A Minnesota United team already undermanned played even more so in Saturday’s 1-0 home loss to Austin FC.
The Loons went the final 65 minutes down a man to just 10 field players on a night when Loon-beater Diego Rubio’s 31st-minute goal stood the rest of the night as the winner.
The Loons played on after their midfielder Hassani Dotson was sent off after just 26 minutes, when he was whistled for two unnecessary tackle attempts within 40 seconds of each other.
Each was deemed by referee Drew Fischer a yellow card, which together equaled a red card and ejection.
Until Saturday, Austin FC ended a five-game winless streak and won for the first time since May 19.
The Loons were on a six-game winless streak themselves. They’re now 1-4-2 in their last seven games playing shorthanded in them and haven’t won since beating Sporting Kansas City on June 1.
Dotson had scored a goal in each of the last two games, but was gone for most of this one.
It took Austin FC just five minutes to turn that man advantage into Rubio’s third goal this season – and a 1-0 lead.
It was Rubio’s sixth goal against the Loons in his eight-year MLS career with Sporting Kansas City, Colorado and now Austin FC. The Chilean striker also has three assists against them in that time.
Loons coach Eric Ramsay didn’t attribute any of the goals the Loons allowed in Wednesday’s 5-3 loss at Dallas to veteran goalkeeper Clint Irwin, who has become the starter while Dayne St. Clair is away to international duty with Canada at the Copa America.
This time, Irwin charged out of goal to punch away a cross into the six-yard box, but it went straight into the Rubio’s feet outside the box. Rubio took time to gather the bounding ball and put it right back at Irwin – out of goal and way out of position — and low into the goal.
The Loons again played with a modified back-line due to injury and circumstance.
This time, they were seven men short, with four still with their national teams at Copa America and three injured.
Austin FC star Sebastian Druissi was ill and did not play.
This time, Kervin Arriaga returned to play right-side center back alongside Michael Boxall and Micky Tapias. Arriaga did not accompany the team to Dallas because of what Ramsay called a “personnel” matter. He has been mentioned in transfer speculation with a German second-division team.
Arriaga arrived at the stadium before the game and signed autographs with one arm while holding his month-old baby in the other as he walked in.
DJ Taylor returned to a starting right wing-back position, back starting from an injury while Caden Clark moved from starter to sub. Jospeh Rosales remained in that spot on the left wing.
Ramsay said his team has played its best this season when it has had a healthy and cohesive backline that can press forward and defend a high line while also protecting the space behind.
FC Dallas attacked that space behind with long balls played forward or from the wings. Dallas designated player and striker Petar Musa exploited it for his first MLS hat trick that fueled his team’s first five-goal game since 2021.
“Obviously, the way we want to defend is risky, but it has far more benefits than coss if we get it right,” Ramsay said. “We didn’t it right. That’s a symptom of some mismatches personnel-wise.”
Ramsay said that backline has struggled in games such as Wednesday as Dallas because of its inexperience playing together as well as injury and absence.
“Caden, for example, is learning that role and he does some really good things but there’s also some moments where the inexperience tells,” Ramsay said on Friday. “Obviously, it’s a backline that has not played together previously. That becomes a certain cost. You saw that all too often. We have to be very good at hiding those deficiencies and we just wern’t and it’s disappointing and all the players would say that.”