Saturday night was a big matchup against the Loons. They usually are when facing Minnesota United. Last year, both teams finished in the top four, with San Diego FC hosting the Loons in a playoff match. This season, both teams are fighting to stay in playoff contention. San Diego is trying to build momentum off their win the previous week against FC Dallas , while Minnesota is trying for their first win at home since playing the Portland Timbers back on April 18th.
In the starting XI, Mikey Varas made some changes from the previous week. Dagur Dan Thorhallson started for the first time at right back , and David Vazquez played on the left wing instead of Alex Mighten. Mikey Varas just needs a little bit more out of both positions right now. Oscar Verhoeven hasn’t been doing a bad job at right back, but the team needs someone to get the ball out to Anders Dreyer on the right side. For the left wing position, you just need a temporary solution while Elias Achouri gets ready to play in these games. It’s most likely that Achouri could play by August 15th against LAFC. That’s purely speculation, but Achouri is needed right away in this lineup.
It was very unfortunate for San Diego FC that the scoring started early in this match. Building from the back can be a good thing for San Diego, but high pressure can sometimes lead to mistakes, which is what happened on Minnesota’s goal. In the third minute of the match, San Diego was passing out from the back to goalkeeper CJ Dos Santos. Dos Santos passed the ball to the far side to Manu Duah. Duah was facing pressure from Mamadou Dieng, forcing Duah to get rid of the ball quickly —probably quicker than David Vazquez expected, because Vazquez put a poor touch on the ball, couldn’t handle it, and was already facing pressure from Minnesota.
Vazquez was dispossessed. Wil Trapp received the ball and quickly sent the ball forward to Tomas Chancalay, who struck the ball well from just inside the penalty area to score the opening goal. Vazquez, who was put in to provide more offense out of the position, could not control the ball and contributed to conceding the opening goal. San Diego now has work to do, as they have not won a match all season when conceding the first goal. Their record before facing off against Minnesota when conceding first was 0-2-6 with a -10 goal differential.
San Diego did try to equalize, and rather quickly. In the seventh minute, Dreyer’s pass got behind Minnesota’s line and through to Vazquez on the far side. The ball was heading out of play, but Vazquez was able to pass the ball centrally to Marcus Ingvartsen. Ingvartsen launched the ball straight into the woodwork. The ball was deflected right underneath the crossbar and hit off the right post of the goal. You couldn’t get any closer to a goal than that. Alas, the ball was cleared out, and the score remained 1-0.
For the rest of the half, San Diego didn’t pose a real threat. SDFC had 69% of possession with 6 shots, zero on target (I would say that Ingvartsen hitting the woodwork was on target), and 12 touches in the opposition’s box. Meanwhile, Minnesota finished off the half with 10 shots, 6 on target, and 8 touches in the opposition’s box.
San Diego was going to need a little bit more creativity if they were going to change their fortunes in the second half. Changes needed to be made in order to equalize and hopefully go home with a point. Substitutions were not made right away, but in the 60th minute, Mikey Varas made three changes: Bombino came in for Kieran Sargeant, Gabriel Pirani came in for Alejandro Alvarado, and Alex Mighten came in for David Vazquez. Varas changed out his entire left side of the field.
It seemed to work because a couple of minutes later, Alex Mighten was taken down and fouled right on the edge of the penalty area by a Minnesota United defender, earning San Diego FC a penalty. The penalty taker was Anders Dreyer, who favors kicking the ball to his right. Well, he did it again with a low kick to his right side, and the ball went into the back of the net.
The goal was good, and Dreyer wanted to recover the ball quickly to restart the match. However, Dreyer also had a few choice words for goalkeeper Drake Callender. This caused Callender to push Dreyer as Dreyer was running back toward midfield. Both players were given a yellow card. Personally, I like Dreyer’s chippiness in a tough match and his attempt to get into the heads of the Loon players. San Diego FC has been missing that edge, and sometimes it needs to come from your best players.
Still, the score was now 1-1, and San Diego was hoping to take all three points on the road. That was Anders Dreyer’s seventh goal of the season.
With stoppage time approaching, both teams were making their way toward the goal. First were the Loons, with Kelvin Yeboah making his way past Thorhallson on the far side. Yeboah passed the ball centrally to Pereyra inside the penalty area. Pereyra kicked the ball toward the near post, but CJ Dos Santos was there for the save. The ball was deflected out of play for a Minnesota corner kick. On the corner kick, the ball was delivered into the penalty area, and Marcus Ingvartsen won the header. Gabriel Pirani won the second ball and made a long pass out to Anders Dreyer.
Dreyer had a foot race for the ball in midfield with Wil Trapp. Dreyer waited for some help to get toward the penalty area before passing the ball to Marcus Ingvartsen. Ingvartsen was now face-to-face with the goalkeeper Callender inside the penalty area. Marcus Ingvartsen delivered a strike on the ball only to hit the woodwork again—just some poor luck for the Danish striker. San Diego just needed one of the two balls that hit the woodwork from Ingrvartsen to go in, but in the end both teams shared the points.
In the second half, San Diego had 7 total shots, 2 on target, and 13 touches in the opposition’s box. Meanwhile, the Loons had 4 shots, 2 on target, and 16 touches in the opposition’s box.
San Diego and Minnesota played a great match. The Loons seemed content with their 1-0 lead and had a couple of chances at the end, but nothing really materialized. For San Diego, they wanted three points, but they can be happy with a point on the road. CJ Dos Santos had one of his best matches of the season with 7 saves, one goal conceded, and 1.29 goals prevented. Dos Santos really kept San Diego in the match.
As for the two new guys on the pitch for San Diego, Thorhallson and Gabriel Pirani: Thorhallson had 7 defensive contributions (which was the third-most in the match), along with 2 tackles, 1 interception, 7 recoveries, and 4 clearances. Pirani, in limited action, completed 94% of his passes, had a pass into the final third, and delivered the key pass that sent Dreyer on a run in the closing minutes.
This is another performance that San Diego can build on as they try to integrate new players into the team. Wins aren’t always going to happen, but the team has been looking better. This is the third straight game that San Diego FC has won the xG battle since coming off the World Cup break. This wasn’t always the case for San Diego; prior to going to break, San Diego lost the xG battle in 4 of their 5 matches. That was a record of 1-3-1, with the teams faced being LAFC, Seattle Sounders, Austin FC, FC Cincinnati, and Vancouver Whitecaps. In just three matches played since, it looks like this team is trending in a better direction. Eventually, those expected goals will turn into actual goals and actual wins.
Next up is the Leagues Cup. San Diego FC will play Club América in Mexico City on August 6th, Club Tijuana at home on August 9th, and Puebla on August 12th. This part of the tournament is called Phase One. Advancement is based on results through points: three points for a regulation win, two points for a penalty shootout win, and one point for a penalty shootout loss. This tournament has no ties and no extra time, going straight into a penalty shootout. Liga MX and MLS are on separate tables, so San Diego advances based on how well they do among other MLS teams. For San Diego’s sake, hopefully they keep some important players at home for this tournament as they face off against LAFC at the conclusion of Phase One.
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