Loons win friendly vs. St Patrick’s while reserve team gets first-round victory in U.S. Open Cup

Minnesota United won not once, but twice Wednesday — and 400 miles apart from each other.

The club’s MNUFC2 second team won on the road its U.S. Open Cup first-round game against Midwest Premier League’s Chicago House AC, 3-0 with all three scored by forward Jordan Adebayo-Smith.

Back home at Allianz Field, the Loons’ first team scored the night’s only goal in a 1-0 international friendly victory over Dublin-based St. Patrick’s Athletic.

The Loons won’t get three points from either victory, but new head coach Eric Ramsay called both important nonetheless.

Veteran defender Zarek Valentin even said so before the friendly, when he reminded his younger teammates that winning is a habit.

“I’m completely on board with that,” said Ramsay, who coached his second game on the Loons’ sideline. “That was the important thing tonight: Firstly, we had some progress. We had a good performance, but ultimately if we can win, it just contributes to the club doing well here. Also the club as a whole with a victory in the U.S. Open Cup, that thing about winning and momentum and positivity is really important.”

Adebayo-Smith scored twice in the second half’s first nine minutes. The last was his fourth goal scored in four days after he scored his team’s only goal in MNUFC2′s 4-1 loss at LAFC2 on Sunday.

Adebayo-Smith finished off with a deft touch on counterattacks in the 51st and 54th minutes that sent the reserve team onto the 109-year-old tournament’s second round. The draw for that round is Friday

“Jordan is an exciting talent,” MNUFC2 coach Justin Ferguson said. “That’s what we want for him, to be able to get the opportunities to score goals and ultimately create scoring chances and then finish them. . He was probably a little disappointed in LA because he felt he could have gotten a few more chances.”

Just 23, his big night came in his 100th game as a professional.

“I feel like I’m just learning,” Adebayo-Smith said by video call with reporters. “The places I’ve been. The coaches I’ve played for. Different thing that brought me success in the past. I’m just using them now in Minnesota. I’m taking every little experience I can get and I just keep going.”

The Loons signed Adebayo-Smith in January to a three-year contract with a 2027 club option in a trade with the New England Revolution. He played 30 games and scored 12 goals for the MLS Next Pro Revolution II in 2023.

“I can’t feel my toes right now,” Adebayo-Smith said.

The MNUFC2 reserve team on Wednesday repped the franchise in a U.S Open Cup reconfigured after MLS balked at participating as it has because of a schedule increasingly crowded with more competitions such as the new Leagues Cup that debuted last summer.

“It was really nice to get some young players their debuts as well,” Ferguson said. “We want to play as many competitive games as possible and the more they can get into Cup games where it’s win or go

The U.S. Open Cup tournament this year pits an amateur against a professional in all 32 first-round games. Minnesota United sent its reserve team that lost its season opener 4-1 Sunday at LAFC augmented by Adebayo-Smith — who came off the bench in two of the Loons’ first three games — and some of its academy players as well.

The Twos started four of those academy players, then subbed in four more later. They started a starting 11 that included 2022 MLS All-Star skills challenge star Alec Smir in goal, Adebayo-Smith, Loic Mesanvi, Kage Romanshyn Jr., Darius Russell and Molik Jesse Khan.