SAN DIEGO – If Minnesota United could have written out a script for Monday night’s Western Conference semifinal against San Diego FC, they could hardly have hoped to hold the high-scoring home team without a shot on goal for the first 70 minutes of the game.
Of course, the Loons wouldn’t have scripted San Diego scoring a goal with its only shot on target of the night, either.
Anders Dreyer, SDFC’s do-everything midfielder, delivered on his team’s best chance of the game, beating goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair and giving San Diego the only goal it needed to eliminate Minnesota from the MLS Cup playoffs with a 1-0 victory at Snapdragon Stadium.
It was a tough result for the Loons, who played arguably their best game of the postseason, but saw their season end at the hands of San Diego, which earned the Western Conference’s top seed despite being an expansion team playing its inaugural season.
“Had we been presented prior to the game with them having 0.7 [expected goals] and us having a couple of really good chances, and probably the clearer chances of the game, we would have bitten someone’s hand off for that,” Eric Ramsay said after his second season as Loons coach came to an end.
How it happened
It was a physical game, including Kelvin Yeboah taking an accidental slap in the mouth that left him bleeding. When the smoke cleared, the Loons had two yellow cards in the first half, but they also had kept the home team from registering a shot on goal for most of the night — while creating perhaps the best chances of the match for themselves.
The Loons came into the game having fallen behind by two or three goals in both of their past two playoff games, and in their visit to San Diego in September, they would have practically been run off the field in the first half if it hadn’t been for goalkeeping heroics from St. Clair. To have turned that into an opening 71 minutes Monday in which St. Clair was never even called into action was a victory for Minnesota.
“It’s a performance that probably reflects where we’ve been over the course of the year, just right in games at every opportunity, really consistent, but maybe just not quite having done enough to get over the line,” Ramsay said.
