Most times, soccer people refer to set pieces as “the small margins.” With Minnesota United, those margins are anything but small.
The Loons scored a pair of first-half goals from corner kicks, one in the first 120 seconds of the match, and cruised to a 4-1 win Saturday against San Jose at Allianz Field.
In a week when one prominent commentator suggested the Loons were the best set-piece team in MLS history, and venerable British newspaper The Guardian referred to Minnesota as “the most aggressive set-piece team in the world,” you might think the Loons would have trouble using corner kicks and throw-ins and free kicks as the centerpiece of their attack.
You would have been wrong, as the Loons yet again dominated restarts, using them to build a 3-0 halftime lead. Tani Oluwaseyi, Kelvin Yeboah and Anthony Markanich were all on target in the first half, with the first and last goals coming from Minnesota corner kicks.
Only a solitary second-half goal from San Jose’s Bruno Wilson dampened the easy evening for the Loons — and Joseph Rosales applied the finishing touch in second-half stoppage time, adding a fourth goal to Minnesota’s tally.
How it happened
The Loons sailed the opening kickoff out of bounds, a mistake that seemingly set the stage for a goal two minutes later. A San Jose throw-in, followed by a battle, turned into a Minnesota throw-in. That Minnesota throw-in turned into a corner kick. And so, just 100 seconds into the match, Joaquín Pereyra crossed, Robin Lod flicked it on, and Oluwaseyi — very near to being offside — poked home the game’s opening goal.
Play of the game
Oluwaseyi spoke this week about how he and Kelvin Yeboah are working differently together, since the former’s return from the Gold Cup. Minnesota reaped the benefits of the partnership in the 42nd minute, after Oluwaseyi turned himself from striker into playmaker.
Picking up a loose ball near the halfway line, Oluwaseyi bounced off one defender, then rounded two more on a winding run that took him all the way to the goal line, to the left of San Jose’s goal. From there, he stood up a ball into the penalty area for Yeboah, even with the back post, and Yeboah powered home a header that saw both ball and goalkeeper careen into the net.
