About three years after Minnesota United's Joe Greenspan played for Dave Brandt at Navy, the player and coach will join forces again in the professional game, albeit for a short time.

The Loons loaned Greenspan to the United Soccer League's Pittsburgh Riverhounds, where Brandt is in his first full year as coach. The Major League Soccer side expects the 24-year-old defender to be back in May.

Greenspan joined United (1-4-1) in an offseason trade with the Colorado Rapids. The 6-6, 209-pounder has yet to play for United and was out for several weeks because of a concussion.

The Riverhounds (1-1-1) will likely remedy that lack of playing time. Greenspan arrived in Pennsylvania on Sunday night and trained with the Hounds on Monday morning ahead of the team's Wednesday match against St. Louis FC.

Brandt knows United's director of player personnel, Amos Magee, and even worked out some summer training for Greenspan at D.C. United when Magee was a coach there. Magee had called Brandt about Greenspan before United traded for him in December.

"I know he's definitely got a couple of guys in front of him at Minnesota, so I called Amos and said, 'Is there any way we can get Joe for any period of time?' " Brandt said.

"Our center back situation, we've got some injuries and this sort of thing. It's just sort of tenuous. So he's here on a one-month loan deal, which I think is about the right time for us and, obviously, a chance for him to get minutes."

MEGAN RYAN