Minnesota United vs. San Diego FC<\/p>\n
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Allianz Field
Stream: Apple TV
Radio: KSTP-AM, 1500
Weather: 82 degrees, sunny, 8 mph south wind<\/p>\n
Form: MNUFC (6-6-5, 23 points) is winless in six straight matches (0-3-3) after a scoreless home draw with first-place Vancouver last Saturday. San Diego (5-7-5, 20 points) beat FC Dallas 1-0 last weekend.<\/p>\n
Context: Minnesota is clinging to the ninth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference, and San Diego would be even with the Loons on points if they win in St. Paul.<\/p>\n
Stats: San Diego leads MLS with 62% possession, so Minnesota will likely be playing mostly without the ball again at home. Vancouver kept Minnesota to 36% possession a week ago.<\/p>\n
Recent matchups: The Loons beat San Diego 2-1 on the road on April 11, but San Diego had 64% of possession time. It was their first match since San Diego topped Minnesota 1-0 in a Western Conference semifinal last November.<\/p>\n
View: Loons coach Cameron Knowles said the two-striker formation with Kelvin Yeboah and Momo Dieng was \u201cencouraging\u201d versus Vancouver. If he goes with one forward, Dieng should be the pick. With only three goals across its past five games, Minnesota needs to shake things up, and Dieng was more threatening against the Whitecaps.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone is just waiting for (Dieng) to bang one in,\u201d Knowles said. \u201cHe scored goals in the USL Championship, and it\u2019s only a matter of time before he does it in MLS.\u201d<\/p>\n
Check-in: The MLS summer transfer window opened more than two weeks ago and zero rumors of new players have surfaced. Even if a link pops up, it will likely take a few weeks for an international transfer to get over the line, and additional weeks for a newcomer to obtain the immigration paperwork to get on the field.<\/p>\n
Absence: Nico Romero (ankle) is out. Nectar Triantis (ankle) is doubtful.<\/p>\n
Scouting report: The Denmark duo of Marcus Igvartsen and Anders Dreyer each have 13 goal contributions this season and will be the focus for Minnesota\u2019s back line.<\/p>\n
Look-ahead: Outside of Anthony Markanich, who started the MLS All-Star Game in Charlotte on Wednesday, Minnesota had a full week to prepare and shouldn\u2019t look as flat as they did vs. Vancouver.<\/p>\n
Prediction: San Diego is having a sophomore slump after a strong first year as an MLS expansion franchise, but Minnesota hasn\u2019t had nearly enough offense to put much faith in them getting all three points. It\u2019s another home draw, this time at 1-1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Minnesota United vs. San Diego FC When: 7:30 p.m. SaturdayWhere: Allianz FieldStream: Apple TVRadio: KSTP-AM, 1500Weather: 82 degrees,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[32885,11203,74,76,75,1083,127],"class_list":["post-419347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-minnesota-united-fc","tag-mls","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}