by Ian Katan
EDINA, Minn. — Minneapolis City SC had won each of its previous June matches by a lone goal, improving to 2-3-0 in league play. A resolute performance took down Thunder Bay last week, but the Crows’ winning run came to an end after their visit to RKC Third Coast. On Thursday evening, it was City that landed on the short side of a tightly-contested game.
League Two provides an exciting level of competition for fans to watch, and gives players a chance to keep their skills sharp during the summer months. But as a pre-professional league, its teams are subject to the schedules of amateur athletes, which sometimes means players’ schedules are subject to career and familial commitments that conflict with midweek travel.
Such was the problem City faced against RKC. Competing on a warm Racine evening with only three substitutes posed a challenge, but despite the numerical hurdle, the Crows took off with characteristic vigor.
Playing in his third non-consecutive season with Minneapolis, Lionel Vang fashioned the first seriously threatening opportunity of the evening. Vang picked the ball up just outside his own half before driving 45 yards past four Seagulls and forcing RKC’s goalkeeper, Nic Diana, into the first of his six saves on the night.
“I felt like overall we had a great performance,” the midfielder said after the game. “Had great opportunities, great chances today, just didn’t finish our chances.”
In its most recent two games, City has taken all 6 points available, thanks to corner kicks that both ended in a Minneapolitan forehead turning the ball over the line. A corner kick again opened the scoring against RKC, but this time it wasn’t in City’s favor.
In the 27th minute, former Crow and current Badger Kevin Andrews rolled a low pass from the corner to the top of the box. It met the run of Collin McCamy, who had split off from the scrum, unnoticed. McCamy took the shot first-time, forcing Minneapolis center back Max Kent to block the goal-bound effort.
Attempting to quickly rid their box of the ball, City’s clearance sacrificed decisiveness for swiftness. The ball fell to the Seagulls’ captain for a second bite of the cherry (or swipe at the sandwich, or whatever other foodstuffs seagulls feel like grabbing), who fired his volley through a swarm of bodies and into the far netting.
“Unfortunately, we switched off on a set-piece, and they punished us for it,” head coach Justin Oliver reflected. “That’s a team ownership moment right there, where we can’t afford, at this level, to switch off, and let a guy loop from the top of the box to get a shot like that.”
Minneapolis had been knocked back by a set-play, something that Oliver had been focusing on in his 20 days as head coach, and which had been going well for his side in recent performances.
“The moment you switch off, those set-piece, those objectives that we were supposed to be doing. That’s what cost us,” Vang said.
“I actually thought that we responded pretty well. I think you could make a debate that we arguably had the three best chances of the game through the run of play,” Oliver said.
The second of the chances Oliver deemed notable came just before halftime. Vang’s powerful running allowed Mizael Harris — the Futures call-up who made his first USL appearance against Thunder Bay, and now his first start against RKC — to glide into space behind the host’s backline.
Five goals and six assists for the U21s this season speaks to the Augsburg forward’s adept attacking abilities. But while running onto Vang’s pass just inside the box, Harris applied too much lift to trouble Diana in net, leaving the chance to level the score untaken.
“I thought Mizael did a great job of being selfless, stretching them behind, had some opportunities,” Oliver recognized. “He’s been smashing it with the U21s, so we wanted to reward him, and he did a good job getting through 75 minutes today.”
Trailing into the second half, City continued to push for an equalizer. Vang found space, yet again, between RKC’s lines and bolted forward, picking out a pass to Hakeem Morgan. A defender’s challenge robbed Morgan of the ball, but Morgan Olson arrived quickly to keep the attack alive. Olson rounded the tangle of bodies and arrowed a shot towards the bottom corner. Diana’s right foot, shooting out, was the only factor causing Olson’s ensuing jump into the air to be out of frustration, rather than celebration.
Third Coast would likely have found its own opportunity to celebrate moments later, if not for Evan Siefken being in the midst of a standout night in goal.
McCamy made another stealthy run, to a location very similar to his first-half set-piece routine, and swung a first-time shot through traffic towards the far post. This time, though, Siefken caught the attempt; one of multiple, dangerous RKC-chances throughout the second half that the keeper dealt with to keep City within touching distance of the hosts.
“It feels good to just do my job,” Siefken said after the match. “All the guys are working really hard in front of me. So the thing I can do for them is just try and do my best to keep them in the game.”
As Minneapolis fought for an equalizer deep into the half, the game opened up, and fatigue started to show. Oliver brought on fresh legs as best he could, using both field substitutions to replace debutant defender Adam Senna with Carson Pina, and Harris with Ceazar Daniell, another Futures call-up. Fans who noticed Daniel Sessler on the bench might have wondered if the goalkeeper would see action, given multiple Crows facing muscle cramps and Sessler’s years spent as a midfielder before transitioning to goalkeeper. But Oliver opted to make the final push with the players already on the field.
“Hakeem and Morgan went down cramping late in the game and Daniel was putting the shirt on,” Siefken smiled postgame. “I talked to him on the bus ride up, I was hyping him up. I was really hoping I could get to see him up top, that would have been really fun to watch.”
Siefken again kept the Crows alive moments into stoppage time, after a high-press meant City found itself facing a 5-on-3 counter attack. A blocked shot from Michael Reilly, who scored twice in the reverse fixture, fell to Callum Shillington. The midfielder made his way to the penalty mark, but Siefken, stretching out in all directions, blocked the chance before it could reach the open net behind him.
Though Siefken and his teammates worked hard to keep the score close throughout the evening, it ultimately pulled further away with one of the last kicks of the game. Seven minutes into second-half stoppage, with the Crows pressing high, RKC’s Jaden Prado slotted a shot over the diving goalkeeper.
“Their goal at the end, it means very little to me. I don’t care if we lose by two-to-zero if that means that one time out of ten we get that extra point out of the result,” Oliver said. “So we were very much pushing up, going a little bit more direct, and we were very exposed on the counter attack. So their second goal, to me, is like a negligible difference.”
“I was proud of pushing the whole game, with we’re only making two changes,” said Siefken. “That second goal shows that we were just, kind off, we were still chasing the game, and we were still trying to get a result, which I think is a good thing.”
In spite of a close contest slipping away from the Crows, a silver lining can be found in the team’s persistence in fighting for a late result, and from the strong performances of Senna, Harris, and Daniell.
“I think it’s great. I think they deserve to be out here,” Vang said, of the fresh faces in City’s lineup. “They’ve been performing very well, and today they put in a great shift, too”
“The new guys have contributed great. I think the locker rooms a really tight one which is good, and we have a strong sense of camaraderie. Whoever’s out there, we know we’re gonna battle for each other for the full 90, which is what you want as a team,” Siefken said.
A cohesive locker room will be leaned on heavily to recover from the loss and quickly turn attention to the Crow’s next game. Forty-eight hours on from kickoff in Racine, City hosts the Milwaukee Bavarians.
“It will be a quick turnaround, but I’m also, you know, going to be excited to get some other people back into the lineup, and into a team that weren’t able to be here today, whether they were working or coaching or whatever else,” Oliver said, looking ahead to a visit from another Wisconsin side.
“I made sure to tell the boys to focus on their performance. We don’t want to be results-biased and -based,” Oliver continued, emphasizing the upsides of the team’s process-driven approach, even when on-field events go against them. “[Bavarians are] a team that I think that we can have, we can have a good game against and, you know, we’ve been strong at home, and our last game, so hopefully we can build up that momentum.”
“I definitely feel like we’re moving in the right direction, and everyone’s falling into, you know, Justin’s plan,” Vang said. “Sometimes the results don’t dictate, you know, our progress that we’re getting, but I truly think we’re moving in the right direction.”
