Tag: Minnesota United

This MLS playoff race is an absolute mess

Put on your boots, because we’re about to wade into a mess

The race for the MLS playoffs is promising that Decision Day will be as bonkers as it ever has been.

The final day of the regular season is less than a month away, with 28 of the league’s 29 teams set for two breathless rounds of simultaneous kickoffs, one for each conference (sorry D.C. United, you’re just going to have to follow along at home).

There’s an old MLS truism that a team just needs to stay in touch until late August or so, and that if said team can start to heat up around Labor Day, you’re looking at a major threat coming from what on paper is a low playoff seed. Plenty of teams with multiple MLS Cups in their trophy case have at least one season where they followed this plan to a tee.

However, in 2023 it’s not so much about getting hot at the right time as simply ending up next to an empty seat during a poorly-played game of musical chairs. Seven teams have clinched their playoff berths already, and two more are simply abysmal.

That leaves 20 teams vying for 11 postseason spots in what is an extraordinarily forgiving set-up. The problem is that almost none of this group seems able to get a solid hold on their invite to the big dance.

Put on your boots, because we’re about to wade into a mess:

U.S. U-20 midfielder Clark to join Minnesota United from RB Leipzig

The midfielder departs RB Leipzig without making an appearance

Minnesota United has announced the signing of midfielder Caden Clark from RB Leipzig.

Clark has signed a two-year contract with the MLS club, which he’ll join in January after completing a half-season loan with Danish second-tier side Vendsyssel FF.

“Caden Clark is a talented, young footballer who is excited to be joining our club,” head coach Adrian Heath said of the 20-year-old.

“He’s a Minnesota kid, which is another big plus for us, he’s coming home. We know what he is capable of and we’ve seen his talent here in Major League Soccer. We are really thrilled to get him beginning next season and I know our fans will be excited as well.”

Clark made his professional breakthrough with the New York Red Bulls in 2020, emerging as one of American soccer’s brightest prospects and earning a transfer to the Red Bulls’ sister club RB Leipzig in 2021.

The Minnesota native went on consecutive loans back to the Red Bulls, first for the second half of the 2021 season and then for the entirety of the 2022 season. Clark had a difficult 2022 campaign back in MLS, as injuries and form limited him to just 16 total appearances.

Clark returned to RB Leipzig for the second half of the 2022-23 campaign, but didn’t see the field despite making the team’s matchday roster several times. The midfielder departs the Bundesliga club without making an appearance.

At the international level, Clark has earned 11 caps with the U.S. U-20 side. He was a part of the team that won the 2022 U-20 CONCACAF Championship, but did not make the roster for the 2023 U-20 World Cup.

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Dayne St. Clair tells Xherdan Shaqiri he has no balls, promptly gets scored on

The Chicago Fire star didn’t take the bait, scoring from the spot

Dayne St. Clair and Xherdan Shaqiri had a delightfully entertaining exchange before the latter took a penalty against the former, with the Minnesota United goalkeeper telling the Chicago Fire star he has “no balls.”

The Loons took a 1-0 lead in Thursday night’s Leagues Cup match before the Fire drew a second-half penalty and were given a chance to equalize.

Shaqiri stepped up to the spot and thanks to some expert camerawork, we saw the entire exchange between the Swiss star and St. Clair.

The Minnesota shot-stopper seemed to dare Shaqiri to try a Panenka, goading him on by, erm, questioning his manhood.

Shaqiri didn’t take the bait, sending St. Clair the wrong way to equalize.

Point, Shaqiri. The Fire would go on to win 3-2.

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New Zealand walks out of Qatar friendly after alleged racial abuse of Boxall

All Whites players refused to come out for the second half after a comment made by a Qatari player

New Zealand walked out of Monday’s friendly against Qatar after saying that defender Michael Boxall was racially abused by a Qatari player.

According to Stuff, the incident took place in the 40th minute when Qatar winger Yusuf Abdurisag made a comment toward the Minnesota United defender that left New Zealand’s players visibly angry.

After the referee did not take any action, the All Whites refused to come out for the second half.

“Michael Boxall was racially abused during the first half of the game by a Qatari player,” New Zealand’s official Twitter account said. “No official action was taken so the team have agreed not to come out for the second half of the match.”

The match in Austria was abandoned with New Zealand leading 1-0.

Speaking on the match broadcast, Qatar head coach Carlos Queiroz cautioned against drawing any conclusions before an investigation was conducted.

”The facts are the following: Apparently two players on the pitch exchanged words. The New Zealand players decided to support their teammate just as our team decided to support our player,” Queiroz said.

“They decided to abandon the game with no witnesses. The referee did not listen [to what was said]. It’s just an argument between two players.

“I think is a new chapter in football which is for sure something nobody can understand. Let’s let the football authorities make a decision. I think this game will be under observation from FIFA for sure.”

The New Zealand Professional Footballers Association released a statement supporting the All Whites players, saying they “commend and support our players’ poised reaction in this challenging situation.”

Sadly, the New Zealand-Qatar match wasn’t even the only international game on the day abandoned due to alleged racism. Ireland’s FA said that its U-21 game against Kuwait was ended after a racist remark by a Kuwaiti player toward an Irish player.

Alan Velasco sends FC Dallas through with a cold-blooded Panenka

The 20-year-old asked to be the fifth penalty taker and did not disappoint

With a chance to beat Minnesota United in a penalty shootout and send FC Dallas to the conference semis, Alan Velasco went for the audacious.

Velasco’s cold-blooded Panenka theatrically sailed just over the outstretched arms of goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair, who nearly kept the ball out from the seat of his pants.

A sold-out Toyota Park erupted as FC Dallas sealed its place in the Western Conference semifinal against Texas rival Austin FC.

Emanuel Reynoso had given the visitors a second-half lead before Facundo Quignón found the equalizer for FC Dallas. After two scoreless periods of extra time, the game went into a shootout tied 1-1.

That’s when Velasco, despite being only 20 and in his first season with FC Dallas, asked to take responsibility.

“Nico [Estévez, FC Dallas head coach] asked who wanted to shoot and I told him I wanted to be the fifth taker,” Velasco said after the game.

FC Dallas goalkeeper Maarten Paes made one stop in the shootout and FC Dallas converted all its kicks. That set the stage for Velasco.

He was ready for the moment.

Watch Velasco’s game-winning Panenka

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The MLS playoffs begin with three days of potential upsets and chaos

Thoughts and predictions from every opening-round playoff match

After the obligatory long, strange trip, the MLS playoffs are here.

The first round will feature six one-off games, with the higher seeds all hosting. While LAFC and the Philadelphia Union kick their feet up and watch, the remaining playoff sides will try to navigate a first round that is typically volatile. If your playoff predictions are looking pretty chalky, you’re probably off base.

Pro Soccer Wire is ready for the kind of drama MLS virtually always manages to conjure up at this time of the year, and we’re diving into each and every first round match-up with analysis, broadcast information, and predictions.

MLS playoff brackets are set after Decision Day drama

Thoughts on every playoff pairing after Decision Day’s drama

It’s officially playoff time in MLS.

Sunday afternoon saw some high tension in the Eastern Conference that ended with Orlando City coming back to secure the final playoff spot over the Columbus Crew. For the Crew, a season of lost leads ended with Facundo Torres netting an 84th minute penalty kick, giving the 2022 US Open Cup champions a win they had to have to get into the playoff spot.

Fans then watched Minnesota United and Real Salt Lake win the race for the last two spots in the West, defeating the Vancouver Whitecaps and Portland Timbers in what turned out to be effectively an appetizer for the actual postseason. Minnesota largely held Vancouver to little en route to a 2-0 win in St. Paul, while the Timbers controversially dropped midfielder Eryk Williamson and were run over by RSL, falling behind by three goals before a very late goal gave them a more respectable-sounding 3-1 loss.

While the playoff dates and times are yet to be announced, we now know all 14 playoff teams, and what the first round looks like.

MLS Madness spreads nationwide as league breaks goalscoring record

MLS was, even by MLS standards, completely bonkers Saturday night

Summer in MLS can be a rough time. You’re too far away from the real pressure of making or missing the playoffs, it’s hot and humid everywhere, teams are figuring it out after transfer window moves. It can feel very much like everyone’s biding their time for September and October.

Not August 6. MLS Madness™ took hold in nearly every corner of the country, with goals galore, teams scoring and conceding in the deepest depths of stoppage time, big-name stars scoring bangers, and everyone basically went bananas. It was a perfect advertisement for the league: fun, flawed, weird, and inexplicable.

For one thing, MLS broke a league record for goals scored in one night. Across 13 games Saturday night, teams combined for 57 goals, an average of well over four per game. The old record of 46 was left in the dust.

As the league itself once said, This Stuff Kicks!

In chronological order, let’s go through one of the wildest nights in MLS history:

Portland Timbers, Minnesota United delivered some MLS Madness

MLS is weird!

The Portland Timbers visited Minnesota United for a Saturday afternoon MLS clash, and the two teams produced a wacky, weird, wonderful 4-4 draw.

Everyone knows MLS can be a deeply strange league, with fun goals and puzzling defending choices. Bizarre games are a regular occurrence—this isn’t MLS’s first 4-4 draw of the season—but it’s rare that a zany, madcap classic pops up on national TV.

However, Saturday on ABC, the Timbers and Loons provided exactly that. Nine yellow cards, eight goals, three equalizers, three lead changes, and no clarity for the packed middle tier of the Western Conference, which sees Portland (7th, 31 points) and four other teams sandwiched between third-placed Minnesota (35 points) and the Seattle Sounders, who sit 9th on 29.

Portland scored just 13 seconds into the match, with Sebastián Blanco finishing off a move that left Minnesota’s players looking like training cones.

And yet, they walked into the locker room down 3-1 after some wonderful work from Emanuel Reynoso (one assist, and involvement in all three goals) and Franco Fragapane (who scored one and added a bonkers heel flick that hit the post before Bongokuhle Hlongwane buried Minnesota’s second).

Naturally, that impressive comeback from the home side gave them a lead that lasted all of eight second-half minutes. Blanco scored in the 50th minute to bring the Timbers back to life, and by the 53rd minute it was 3-3 after Jaroslaw Niezgoda scored a goal that survived a lengthy VAR check.

Portland then surged back in front with this weird game’s weirdest goal. Blanco tried to slip a pass across the goalmouth from out wide, but even though he appeared to misplace that service, the ball somehow squirmed between Dayne St. Clair and the near post.

After 53 previous Timbers braces in MLS, Blanco hoped for credit for the club’s first-ever league hat trick, but the goal was credited as an own goal after clipping Kemar Lawrence on the way in.

There was still plenty of time for the game to take the oddity up to new levels, and Minnesota equalized through Luis Amarilla in the—you guessed it—69th minute.

St. Clair then redeemed himself for the fourth Portland goal with a spectacular save, and play remained wide open throughout the final minutes, with yellow cards piling up as the only defensive answer either team seemed to have was to foul as the other team sparked counter-attacks.

The rest of the weekend’s MLS games have a high bar to meet.

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Everton’s humiliating loss to Minnesota United has Frank Lampard already talking relegation

Some preseason losses are more painful than others

There have been some predictable results over the past few days amid the annual tradition of European clubs fanning out across the U.S. to face MLS clubs during their preseason.

Barcelona beat Inter Miami 6-0. Bayern Munich defeated D.C. United 6-2. Arsenal beat Orlando City 3-1.

But not every game has gone according to script. Charlotte FC managed a 1-1 draw against Chelsea. And, incredibly, Minnesota United laid a 4-0 beating on Everton Wednesday night.

Everton manager Frank Lampard, who narrowly led his team to an escape from relegation last season, was understandably not pleased to see his side humbled by an MLS team in such a fashion.

“The players in the dressing room need to understand that they’ve put in a very poor performance individually and collectively,” he said after the game.

Such was the standard of his team’s display, Lampard was even ready to invoke the possibility of another relegation battle in 2022-23.

“The players have to work and understand we were in a relegation battle for a big portion of last season,” he said. “We had an amazing night (securing their Premier League status against Crystal Palace) and an amazing run, but as soon as that finished, I put it to bed very quickly, so the players have to put it to bed as well, because we were in that fight for a reason. And if we don’t want to be in that situation again, they have to be better and I have to be better.”

Everton lost its star Richarlison this summer, after the Brazilian joined Tottenham in a £60 million deal. The club has not yet brought in a replacement, which is causing a “void” according to Lampard.

“There is no doubt about it. When you think of where we were last year, we have lost a big player in Richarlison…we wish him well, but our club now continues,” Lampard said.

“We know there is a void in forward areas, we are short in numbers there. Also, through the team, there are things I want to strengthen, and I can be honest about that, because a club like Everton has to have a competitive squad.”

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