Minnesota United hitting form at the right time of the season
In the 61st minute of Saturday's game Franco Fragapane picked Julio Cascante’s pocket and scored the game-winning goal for Minnesota in their biggest win of the season. The goal, and the win, exemplified what Minnesota have become over the last month and a half and why they’re one of the most dangerous teams heading into the final eight games of the MLS season.
On Saturday night, in front of a full Allianz Field, the fourth-placed United went head-to-head with the story of the 2022 MLS season, Austin FC, and came out victorious in one of their best 90-minute performances of the season.
Second-year club Austin FC came into the weekend in second place in the West by a clear margin and tied for the league lead in goals scored. Last year Austin was the lowest scoring team in the league and missed the playoffs by 17 points.
Minnesota held Austin to just one shot on target Saturday night, their lowest amount since they lost 1-0 to Portland back on Mar. 12 (third week of the season). That's a good sign considering the rollercoaster they've been on this season, opening with one of the top defenses in the league through the June break only to allow 19 goals in 10 games after the break.
But the last two games (admittedly a small sample size) have seen the Loons lock down Nashville and Austin attacks featuring the leagues two highest-scoring players – and they did it in very different ways.
Against Nashville it was keeper Dayne St. Clair standing on his head and stopping seven shots while this last Saturday he faced just one shot on target because of the collective defense played in front of him.
The defense coming back into its early-season form when manager Adrian Heath has the attack firing on all cylinders comes at the perfect time as the playoffs are just eight games away.
In their last five matches the three key figures in Minnesota’s attack have all been deadly in scoring and creating chances for their teammates. Star player Emanuel Reynoso has been the quietest of the trio scoring three times with just one assist while his Argentinian teammate Franco Fragapane has scored four goals while adding one assist. Forward Luis Amarilla, who had just two goals in the first 17 games, has scored three goals and assisted on two more in his last five.
In the 12 games since the June break Minnesota have scored 27 goals on their way to a 7-3-2 record. They’ve gone from out of the playoffs to looking like they’ll be comfortably one of the home playoff spots.
Their win Saturday night took the Loons to 41 points and kept them in fourth place. After FC Dallas lost 4-0 Nashville on Sunday the Loons sit just one point behind Dallas for third place – and they've played two fewer games than the Texas team.
Going down the stretch the Loons are playing the kind of soccer that excels in the MLS Cup playoffs. Saturday saw the Loons with just 36% of the possession, their third lowest of the season. It’s not entirely unusual for Minnesota to lose the possession battle – they’ve had better than 50% in just six matches this season – but the oddity is that they've won all five of their lowest possession games, according to fbref.com.
That style of giving up the possession battle, being hard to break down defensively, and being deadly on the break is what has played well for so many teams in the MLS Cup Playoffs.
While the Loons are looking to secure their fourth straight trip to the playoffs, five of their last eight are against teams currently out of the playoffs, including their final three matches being against the three worst defenses in the Western Conference.
Minnesota United are next in action this Saturday at 2:30 p.m. when they host Houston Dynamo at Allianz Field.
