Last year, Adrian Heath’s Minnesota United looked a lot like Adrian Heath’s Orlando City SC. That is, they were expansive, fun to watch, and unable to prevent anybody from scoring goals.
Now Minnesota is gunning for the playoffs, and their solution to the defensive woes of last season is a shiny new pair of holding midfielders and a doubling down on the freedom Darwin Quintero Jr. has in the center.
The Union will need to be the aggressor from the outset if they want to be the first team to knock off the Loons at home, and that means forcing Minnesota to advance the ball out of the back without going through Jan Gregus and Ozzie Alonso in the middle.