San Diego FC extend winless streak to five with 2-1 loss against Minnesota United
San Diego FC extended their five-match winless streak with a 1-2 loss against Minnesota United at Snapdragon Stadium, and earned their sixth red card in six matches across all competitions.
“It’s not the red card today that’s the reason we don’t win the game,” SDFC captain Jeppe Tverskov said. “We were behind 2-1 before, but it makes it very difficult to get back in the game, that’s also a big part of football.”
San Diego came out well to start the match, earning a goal in the seventh minute while putting intense pressure on the Minnesota backline.
The San Diego attackers were passing the ball in the opposing half and eventually sent a through ball down the line for Lewis Morgan along the right channel. Morgan then sent a cross toward the back post to an open Luca Bombino. The left back didn’t get the cleanest touch, but still managed to strike the ball with enough force to find the back of the net.
San Diego continued to dominate possession, and missed a couple of great chances in front of goal allowing Minnesota to respond with two goals in the latter part of the half, both thanks to key headers in the box.
The first goal came in the 16th minute when Tomas Chancalay ran down the line and sent a cross into the penalty area toward the far post. Bombino was in the area to defend, but jumped over easily by Minnesota winger Kyle Duncan. Duncan headed the ball down and into the back of the net to equalize at 1-1.
Later on in the 41st minute Kelvin Yeboah scored the gamewinner following a Minnesota set piece. The cross came into the far post for Anthony Markanich who jumped over Onni Valakari to head the ball toward the central area for Yeboah. No defender challenged Yeboah allowing him to tap the ball in easily that close to the net to make it 2-1.
In the second half the trajectory of the match completely changed in the 46th minute for the fourth match in a row as Christopher McVey earned a second yellow and subsequent red card.
McVey earned his first yellow card in the 13th minute when he fouled a Minnesota defender just outside the box when his fellow center back Osvald Soe left him too open. The second yellow came when McVey had the ball and was moving it up the pitch, but went spike first into an opposing player’s ankle after just losing possession. The move appeared accidental, but earned an immediate yellow from the referee.
“I can’t say exactly what’s happening other than I think we’re receiving some harsh calls and we’re just in one of those situations where nothing’s going our way in that sense,” said head coach Mikey Varas. “It’s a tough moment that we’re in, and we all recognize it. The most important thing is that we’re all together and we can get ourselves out of it. We know that we have the players and people involved and we are going to get back to being our best.”
San Diego had more momentum and created positive attacking chances and managed to involve SDFC’s designated player, Anders Dreyer more in the match following the red card, but the home side still couldn’t find the back of the net leaving the score at 2-1.
Through seven matches San Diego are in eighth place on the MLS table, still with 27 matches remaining in the MLS regular season. San Diego FC’s next two matches are on the road against Real Salt Lake and Houston Dynamo before returning home on April 25, against the Portland Timbers.
