No Emanuel Reynoso? No Luis Amarilla? No problem.
After beginning the game without its best scorer and losing another fewer than 25 minutes into the game, Minnesota United buckled down and found space to make opportunities and get clutch scoring in a 2-1 victory against Houston on Saturday.
“Considering the amount of games we’ve had in the last three and four weeks, maybe we’ll get a little credit for what we’ve been doing over the last few weeks,” Loons manager Adrian Heath said.
That body of work Heath mentioned is from his team’s recent streak, especially on the road from victories at L.A. Galaxy, Vancouver and now Houston. Aside from the friendly match in the middle of the week, Minnesota United has now won three consecutive matches on the road for the first time in team history.
Despite the recent success, the Loons had a difficult lineup situation going into Saturday’s game. Not only did they lose Reynoso to an ankle injury in the friendly match against Everton on Wednesday, they also lost Jacori Hayes to a broken leg. Hayes will miss the remainder of the season, but Heath said Saturday that the team is hopeful Reynoso can return this upcoming weekend against Portland.
Those are two midfielders for a team that is desperate for help at the position, especially with Wil Trapp also out for the next three to five weeks.
To compound the adversity the team faced going into the match, Amarilla, the Loons’ third-leading scorer, went down in the 23rd minute and came out of the game.
That adversity was overcome with timely goals from two players who haven’t highlighted the scoresheet this season. Franco Fragapane notched his third goal of the season with a goal during stoppage time of the first half. Bongokuhle Hlongwane scored a bit of an insurance goal in the 72nd minute, his first in the Minnesota United colors.
Fragapane’s was an opportunity that came nearly out of nowhere.
Hlongwane had the ball in the middle of the field, and he shot a pass up the middle well ahead of Fragapane. The forward then darted past two pinching Houston defenders to accept the pass, make goalkeeper Steve Clark commit to a save early well outside of his net and pot the ball into an awaiting goal.
Once that gave Minnesota United a lead into halftime, Heath didn’t let the team rest on the laurels of the one-goal lead.
“Chasing the game, they’re going to push extra men forward, which they’ve done,” Heath said. “So I said to the players at halftime, ‘There’s going to be huge spots to this game where you’re going to have to defend for your lives.’ ”
Hlongwane’s goal in the second half came after a nifty shift to the middle of the field after accepting a pass, then a definitive strike of the ball to the far-right side of the Houston goalkeeper for a 2-0 lead.
“I’m so pleased for [Hlongwane] to get his goal,” Heath said. “If ever a kid has deserved a goal with the amount of work he does on both sides of the ball, if we can consistently get him to score goals from that position … then we think there’s a player there.”
That second goal was nearly as important as the first considering how aggressive Houston had been since the start of the second half. The Dynamo eventually scored in the 86th minute to bring the deficit back to one but had been pressing against Minnesota United, resulting in numerous defensive stops by both the Loons’ defensemen and goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair.
One instance came with a shot in the waning minutes of stoppage time of the second half, it lofted in towards the goal where Kemar Lawrence dove in to make the stop so St. Clair could cover. It was a culmination of the defensive sellout the team had all throughout the evening.
“I see a committed group of players who are wanting to leave everything out there for each other,” defenseman Michael Boxall said. “Not just first on the field, I think you see everyone that comes on is willing to work their butts off to ensure we get that result.”
