Minnesota v Portland Preview: Loons Attack (in a Variety of Ways)

My understanding of the Loons' attack, a visual.

Things have been good for the Loons lately...but have they been too easy?

Maybe? Arguably? But I’d think twice before hanging my hat on it. To start with the basics:

Minnesota United FC
Record/Basics: 10-8-4, 5-3-3- home, 5-5-1 away; 31 gf, 26 fa, + 5 goal differential
Last 10: WLLLWWWTWW (6-3-1, 2-0-2 home, 4-2-0 away; pretty damn easy on that last 5)
Oppo: @ FCD, v NYC, @ NE, @ MIA, @ LAG, v RSL, @ VAN, v SKC, v DC, @ HOU

What We Know About Them
Emmanuel “Bebe” Reynoso & The Loons, right, like one of those bands that vanishes behind a charismatic lead singer? It’s a little more than that, obviously, but Minnesota’s No. 10 tends to dominate conversations about the team – especially when they’re doing well. While that’s not wholly unjustified (I’ll get into it, or at least a theory of “it”), I also think of a Minnesota as a stubborn, pain-in-the-ass of a team, but also one that has legitimately competed over two of the past three seasons. Some famous names from even those past good teams have moved on – e.g., Jan Gregus, Ozzie Alonso, Christian Ramirez and Miguel Ibarra – but, some real mysteries aside, the replacements are doing better than fine (see above and, for Portland fans, look higher in the table). The Timbers are rolling in against a team with five wins in their past six games – even if said run got a boost from a combination of venue and opposition. Going the other way, they did an impressive amount of that good work on the road, something worth estimating in my mind.

To the surprise of no one, Reynoso leads them in every top-line attacking stat, but he gets good support from Finnish international, Robin Lod (6 g, 2a), and, so far as I know, regular soccer player Luis Amarilla (5g, 3a). They have a solid ‘keeper at the back in Canadian international Dane St. Clair, and Michael Boxall still leads a bruising defense. No less remarkably, they’ve sustained that run of form without more current notables like Romain Metanaire and (the talented, yet hard-to-place) Hassani Dotson.

FC Cincinnati Preview: Looking Past the Broken Ruler, Perhaps to the Future

Depends on what you're measured against.

When FC Cincinnati lines up against Minnesota United FC, they’ll be squaring off against a (mostly) full team - unlike their last two against Toronto FC - and a better one top-to-bottom to boot. The final result won’t give a perfect measurement of how tall they stand at round about 1/3 of the way in 2022 - playing on the road against a non-conference opponent, etc. - but this should still send a clearer signal on that than the past couple of games. It may not be showtime yet, but it feels like dress rehearsals have arrived.

I looked past the eight-inch-equals-a-foot ruler (aka, Toronto) when I posted a fairly giddy write-up of their midweek win over Toronto, but Minnesota should test those bright, shining talking points and in both directions.

First, after struggling to score at the start of the season, the Loons literally doubled their goals-for total on the season in just two games - e.g., a 3-0 home win over Colorado on April 17 and a 3-0 win over Chicago a week later. I think a fair amount of this got stitched into a frame of, “as goes Reynoso, so goes Minnesota,” which isn’t crazy, but it’s also incomplete. As much as Emanuel “Bebe” Reynoso waking up has helped, Cincy will get pulled apart of they don’t keep an eye on the rest - Robin Lod, in particular, who has looked somewhere between good and great every time I’ve watched Minnesota. They have some decent supporting characters after that - e.g., Franco Fragapane, plus Kemar Lawrence bombing up the left (and Oniel Fisher just came in on the right), and that unit up top has produced a handful of moves that pulled defenses across like warm taffy. And, sure, Minnesota failed to keep that up against LAFC last weekend, but that’s LAFC. (Plus they started a couple players I don’t know, e.g., Bongokuhle Hlongwane, also Joseph Rosales over(?) Wil Trapp.)

Between feeling a lot better about Cincinnati’s defensive structure and the small sample size Minnesota’s offensive resurgence, I can picture Cincy keeping the game close; on a good day, they might even keep them off the board. What I’m having a harder time seeing is Cincinnati scoring early (as they have been), or scoring more than one goal (again). Minnesota’s attack might have taken a few weeks to come online, but the defense has been solid since First Kick - see three clean sheets and limiting everyone but the Sounders and LAFC to just one goal. That'd be swell company to keep if Cincinnati can get in the room, but Minnesota has contained its share of reasonably potent attacks - e.g., Austin FC (in Austin), Nashville SC(maybe), and Red Bull New York.

That’s pretty much it; call it a chance to show how far Cincinnati has come - and since as recently as 2021. The question of which Minnesota team shows up matters as much as anything, but, so long as Cincy can settle into the game and keep Minnesota generally in front of them, I feel good about them getting a point out of this one. And, unlike past seasons, they’ve improved enough at picking pockets that three points isn’t crazy (even if it remains, in my mind, crazy unlikely). Till they play it (or, in my case, until the morning after; damn the scheduling conflicts…).