a coach in difficult circumstances,” said Ramsay, who refused to be downbeat. “I don’t see any alternative to looking at these things pragmatically, positively and trying to be really constructive in how you deal with what you’ve got.”
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