In one way, Saturday night’s 1-1 draw with Houston was a positive result for Minnesota United. The team snapped a six-match losing streak and looked more like the outfit that was playing a winning brand of soccer in the season’s first half.
On the other hand, it wasn’t the three-point outcome Minnesota wanted after getting the lead with 20 minutes left, and it stretched its current winless streak to eight matches.
Minnesota gets another chance to get back into the win column Wednesday night when it hosts D.C. United in Saint Paul, Minn.
“Really disciplined, workmanlike performance,” Minnesota coach Eric Ramsay said of the match in Houston. “I think it’s a really important point, but, again, it’s probably one of those we could have won.”
The troubling part for Ramsay and Minnesota is that the goal it conceded in the 82nd minute came via a corner kick. The team has been good scoring off set pieces, yet equally poor in defending them.
“It’s turned into a bit of an Achilles’ heel for us,” Ramsay said.
Minnesota (8-9-6, 30 points) could return two key pieces in goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair and forward Tani Oluwaseyi, who are back with the team after representing Canada during Copa America.
Meanwhile, D.C. United (5-11-8, 23 points) ended a 11-match winless streak Saturday night by stopping Nashville 2-1 behind a brace from Cristian Dajome.
“Everyone knows the last couple of months haven’t been what we wanted,” coach Troy Lesesne said. “There’s performances in there, but we didn’t see three points. There were so many individual performances that willed that to happen and they’ve been fighting. They deserve this.”
While D.C. United have struggled to win, they do have one of the most dangerous scorers in the league in Christian Benteke, who’s tied for second with 14 goals. Only Cristian Arango of Real Salt Lake has more goals with 17.
This will be the first time the teams play since Minnesota took a 2-0 win on July 16, 2022 and just the sixth time they’ve met.
–Field Level Media