Minnesota United FC growing used to being underestimated
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Minnesota United FC had this weekend off after shutting out FC Dallas last weekend. Major League Soccer pundits and experts had counted the Loons out, with one of 13 panelists believing they would make the playoffs.
In their opening match they were missing, and are still missing, Emanuel Reynoso, who's still in Argentina. Striker Luis Amarilla missed the opener while working on getting his green card.
To cross-reference American football and Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith, when the Loons were written off, they didn't write back. They relied on a team effort and won.
"As a collective, it was a really good performance. I don't think anybody had a game where I'd go, 'He was outstanding,'" said manager Adrian Heath. "I thought the back four were very, very good in their decision-making. I thought they played when they had the opportunity, they cleared the lines when they should have done, and I thought overall the defensive shape from the front two all the way back was excellent."
That defensive effort calls back to the 2019 season, and it now includes Zarek Valentin, who signed with the Loons in December, and helped clear the way for Mender Garcia to score.
"Three points and a shutout, hard to ask too much more. It was awesome to get out there. Definitely a little bit nervy," Valentin said. "You want to go out and put on a good showing personally, and we had a tough preseason, but it was one of those things where I think we went out and unified as a group and got a great result in a tough place."
Texas is tough to play in, but Minnesota feels consistently underestimated.
"I think this is the team in MLS that has the longest-standing playoff appearance streak in the league, and there's something to say with that. And every year you constantly check in and the team is being counted out for a variety of different reasons, and this year's no different," Valentin said.
"I didn't [think] anybody thought that we were gonna win the game at the weekend, nobody," Heath said. "These are proud men. The reason they're professionals, they take things like that personally, and that's what they did at the weekend. And I sensed in the dressing room before the game that we were gonna have a good performance."
The Loons' home opener is Saturday against the New York Red Bulls.
