FiftyFive.One

Minnesota Migration: A weekly recap of Minnesotans in the pros.

Kassey Kallman helps Boston get a much needed win, Eric Miller has a night to forget, and Calum Mallace is back in a fight for minutes.

The Boston Breakers took an early lead against the Orlando Pride, but unlike their last two games, Boston held on for just their second win and shutout of the season. New signing Natasha Dowie scored in the 10^th minute giving the Breakers their seventh goal of the season. Kassey Kallman and the rest of the Breakers defense held Orlando to just two shots during the game, but there were a couple of close calls. In the 22^nd minute Kallman cleared the ball out of the box, but the resulting play ended with Kaylyn Kyle tapping in a low cross at the far post of the Breaker’s goal. Luckily, Kyle was in an offside position. Later in the game, a cross deflected off a Boston defender towards goal, but the ball bounced off the post and was cleared away. The Breakers are essentially out of the playoff picture, but hopefully this performance will spark a strong finish to the season when the league returns after a three-week break during the Olympics

Teal Bunbury started for the New England Revolution in their 3-1 loss to Orlando City SC. It was a quiet outing offensively for Bunbury. His only chance of the game came in the 4th minute when his shot inside the box was blocked by a defender. The Revolution went into half time with a one goal lead, but Orlando took over the game after the break scoring three unanswered goals and keeping the Revolution on their heels with offensive substitutions. Bunbury was active defensively and finished his 69 minute shift with four recoveries and four clearances from inside and around the Revolution’s penalty area.

For the second straight week Eric Miller was a halftime sub for the Colorado Rapids in an eventual 5-1 loss to New York City FC. When Miller entered the game the score line was already 2-0 in favor of NYCFC and the Rapids were playing with 10-men after Micheal Azira picked up his second yellow in the 37^th minute. It was not the best of situations to come into and things only got worse when Miller lost possession of the ball, as the last defender, to Stiven Mendoza who put NYCFC up 3-0. Miller also had a front row seat for Frank Lampard’s second goal of his hat-trick. In his 45 minute of play Miller did come with some good defensive plays, but even with the mistakes there wasn’t much he could have done to prevent Colorado from losing for the first time in 15 games.

Tyler David earned his second straight start for Saint Louis FC against Oklahoma City Energy FC. Despite ending in a 0-0 tie, the game could have easily gone either way with both teams failing to capitalize on their chances. David was very active in both the attack and defense before being subbed out in the 76^th minute. Despite David entering the MLS Combine and SuperDraft as a defender, he has shown to be very comfortable as a box-to-box midfielder.

Calum Mallace did not make the game day roster for the Montreal Impact. The return of Marco Donadel and the signing of Hernán Bernadardello has pushed Mallace back down the depth chart.

Cat Parkhill was on the bench for FC Kansas City. Parkhill has yet to appear for Kansas City since joining the team in June.