After four months away, Minnesota United returned Sunday in its MLS is Back Tournament opener to a drastically changed world swept by not one, but two pandemics.
Loons starters acknowledged a world altered by George Floyd's death on Memorial Day by kneeling alongside their Sporting Kansas City counterparts for nearly 30 seconds before Sunday night's 2-1 victory at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando.
Floyd's death — a Black man killed by a white police officer who knelt on his neck for nearly 8 minutes — ignited worldwide protest and unrest and it motivated Black MLS players to form a "Black Players for Change" organization that suggested two initiatives adopted by the tournament's 24 remaining teams.
Minnesota United veteran defender Michael Boxall wore a black captain's armband — Ozzie Alonso didn't play because of a hamstring injury — in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Floyd's name was printed prominently on Boxall's armband, and each Loons player wrote his own hand-written messages on a "MLS Unites" patch as well.
Minnesota United players changed jerseys — and messages — at halftime on a humid Florida summer night. Eight players wrote messages seeking justice for Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old EMT fatally shot eight times in March in her apartment after midnight by plainclothes police officers in Louisville, Ky., executing a no-knock search warrant.
Alonso wrote "End racism, we all bleed the same color" on his patch. Romain Metanire wrote "Am I Next?" and in French "Black and proud." Midfielder James Musa quoted Nelson Mandela, while Robin Lod and Chase Gasper both noted healthcare workers on the coronavirus pandemic's front lines.
"The time is always right to do what's right," Gasper wrote.
Jacori Hayes wrote "Dismantle Systemic Racism" on his first-half jersey and "Charge Breonna Taylor's killers" on his second-half jersey.
