Saturday afternoon in St. Paul didn't start out as any fan, player, or coach for Minnesota United wanted. Going down two goals early on in the match had many in the club feeling a moment of "oh no, here we go again." But after the first ten minutes the Loons made some adjustments that worked like a charm. For the rest of the half they controlled the momentum and in the second half, scored three straight goals to get a win the club desperately needed.
"Two streaks ended tonight," MNUFC manager Cameron Knowles said following the match. "It's been a while for us to have that win, and it's been a while for us to have a win at home. They've had a lot of success, and you have to give a ton of credit to their team, their staff, and obviously they have a big competition coming up next week. But the excitement in the locker room, you can feel it, and it's well deserved. The players deserve it, so much credit for that. That's a really incredible shift to put in that second half."
Post match there was no dread in the Loons dressing room, rather joy. The spirit of a club with the mentality they could win five in a row to make the playoffs.
“There's definitely relief. We have some new guys on the team, and it's also a testament to like, look, we can rely on the whole team and guys coming off the bench and scoring, and everyone's together," defender Morris Duggan said. "We're all together in this. You can feel now there's hope again, there's hope and there's a fire in us. I'm excited for the next few games, and hopefully we can make a big push.”
Minnesota ended their own eight match winless skid and took down a St. Louis side who had not lost in any competition since early May. Comments from players echoed the same feeling, that it showed they could beat any team in the league.
"I'm just pleased for the [MNUFC] players. They're the ones that have put in so much work, so much time. They have carried the weight of some of the results we feel like we should have got," said Cameron Knowles. "They're the ones that go out and get the work done on the field. The effort, the desire, all the way down to the end. We've had difficulty seeing out some games and coming up big in those moments. Drake [Callender], some of the big saves, some of the defending plays to get the three points, is huge."
“Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Drake had great saves in the last dying minutes. The backline, honestly, Jefferson [Diaz] was top, Morris [Duggan] was top. Boxy coming in was top. Cherrion [Valerius] was top," said AZ Jackson. "All the guys that came in as well were just great. Like, we all wanted to win the game, even the guys who didn't play. Like, great team camaraderie and honestly the great attitude all around.”
With four matches left in the season the playoffs still seem within reach for the club. But the road is running out and Minnesota will need to try and get 12 points in their last four matches. If they can do that they will almost certainly make the playoffs, but if not there are a lot of other clubs fighting for those spots.
"Of course. We keep saying the road is running out, and we're going to take points, and we're taking them. We took care of the game in front of us, and now the next task is to do the same thing. One game at a time. Take care of the one that is in front of us.” CK
