The good times kept rolling for Minnesota United, winning their home opener against Fort Lauderdale and extending their shutout streak to 244 minutes. As the team gears up for the New York Cosmos, here are some training notes, as well as last week’s Community Match Ratings.
Wednesday Morning Training
- Tiago Calvano, Daniel Mendes, and Ibson were back in full practice after a couple weeks of varied levels of fitness. No report on if any will be starting, but it’s encouraging to see them back out there.
- During the intrasquad scrimmage, players were hustling and practicing with close-to-match level aggression. There were a couple of harsh tackles throughout, but nobody was injured.
- As a whole, the team is treating the next game as any other and not letting the previous (winless) record against the Cosmos get into their head. Players acknowledged that, while being a tough opponent, they had a lot of turnover in the offseason and each matchup is different given frequent roster transactions.\
- Trialists Jack Blake, Kwame Watson-Siriboe, and Steward Ceus were still with the team in the intrasquad scrimmage. Meanwhile, 30 year old Irish-Japanese striker Robert Cullen was also training with the team. Cullen has bounced around with clubs in South Korea, Thailand, and the Netherlands. Cullen best fits as an agile forward with a strong passing ability and nice near-range finishing skills.
Carl’s Corner
- On Bernardo Anor’s progress after a Week One concussion: “He passed the concussion test yesterday. A doctor came in and wiggled his crystals. Seriously, that’s what it’s called. It’s amazing to me – the test was smacking a ball around from forty yards and having him head it. That’s brilliant… It makes no sense, but that was doctor-prescribed, so there we. Who am I to judge? Strange… The doctor literally wiggled his crystals in his head and he felt great. Never heard of it before, but if someone can get their crystals wiggled, there’s gonna be a long queue outside of the doctor’s next week”
- On intrasquad games: “Nothing went wrong today. Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon to see an intrasquad be kind of ugly. The trend doesn’t really matter, the attitudes are good, but we all are just focused on Saturday.
Match Ratings
After a week which may have been a little generous on the player scores, the community regressed to the mean with these. For the most part, these seemed fair.
GK S. Ndjock – 6.1
Ndjock wasn’t tested very often by the revamped Strikers offense. Even before Geison Moura’s red card, most attempts at an attack were shut out well before getting into Ndjock’s zone.
RB K. Venegas – 6.5
As always, Viva could be found in the midfield and attack more than with the backline. Venegas’ kept the left side of Fort Lauderdale’s defense on their heels, putting a shot on target in the second half. However, without a single tackle or clearance in the entire game, you have to wonder if Venegas is really a right-back or if he just masquerades as one.
CB D. Lowe – 7.2
The player of the week in Carl Craig’s book impressed the Northern Pitch crowd as well (though – three voters did give him a 5). Lowe looked much more impressive in his second NASL start, stabilizing the right half of the backline and adding a goal on a corner kick. Between his improvement and the early consistency of…
CB B. Kallman – 6.3
…it’s entirely possible that we have a new primary central defense this year. The injury to Tiago Calvano seemed to complicate an already murky defense, but Kallman has come back from a toe injury and looked completely able. His speed helped with shutting down Maicon Santos, and he only had three incomplete passes all night. The real test for these two comes on Saturday, of course.
LB J. Davis – 6.3
Another solid-but-unspectacular performance from the new United captain. Lance Laing’s proficiency has kept JD on the backline more often than last year – Davis’ average position was roughly ten-fifteen yards deeper in defense than Venegas. He also completed one of his three open-play cross attempts in the match.
DM J. Brovsky – 6.3
Brovsky helped the right side of the field in check all night. His “highlight” from the game is starting the encounter with Geison Moura which ended in the former Loon getting a red card. Jeb! has kept the center of the pitch on lockdown, shoring up the backline in the process so far.
DM J. Vicentini – 6.3
Part of the reason that Brovsky has working so well for United has been the return of Juliano to the XI. His creativity and ability on the ball compliments his new teammate very well, while also giving Vicentini extra freedom to move forward on the pitch. Vicentini completed 37 of his 43 passes for an impressive 86% passing rate.
RW D. Cruz – 5.4
In his third week on the right wing (having played on the left for his entire career before coming to Minnesota), Cruz is starting to look a little more comfortable working with Venegas on the right side. He may not provide the crosses or offensive spark that other wingers have for this team, but his consistent motor and solid technical ability have made him a key part of this roster.
AM B. Speas – 6.4
Week 2’s NASL Player of the Week performed somewhere between his two extremes from the first two matched. He was (correctly) called offside in the first half after he appeared to beat the backline. Speas was given freedom to roam around the attacking third and did well to keep the defense honest. Speas also tallied an assist on Lowe’s goal by curling an inswinging corner.
LW L. Laing – 6.3
Lance “Clubber” Laing (can we make this stick?) was bringing the pain for the first half, completing 87% of his passes and landing four crosses overall. Laing has shown a tendency to tuck in as something of a pseudo-second forward, leaving Davis with more room to operate out wide. This gives Ramirez someone to work off of up front, but does give Laing a lot of ground to cover, which has led to him looking less effective as he tires. Hopefully he can find a balance on that motor.
ST C. Ramirez – 6.6
A goal is a goal, and we don’t always remember how they’re scored (if you do want to remember how some were scored, check out our list of five glorious Christian Goal GIFs). However, the one he tallied against Lauderdale may be the easiest he’ll ever net. He assisted on the own goal that closed the scoring on the day, but aside from those two moments he saw very little of the ball.
Sub 1 D. Mendes – 5.3
Mendes was trotted out for the first time in 2016 but didn’t make much of an impact in his 15 minute stint. He played more centrally than Cruz had, and the sudden lack of width for the team may have stunted a chance for a fourth goal.
Sub 2 Ibson – 5.6
Ibson also made his season debut and immediately looked confident on the ball, providing some nice passes and showing crisp footwork.
Sub 3 S. Pinho – 5.1
Pinho didn’t attempt a shot or a pass in his short stint on the field. Not much to report.
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