Wednesday's international friendly against German second-division club FC Kaiserslautern gave Minnesota United the chance to split its squad — one for each half — on a warm, sticky, smoky and lightning-delayed night at Allianz Field.
The Loons' 2-1 victory provided second-teamers a rare chance to impress after halftime while the first teamers received precious time to play together after injury and absence limited them all season.
Their starting 11 — especially two-time All-Star midfielder Emanuel Reynoso — used it wisely.
After the Loons surrendered a seventh-minute goal that coach Adrian Heath termed "poor" defensively, Reynoso did what he does, creating two goals with vision and touch three minutes apart.
Heath praised the skill with which attackers Mender García and Sang Bin Jeong finished Reynoso's sublime passing for a goal each.
It was Reynoso's second consecutive full half played in his fourth game back from a four-month absence.
"Another 45 (minutes) for Rey," Heath said. "We saw his qualities again this evening."
Heath called the goals scored by García and Jeong "two really good finishes" and "top drawer" at that.
"I thought Sang Bin showed more composure," Heath said. "The kid wants to do so well, everything is 100 miles per hour. He stayed on the ball a little bit longer tonight … There was some pleasing stuff, some really good performances."
In the 21st minute, Reynoso's spin-move with the ball and seeing-eye pass to DJ Taylor set up García's goal from in front of the goal for the equalizer.
Three minutes later, Reynoso perfectly chipped the ball ahead and new attacking mate Jeong chased it down and scored on an angle.
"Nothing surprises me," Heath said. "I see that most days in training. He has has special talents. Now we have to keep him motivated. His weight is really good. He has been training hard, now we just need keep him engaged between now and end of the season if we're going to achieve what we want to achieve. There's still plenty of time to go."
Suddenly, the Loons led 2-1, an advantage they protected the rest of night, even after the game was delayed nearly an hour at halftime because of lightning strikes near Allianz Field. It also was played with brief hydration breaks to help players beat the humidity.
Four days after they allowed a last-minute goal in stoppage time for a 2-2 draw at Real Salt Lake, Heath called upon separate lineups before and after halftime.
Saturday's starters did so again, with one exception: Keeper Eric Dick started for veteran Clint Irwin, who had replaced Dayne St. Clair, away with his Canadian national team for Gold Cup duty. Homegrown Fred Emmings came on in goal after halftime.
Veteran defender Bakaye Dibassy played his first full 45 minutes in the second half after he played the final moments last week at Real Salt Lake. That's all on his road back from surgery to repair a ruptured quadricep tendon last August.
"That was nice," Heath said. "He has come through and feels great. He came in and did some typical Dibassy interceptions that he has been really really good at. Now it's just a case of getting more time and more minutes. He'll be better for the 45 minutes tonight."
Heath filled his substitutes slots with the likes of CC Uche, Britton Fischer, Zaydan Bello, Diogo Pacheco, Emmanuel Iwe and Rory O'Driscoll from the Loons' MNUFC2 reserve team. First teamers Kervin Arriaga, Brent Kallman, Cameron Dunbar and Devin Padelford also saw playing time they've been lacking for various reasons.
"I thought the kids did really well," Heath said. "It has been a good night. Everybody looks like they came through unscathed. We couldn't have asked for much more."
