The Loons went down to Dallas under a cloud of distractions, without a full squad, coming off a genuinely terrible preseason, and played one of the most comprehensive games of Adrian Heath’s tenure as manager. Dallas’ vaunted attack struggled to get into the game in any meaningful way, the Loons’ press did a terrific job forcing Dallas back into their own half, and when the game’s one big chance fell to Mender Garcia, he took it cleanly to give the team a 1-0 win.
It’s the first game of a long season, but that’s the kind of performance that will give the team a ton of confidence that, with or without Emanuel Reynoso, they’re not going to be run off the pitch.
Looking Back
- When the opposing team’s heat map looks like this, your defense had a damn good game. Alan Velasco, Jesus Ferreria, and Paul Arriola combined for just three shots — none on target — and their teammates added just one on target all night. It required a nice save from Dayne St. Clair, but it’s one you’d expect a keeper of his quality to make. In total, Dallas had five shots off target and five blocked shots, which speaks to good defensive shape and rotation by Minnesota.
- Whatever the Loons had to pay to get Miguel Tapias into training camp and ready for week one instead of coming in the summer was worth it. He and Kemar Lawrence are already developing a rapport, evidenced by Lawrence moving underneath Tapias when the Mexican closed down attackers near the top of the box. Check out Lawrence’s blocked shots:
- The Loons goal came off a bit of a chaotic passage of play in the Dallas half, starting with Kervin Arriaga intercepting a pass that came immediately after his own turnover. Dallas was pinned back by the Loons’ pressing, which gave Arriaga the time and space to hit a terrific pass to Garcia that led to the goal.
- It’s a shame Franco Fragapane’s volley didn’t go in and doesn’t even count as an assist despite directly leading to Garcia’s goal. He gets a Goal-Creating Action, but that’s cold comfort when you hit a volley that sweetly from 22 yards out.
- The most baffling moment of the game was the Loons’ other big scoring chance. In the 55th minute, Garcia was through on goal having picked the pocket of Sebastien Ibeagha at midfield. Ibeagha chased Garcia down, but seemed to foul him as the last defender, which should have seen him sent off. Instead, nothing was called and VAR didn’t step in; I’m hopeful we get an explanation of that one from PRO, because it looked like a clear red that was missed. Fortunately, it didn’t affect the outcome.
- The Loons won a game in which Reynoso didn’t play at all and Robin Lod had no shots, passed at a 59% success rate, and hit 0 successful through-balls before getting subbed off (in the 89th, but still). Road wins are worth their weight in gold in MLS, but getting one when the team’s best two players combine to give them virtually nothing has to do a world of good for the team’s confidence.
Looking Ahead
- Prior to this year, the team’s offensive identity was:
- Locate Reynoso
- Pass the ball to Reynoso
- ????????
- Celebrate with Reynoso
And there was a little bit of that listlessness still evident when the Loons did go forward. They were much more direct in their attacks, even if they weren’t pushing defenders up in support, but resets came slowly and it wasn’t always clear who would initiate them. Their game plan was to counterpunch, so all of this makes sense and clearly worked well enough to win, but there were passages of play where Dallas was happy to let the Loons have the ball since they weren’t being incisive once the initial attack broke down.
This is going to happen more and more if the Loons continue to press well and look most effective on the counterattack — especially at Allianz Field, where teams are typically happy to play for a draw — and the Loons need a plan for it.
Garcia was on an island most of the night and did remarkably well given how disconnected from his teammates he was, but once teams are a little more solidified, he’ll have trouble single-handedly breaking down centerbacks. I’ll be interested to see how Luis Amarilla fits into this puzzle but this may be an argument for more of a 3-5-2 formation. Speaking of…
- In various preseason media appearances, Heath mentioned experimenting with 4-4-2 and 5-3-2 formations (likely also its cousin the 3-5-2), so I was a little surprised to see him run out the 4-2-3-1 — though injuries of varying severity to Brent Kallman, Doniel Henry, and Mikael Marques in addition to Bakaye Dibassy’s continued absence may have made the back three feel risky.
Going forward, I’m not convinced the 4-2-3-1 makes the best use of the Loons’ personnel, but I’m more open to it than I was a month ago. A midfield two of Hassani Dotson and Arriaga gives the Loons the ability to both break out quickly into attack from defense and also to press effectively when out of possession, which is how the team generated both its big chances against Dallas. I want to see more creative movement from the attackers before I’d jump into that with both feet, but it feels more viable than it did in preseason.
- This was one game out of 34, a little less than 3% of the season, so it would be very easy to overstate its importance (which the team arguably already did). But I do think it’s more than three points in the standings because of the narrative surrounding the team as — in the words of Matt Doyle — totally heliocentric. The team proved that there was a way they could win without their star using a tactical plan that looked repeatable and without relying on a fluke occurrence to do it.
Heading into their week two bye, the team can focus on doing little things better, improving awareness in the attack, etc. rather than needing to step back and ask if bigger changes are necessary and I think there’s a huge amount of value in that.
This time last week, I couldn’t picture how the Loons were going to win games this season against good teams, and while I still think they’re going to struggle in a tough division, I can see how they’re going to set up. They’re still a few pieces away from being as dangerous on the counter as they’ll need to be if that’s their primary attack vector, but at least for one night in Frisco the defense looks like they’ll be able to do their part.