Minnesota United goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair on Tuesday shared primary goal for this Vancouver match: Don’t loose to a team twice in a season.
Coming off a 3-1 loss to the Whitecaps on April 27, the Loons achieved the aim with a 0-0 draw with Vancouver on Wednesday at BC Place.
But MNUFC (7-3-5, 26 points) fell short of St. Clair’s next aim, moving ahead of first-place Vancouver (9-1-5, 32 points) by the end of the week. That would have taken a win over the ‘Caps and Seattle on Sunday.
Last month, Vancouver had a Concacaf semifinal against Miami three days after playing Minnesota and rotated its lineup. But as more regulars subbed into the second half, the Whitecaps rolled to a victory.
Vancouver put out less than its best lineup with the Concacaf final vs. Cruz Azul coming Sunday and were still extend its unbeaten run in MLS to 10 straight games.
Minnesota’s attack was disjointed in the first half and Eric Ramsay brought on forward Tani Oluwaseyi for midfielder Robin Lod and exchanged wingbacks Julian Gressel for Bongi Hlongwane.
MNUFC’s offense didn’t generate much more in the second half. Vancouver outshot Minnesota 21-4 overall and 3-1 on target.
Three tidbits
Owen Gene was named to the Guadeloupe preliminary roster for the Concacaf Gold Cup in June, but the 22-year-old says he wants to stay with MNUFC to help solidify a spot in the first team. … Darius Randell received his fourth loan from MNUFC2 to MNUFC for Wednesday’s match. … Joseph Rosales and Emmanuel Sabbi did not have an incident in this match. Last month, Sabbi accused Rolales of saying a discriminatory comment toward him. It led to Rosales — who denied the allegation — being suspended three games by MLS.
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