Check out my gamer here and notebook here from Minnesota United's 4-3 victory Wednesday against Toronto FC at TCF Bank Stadium.
And now for a postgame blog of all the things I thought were interesting that didn't fit into the aforementioned content.
Coach Adrian Heath was impressed with his team's performance pretty much up until the dying minutes, when the Loons crumbled a bit under Toronto's offensive pressure. Heath said his team put too many players behind the ball on defense which muddled the game plan, since no one was marking effectively.
But Heath attributed that edginess to nerves, which he found understandable for a team that hasn't done a lot of playing in the lead lately.
"I thought for 25, 30 minutes, we were outstanding," Heath said. "Some of our play tonight was as good as you'll see in MLS. It really was that good. When to play simple. When to play in behind. When to play feet, combination play. And, you know, culminating as good a hat trick as I've ever witnessed."
That might mean a return of the 3-5-2 on Saturday against Houston. Against Dallas, which was the debut of the formation this season when injuries and suspensions made Heath's preferred 4-2-3-1 non-ideal, United was solid on defense but struggled to convert on the offense. Wednesday was more of a balance.
And that has Heath feeling some kind of way.
"This is like a new start, a fresh start for the second half of the season. Let's see what we do," Heath said. "This team is capable of winning 13, 14 games in this league. I know it is. And that's what we have to aim at. So the second half of the season, we're going to have to pick up a lot of weight, but we are capable of it."
United is currently in ninth in the West at 6-10-1 and four points out of playoff contention.
I talked about, like, a lot of stuff in this Facebook Live so rewatch it below or click here. Also enjoy a video from Heath's postmatch presser below. And click here and here for funny anecdotes from the locker room.
