On Saturday, Minneapolis City took 26 players south to play a pair of 60-minute friendlies against the Des Moines Menace reserves. The trip served as City’s final look at a number of players ahead of trimming down its roster in advance of the start of its Premier League of American campaign.
The two clubs squared off against one another on a cool and very windy day at the Menace’s home ground in West Des Moines, Valley Stadium. None of the Menace players that took part in the previous Wednesday’s U.S. Open Cup victory over FC Wichita participated for Des Moines—all were rested in advance of this Wednesday’s third-round match against the USL’s Tulsa Roughnecks.
For City, the friendlies provided an opportunity to evaluate trailists and get a first look a few players that had recently returned to Minnesota from colleges outstate.
Match One
| Des Moines | Minneapolis | |
| Goals | 0 | 0 |
| Shots | 9 | 1 |
| Saves | 0 | 4 |
| Corners | 4 | 6 |
| Fouls | 7 | 5 |
| Offsides | 2 | 1 |
Ducan Werling
Rahim Omar, Trey Benhart, Nate Engel, Emmaneul Brown
Isaac Forsgren, Ian Smith. Max Steigwalt
Tim Willis, Andy Lorei, Isaac Friendt
Subs: Lance Gaspar, Chris Riera, Sean Bernabo, Matthew Gweh, Connor Stevenson
Head coach Keith Kicker deployed his charges in a 4-3-3, with one holding midfielder at the base of a midfield triangle. City began the first 15 minutes of the match with a good share of possession, but weren’t able to create much in the attacking third of the pitch.
The centerback pairing of Trey Benhart and Nate Engel were impressive defensively, covering for one another well and winning a lion’s share of aerial duels. Distribution at the back proved inconsistent as the first match went on, but Benhart and Engel were often forced to play long due to spacing issues between the Crows’ back line and their midfield.
In the 27th minute, the Crows were award a free kick 30 yards from the Menace’s goal. A low, direct effort trickled through the Des Moines wall into the vicinity of Andy Lorei, but was cleared a half-step before the City forward could get onto the ball.
City’s best scoring chance of the match came shortly before halftime when Issac Forsgren played through Emmanuel Brown on the end of an overlapping run from the latter, but Brown’s resulting cross was errant.
The Menace held most of the possession and the run of play in the second half, and 20 year-old Tyler Collishaw gave the City defense fits. Collishaw made a number of mazy runs cutting in from Des Moines’ left flank, dribbling through and around several Crows on multiple occasions.
Ducan Werling was aggressive and generally impressive in goal, but was still building a level of comfort with his teammates. In the 43rd minute, there was a moment of confusion when Engel clearly wanted Werling to come out and claim a ball in the 18-yard box when Werling was expecting Engel to clear, but Engel was able to shield the ball long enough for Werling to claim it.
The Crows were almost able to snatch a victory against the run of play when Andy Lorei, following a nice bit of hold-up play, sent a diagonal ball through the Menace’s back line in the direction of Issac Friendt, who was cutting in from City’s left wing. However, Des Moines’ rightback recovered just in the nick of time and was able to clear the ball out of his own 18-yard box.
Though City was under pressure for a majority of the second half, it managed to see out the match and preserve a clean sheet.
Match Two
| Des Moines | Minneapolis | |
| Goals | 5 | 0 |
| Shots | 13 | 1 |
| Saves | 0 | 5 |
| Corners | 1 | 4 |
| Fouls | 3 | 2 |
| Offsides | 3 | 2 |
Matt Elder,
Alex Peterson, Abdallah Bah, Aaron Olson, Brian Chapman
Ben Wexler, Kevin Hoof, Samuel Ruiz Plaza
Will Kidd, Matthew Gweh, Raudel
Subs: Sean Bernabo, Connor Stevenson, Isaac Friendt, Max Steigwalt, Ryan Cammorata
Kiecker stuck to the same 4-3-3 used in the first friendly of the day, but brought in a new starting eleven.
The Menace jumped out to an early lead in the second 60-minute friendly, scoring in the 4th minute. Alex Peterson played a Menace attack onside, resulting in a diagonal ball that forced Matt Elder into a one-on-one. The City goal keeper came out and spread himself well, making a nice save low, but the rebound fell to Des Moines, which calmly collected the ball and finished before Elder had time to recover.
In the 7th minute, the Crows managed a trio of successive corner kicks, but were unable to convert any into shots on target.
City was caught on the counter for a second time, again on its left flank, but Elder was up to the task and parried a well-struck shot from the top of the 18-yard box in the 10th minute.
Samuel Ruiz Plaza made a nice, driving run form midfield in the 15th minute, but his diagonal into Des Moines’ 18-yard box was intercepted and cleared.
Edler was again called into action a few minutes later, producing a nice save while diving to his right with a strong right hand to keep the score at 1-0 in favor of the hosts. City was able to withstand further pressure and took that scoreline into the half.
The Menace scored again shortly after the resumption of play, playing the ball around Abdallah Bah and beating Elder one-on-one in the 34th minute with a calm finish low, just inside Elder’s right post.
Though Des Moines again the had most of the possession and the run of play, there were bits of nice combination play scattered about for the Crows, evident of pockets of familiarity between Minnesotans that had played with one another previously—whether in college, high school or academy.
It looked as if Will Kidd might pull one back in the 42nd minute having been played through the Menace’s back line, but the assistant flagged for offside just before Kidd’s shot from inside the 18-yard box was blocked.
In the 54th minute, Peterson slid to intercept a pass into City’s 18-yard box, but caught his mark and was called for a penalty. The Menace converted to make the score 3-0.
Kiecker continued to tinker with his lineup and the Crows pressed forward late, taking chances in an effort to narrow the score. This led to two more Menace goals from the counter in the 58th and 59th minutes.
Though he conceded five, Elder was hung out to dry on four of the goals. The keeper managed to get a hand to a low shot from the top of the 18-yard box on Des Moines’ 58th minute goal, and perhaps could have done better, but was generally impressive on the day, recording five saves on shots taken from dangerous locations.
Reactions
After the friendlies, Kiecker assessed City’s effort, stating, “I think we subbed a little too much, tried to get a little too creative. Obviously, it led to five goals. The 4-3-3 is a tough formation to work. I think we saw some holes in the tactical understanding of some guys. We’ve got to work on that. There were nine or ten brand new players that hadn’t played in a friendly with us, today.”
Associate head coach Jeremy Iwaszkowiec added, “There are a lot of variables at play. Travel—we’ve been driving four hours. Very windy. Smaller, narrower pitch. Having said that, Des Moines are a good squad, so it was a really good opportunity to evaluate players. Like Keith said, there were guys, this was the first time they’ve been in the mix playing together.” Iwaszkowiec remained upbeat, concluding, “Trying to see the positives, trying to view different playing combinations, different players from our first group playing with different players from our second group. We’re really excited about some of the things we saw. You take a couple players here, a couple players there and put them together. When we think about our starting eleven, we’re pretty excited.”
Kiecker also took several positives from the afternoon. Kidd’s workrate at forward was particularly notable in the second friendly, to which Kicker commented, “[Kidd] approaches the game with a mental attitude that he doesn’t care if he’s going to make mistakes—not that he made many today,” adding, “You saw it out there, a couple guys pounding on the turf. [Kidd] has no hesitation. He’s got a two-second memory. If he makes a mistake, he gets back, he wins it back, and he goes at it. He looked a little sharper than I thought he was going to come in.”
City’s head coach also spoke highly of three of his defenders, offering, “Trey [Behart] and Nate [Engel] worked really well together—how they moved together. I think Aaron Olsen looked really good with his distribution out of the back. He had a tough challenge with an opposing player being a little faster than him, which is a rare thing for him. But I think he held his composure, and I think he did really well.”
On his young keeper, Kiecker commented, “Duncan Werling looked solid, even with the wind, which is always hard.” Kiecker also singled out Matthew Gweh, saying, “We knew he’s a special player, an impactful player. He did that at times today. We’re just looking to get it all to come together as once piece.”
Kidd was focused after the match, stating, “We just need to figure out how to prevent the counterattack. We can work on our mistakes.” Despite the afternoon’s outcome, the Bradley University player was enthusiastic about his return home to Minnesota. “I just got back, so, it’s a big change from school to this. I think it’s going great. It’s a work in progress right now. We’re not totally there, still working on things. It’s a big shift, and I’m enjoying it.”
Engel was bullish on his partnership with Benhart, stating, “Size-wise, we’re similar. We’ve been connecting the first couple scrimmages in practice. I think things are coming together. It looks promising, a couple more practices and I think we’ll have it nailed down, be ready for the first game next weekend.” Turning his focus to City’s first-ever competitive match away to Milwaukee Bavarians this weekend, the centerback offered, “I definitely think we have the talent to bring the noise the first game. With the guys we have, just try to get a few things nailed down in training over the next week. I think we’ll be able to get a starting eleven to come out and get the win.”
Travel Roster for Bavarians
On Monday, City announced the 18-man traveling roster it would be bringing to Wisconsin to face Milwaukee Bavarians.
Kidd’s absence was partially surprising given his showing last Saturday, but City is still integrating players returning from college into its first team. Some players, like midfielder A.J. Albers, are still due to link up with the club.
Having settled on that travel roster, City will have the opportunity for some fine tuning in a closed-door friendly against Minnesota United tomorrow morning. Looking forward to the opportunity to test his charges against NASL competition, Kiecker said, “That will go a long way to help. It’s just about hitting it home, hitting the weaknesses in training, and getting the guys around each other—Jeremy and I getting everyone to understand how we want to play, and where their strengths and weaknesses are.”
Bavarians are coming off a season-opening 2-1 victory at home against Cedar Rapids Rampage United.
Minneapolis City kicks off its first-ever competitive match at 8:00 PM this Saturday away to Milwaukee Bavarains. Be sure to check Northern Pitch this weekend for a full match report.
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