Minnesota United 2, San Antonio 2: Postgame Reaction

Keepers are different. Keepers are weird. But they must dream - they are human, after all, and some are more human than most. And if they dream, they must have nightmares, and this - San Antonio 2, Minnesota 2 - was a keeper's nightmare.

ammy Ndjock has many fine qualities in goal; he is athletic, quick and decisive, and at the best of times can function as a fifth defender, the "sweeper keeper" of myth, who can free his defense to push up the field. But that tendency to rush out of the goal sometimes works and sometimes doesn't, and whatever fine qualities Ndjock might have are going to get swamped by the two highlights from this game.

There is Ndjock, eight minutes into this game, standing on top of his penalty area as San Antonio defender Zourab Tsiskaridze takes a free kick from twelve yards into his own half. Tsiskaridze doesn't take it quickly, nor is Ndjock not paying attention, but there is Ndjock backpedaling despairingly backward as Tsiskaridze somehow catches him off his line and scores from 65 yards away.

Justin Davis, defending in the foreground and silently speaking for all United fans, doesn't stop and stare, doesn't yell, just throws up his hands and walks away in frustration. Three games into the season, and he's already a beaten man.

In the final minute of time, there is Ndjock charging out of the goal to punch away a long ball. Ball, goalkeeper, and Cesar Elizondo arrive simultaneously. Replays show that Ndjock gets the ball and also Elizondo, and the referee points to the spot for the penalty kick. "It was no penalty for me," says Ndjock after the game, and most seem to agree with him; United surrounds the ref to argue, but it's pointless to debate the man in yellow. Rafael Castillo scores from the spot.

United can argue the refereeing - Alejandro Mariscal had a nightmare game, including a truly astonishing sequence in which he carded Miguel Ibarra for arguing for a penalty, then immediately awarded Jonny Steele a much weaker penalty. And United, based on their dominance for the final hour of the game, can argue that they deserved to win.

But when your keeper gives up a goal from more than half a field away, and both teams score from the penalty spot, it's a little bit hard to truly argue that a tie was unfair. It's a keeper's nightmare - an Ndjockmare.

United coach Manny Lagos waved away questions about Ndjock after the game, but you could tell it weighed on him a little bit. "I don't think they had very many chances the whole game... apart from the goal in the first half," he said. He took issue with the refereeing, especially in the second half, but even he knew that without that first goal, that last-minute penalty wasn't a problem.

Said Christian Ramirez, who got his first goal of 2015 from the penalty spot: "It's frustrating just because you give up a goal from 70 yards out. We thought we came out and played well and were dominating the game, and then that goal puts you on the back foot. We're chasing the game, and I thought maybe we had some tired legs at the end from chasing the game."

It's unfortunate that the penalty and the long-range strike is what we'll remember from this game. For one, Pablo Campos scored his first goal since 2013 - and finally felt like he was back in action for good. "When I came back last year [following a major knee injury in the preseason], I wasn't ready the way I am now," he said. "It's funny, because before the ball got to my head, I had a memory, you know? Like a quick one. And then I scored the goal."

Ultimately, though, this game will be about Sammy Ndjock. And what we'll remember is that free kick, floating, always floating, towards the south goal.