With one day to go before Minnesota United heads down to St. Louis, we stopped up in Blaine for the Loons final training session ahead of the match. Players were in a good mood, but that also came due to some of the silliness (and pushups) involved in the warmup drills. Minnesota has struggled recently but the players are taking it in stride as they aim for three points in St. Louis.
Northland Soccer Journal
You can watch one of their drills on our BlueSky using the link above. Minnesota also is looking healthy ahead of the match, having picked up no additional knocks or injuries this week.
Bongi Hlongwane remains unavailable for this weekend, though he was in full training on Friday. Hlongwane could return to the lineup as soon as next week based on Cameron Knowles comments. Peter Stroud remains out due to injury with no ETA on his return to the lineup.
Saturday will also see Minnesota United face former Loon Sang-bin Jeong, who was traded to St. Louis City last season. Sang-bin has made 18 appearances for STL this season and has had an okay season with 2 goals and an assist to his stats.
When asked about the timeframe of bringing Cherrion Valerius into the squad, Knowles did not have a specific answer. He did state the visa process has started moving, which is a hugely positive sign. Though with 10 matches left, the time to bring Valerius in and up to speed is running out. You can watch Cameron's full pre-match comments below, thanks to our YouTube channel.
