Minnesota United was pretty pleased with its first-half performance Wednesday night against the LA Galaxy and pretty frustrated with the second half in a 2-2 draw.
In the first half, not only did the Loons get a goal from Bongokuhle Hlongwane, but they gave the Galaxy’s freewheeling attack zeros across the board.
Zero goals. Zero shots attempted. Zero corner kicks. Zero players left in the middle of the field. “They were just dropping to try to find space, and that’s a huge testament to how we were defending,” Loons defensive midfielder Wil Trapp said.
Loons first-year manager Eric Ramsay said: “I think that’s the most complete performance that we’ve had since I’ve been here. Our message to the players at that point was that if you can replicate that, and play with the same level of control and intensity and discipline that we did in the first half, there’s absolutely no way we’re not winning that game.”
Of course, that’s not what happened. The Galaxy finally got an attempted shot in the 52nd minute — and from there, the visitors came to life. Los Angeles attacking midfielder Riqui Puig had no strings to pull in the first half, but two passes from Puig turned into goals seven minutes apart in the second.
“The two times we don’t locate Puig, he dribbles and he makes plays,” Trapp said.
The particularly galling thing for the Loons had to be that they pride themselves on shutting off the middle of the field and making other teams attack around the edges. But on the first Galaxy goal, Puig found space in the middle to slip a pass between Minnesota’s left-center and center back. And on the second, Puig was able to stroll down the center of the field, dribbling at least 60 yards without a challenge, before flipping a pass to Diego Fagundez for the goal.
“We’re really frustrated because it’s a game you felt we had complete control of at halftime,” Ramsay said. “I just felt we’ve taken our foot off their neck in the second half.”