Analysis: Minnesota United’s Joaquín Pereyra emerging just in time

With Minnesota United midfielder Hassani Dotson set to miss an extended stretch of time after surgery on his knee last week, the Loons need the rest of the midfield to pick up the slack.

Luckily for them, Joaquín Pereyra seems ready to go.

Pereyra had perhaps his best game for the Loons on Saturday night in a 2-0 victory over Real Salt Lake, fizzing all over the offensive end of the field. It culminated with his second assist of the year, a spinning, 50-yard right-footed pass that was perfectly weighted into the path of Tani Oluwaseyi for the striker’s second goal.

“Oh, it was incredible — and with his weak foot, too,” Oluwaseyi said. “He doesn’t really touch the ball much with his right.”

Said Pereyra, in Spanish: “I decided to hit it first time. It’s also clear that I don’t use my right foot much, but today was a great pass. And obviously the ball would have been worthless if Tani hadn’t finished it well, but it ended up being a goal.”

Pereyra played seven games last fall for the Loons, after arriving in the summer transfer window, but tallied only one assist. This season, though, he has started more strongly.

“I feel better — obviously, much better than last season, like it happens with everyone, everywhere,” Pereyra said. “It took me a while to adapt to the league. But now I’m more comfortable than I’ve been here in a long time. I feel very good. I feel calm.”

A 2-2 draw against the LA Galaxy on March 22 was the first time Pereyra had played the entire 90 minutes in a Loons jersey, a sign that the coaching staff was beginning to trust him not only to create but to help close out games defensively. On Saturday, he was subbed out in the 65th minute — but manager Eric Ramsay said it was solely because Pereyra had earned a first-half yellow card and Ramsay didn’t want him to get a second.

“In particular in the last three games, I think what you saw for him tonight was a really strong performance with and without the ball,” Ramsay said. “Without the ball, I’ve got to say, in his time here, he’s really improved.

“You saw today he didn’t want to come off on 65 minutes, and that is a sign of a player that smells blood, feels like he’s in a really good vein of form and had really good rhythm. And it was a shame we had to disrupt that, but I think [it was] justified, all in all.”

Real Salt Lake playmaker Diego Luna is, nominally, lined up on the right-hand side of a 4-2-3-1 formation. That said, Luna has the freedom to roam wherever he wants, which usually means that when RSL has the ball, he’s somewhere near the center of the field.

Which also meant that, if Minnesota could earn a turnover, an awful lot of (sodden) green turf was open in front of the Loons.

It’s precisely what happened on the Loons’ first goal. When the ball turned over, Luna was all the way on the other side of the field, meaning right wingback Bongokuhle Hlongwane could dribble the ball out of his own half and right center back Jefferson Diaz could push down the field, overlapping outside Hlongwane.

Hlongwane passed to Oluwaseyi in the center, Robin Lod knocked it wide to Diaz, and the center back had plenty of time to land a perfect cross in the penalty area for Oluwaseyi to rise up and head home.

Looking at the average positions of the players for the game, Hlongwane was forward so often that it looks as if he were lined up as a midfielder, not the right back in a back five.

“We want to make sure that Bongi [Hlongwane] has license to attack as if he’s a winger,” Ramsay said. “I think tonight, when we’re at our best, we had enough passes to make sure that we can get Bongi where he needs to be. And I always felt like home games would give us a platform to do that.”

Early in the season, the Loons were having trouble getting Hlongwane forward far enough to do any damage, mostly because they were counterattacking so quickly that he could only make his way up the field for goal kicks and other set plays. Against RSL, though, Hlongwane was more effective offensively than he has been in any game this season — as much by design as anything else.

After days of speculation, the Loons announced that Dotson had indeed torn the meniscus in his right knee. Dotson underwent surgery Wednesday after being injured March 22 in Minnesota’s draw with the Galaxy.

The announcement is notable in the sense that the club did not yet put Dotson on the season-ending injury list. If they did so, they could use the salary cap space to sign a replacement player. They have until the opening of the summer transfer window, July 24, to make that move.

With Dotson out, the Loons will turn to new signings Owen Gene and Hoyeon Jung to provide midfield depth, as well as Carlos Harvey, who has played plenty as a defensive midfielder. Harvey and Gene both played Saturday against RSL as substitutes, with the former replacing the latter after Gene limped off injured.