WOODBURY, MINN. — Minnesota United’s MLS opener did not follow the script laid out by head coach Adrian Heath, as the expansion side lost to Portland 5-1 last Friday night. However, Heath doesn’t believe the entire match was for naught.
“I thought the middle of the park was going to be crucial against them,” Heath told MLSsoccer.com at Minnesota’s training on Wednesday. “The way they play, [Diego] Valeri joins in, [Sebastian] Blanco comes in. I thought an extra body in there gave us a little extra stability and more possession. Caleb [Porter, the Timbers coach] said after that, if we play like that we’ll win a lot of games in this league. We had a lot of possession, which isn’t normally the case for teams in Portland. On that scale, it worked.”
However, the main issue was what the Loons were able to do with the ball once they had it. Despite carrying 53.6 percent of possession in their away environment, Minnesota had just two shots on goal.
“The issue was that we never got enough men in their box and we didn’t defend our box well enough,” Heath acknowledged, with a sigh. “In every game, both boxes are incredibly important. You have to defend your box far better than we did on Friday, and we have to get more in their half [on Sunday against Atlanta United].”
Among Heath’s managerial decisions against the Timbers was benching fan favorites Miguel Ibarra and Christian Ramirez. Ramirez subbed into the match in the 69th minute, scoring the club's first goal ten minutes later. However, heath explained his decision to keep the striker on the bench was purely tactical.
“It’s very hard not to take it personally when you don’t play,” Heath mused, “but as the head coach all we can do is choose the team that’ll win the game. I don’t have any favorites. If I get most of my choices right, it’s great. If I get more of them wrong, that comes down on my shoulders. That’s the way football works. Whether we change it because we’re at home remains to be seen.”
Heath and company will need to lick their wounds and bounce back without a post-drubbing hangover. Sunday’s home debut against fellow expansion side Atlanta (5 pm ET | ESPN2, MLS LIVE in Canada) will pit two teams that experienced disappointing first matches in MLS. As the Loons look to show that they’re a better team than their debut hinted at, Heath thinks he sees some familiarity in their opponents’ structure.
“They’ve got a lot of good players, and they proved to one of the best teams in the league that they’re going to cause you problems,” according to the manager. “They actually reminded me a lot of Orlando. A lot of pace and attacking pieces, but leave themselves vulnerable because they put so many bodies forward. So can we take advantage of that and impose our style of play on them on Sunday? That’s what we have to do.”
