With Their Backs Against The Wall, Minnesota United Finds A Way To Win

We have seen rust become an issue in some of the games while in other games we have seen some teams just take off and not look back. Today we saw a game that seemed to be the tale of two halves as Sporting Kansas City took on Minnesota United FC in the opening match of Group C in the MLS Is Back Tournament. The first half seemed to belong to Sporting Kansas City who were constantly applying the pressure as they stayed on top of Minnesota United not allowing them out of their own half of the field for almost the whole first half. Minnesota just couldn't seem to get any real touches going before Sporting Kansas City shut them down. The 43RD minute of the game, Minnesota would pay for their style of play as Alan Pulido made quite the move and found a charging Khiry Shelton who made Minnesota United goalkeeper Tyler Miller pay as Shelton buried it passed him at the near post. Sporting Kansas City would carry the 1-0 lead all the way into halftime as Minnesota had to come up with a new game plan for the second half.

The second half featured a complete 180 by Minnesota as they started developing more than three touches and they were creating chances on goal. They had a chance to equalize in the 63RD minute when the ball coming off of a rebound found Ethan Finlay who put it away, but there is just one problem. The VAR system would show that Kevin Molino was just offsides. In the 73RD minute,  Aaron Schoenfeld gets a great pass on a clear run from Romain Métanire, but Sporting Kansas City goalkeeper Tim Melia would deny an obvious scoring situation and he received a red card for his troubles. So now Kansas City was down a man and only playing with ten men which meant that Minnesota was going to apply the pressure and that is exactly what they did with every opportunity and finally in the 92nd minute it paid off as a Minnesota shot would find Sporting KC first half goalscorer Khiry Shelton for an own goal meaning that he scored a goal in each half for both teams. To make matters worse for them, Minnesota would find the back of the net with a nice cross from Raheem Edwards that found Romain Métanire near the post who found a charging Molino who buried it in the back of the net for not just the go ahead goal, but the game winning one. My man of the match definitely coincides with ESPN's as Kevin Molino gets it for his hard work during the game.

Despite Some Rustiness, The Union Get The Job Done

The last game played in the MLS before the Coronavirus Pandemic was on March 8TH when Philadelphia and LAFC played to a 3-3 draw. Now after having three months off, the MLS was indeed back in a tournament style to help celebrate the return of soccer here in the US as it's played behind closed doors at the ESPN Wild World Of Sports Complex in Orlando, FL. The second match of the tournament featured two rivals playing a 9AM game as the Philadelphia Union took on NYCFC who were still looking to score their first goal of the season. Both sides were eager to work out all the kinks after so much time away and Philadelphia showed some solidarity with social issues with the Black Lives Matter shirts and on the back of the jerseys were the names of those shot by police officers. Nonetheless, there was a game to be played and that they did as both sides struggled to create opportunities in the first half. One thing was for certain in this game and that was Philadelphia's back five were definitely no joke. After a water break and almost 50 minutes of first half football, both sides were unable to find the back of the net on this hot and humid day in Florida as it remained scoreless.

The only takeaway from the first half is that NYCFC needed to take advantage of the opportunities they were given with more shots on target. That is exactly what NYCFC did with a substitution at halftime to try and breathe new life into the team, but unfortunate for them Philly was on the hunt for a goal and in the 65TH minute New Jersey native Alejandro Bedoya found the back of the net when he scooped up the rebound and hit the back of the net as he shot it towards the far post. For the rest of the game, the pressure was on NYCFC to try and even the game up, but as I said before Philadelphia had a tremendous defense that was shutting them down and they had a goalie by the name of Andre Blake who just came up huge in this game with some big saves. In the 86TH minute, Anton Tinnerholm sends a nice ball across the field to Brazilian international Héber who tries to shoot near post, but Blake makes the amazing save. In extra time, just as the game was coming to an end, Gary Mackay-Steven has a chance at a breakaway, but Blake put an end to the chance and ended all hopes NYCFC had of trying to walk away with a point. I know Bedoya was chosen as the player of the game for scoring the amazing goal, but we are awarding ours to Andre Blake whose saves kept Philly at the top of the food chain (for now).