Analysis: Loons are unreserved about their frustration after reserves preside over flop at KC

Through 64 minutes Saturday, Minnesota United was cruising against Sporting Kansas City. The Loons led 3-0. SKC was getting booed by its own fans. It was cold and snowing and the home team was headed for an 11th consecutive loss. You could have excused SKC for looking like, as a team, it simply wanted to dig a hole and hide.

Then the Loons made two substitutions.

“It’s very difficult to look past the before and after point today, around the point at which we change,” coach Eric Ramsay said.

The Loons removed striker Tani Oluwaseyi and midfielder Joaquín Pereyra. Sang Bin Jeong took over for Oluwaseyi at forward, the Loons shifted to a setup with five defenders and four midfielders, and Jefferson Díaz moved to right back while Bongokuhle Hlongwane moved up to the midfield.

Fifteen minutes later, it was 3-3, and that’s where it ended.

First, the Loons couldn’t deal with a long ball over the top, despite seemingly having five defenders who were in the correct positions. But Díaz, along with right center back Carlos Harvey, simply failed to track forward Daniel Sallói, who beat Dayne St. Clair from a tight angle.

“It’s a play where we’ve got fresh guys on the field, they’re still acclimating to the speed of the game, but it feels a little soft to give up,” midfielder Wil Trapp said.

Ramsay and Trapp were both quick to defend the youngster, who has been solid over the first four games. Trapp called it simple bad luck. “It’s not systemic of his performances,” Ramsay said.

After the first two goals, Ramsay made two more changes, throwing young defensive midfielder Owen Gene on the field and replacing forward Robin Lod with Kelvin Yeboah.

It didn’t stem the tide, and the third goal — five minutes after the second set of subs — was the one that got to Ramsay most. Díaz had the ball at his feet at the edge of the penalty area, but SKC midfielder Manu García poked it away — straight to forward Dejan Joveljic, who banged the tying goal off the post and in.

“The third goal is possibly the toughest to swallow, probably the really poor decision where we turn the ball over on the top of the box, needlessly take an unnecessary touch,” Ramsay said. “[It’s taking] a real risk on the ball on our 18-yard line where they’ve got really good pressure on the ball.”

The manager has often been almost unexpectedly even-keeled in his first 12 months on the job when things have gone wrong. Saturday night was the closest we’ve seen him to being truly angry after the game.

There have been times over the past year when Ramsay’s substitutes have unlocked the game, and times when his tactical decisions have worked out perfectly. This won’t go down as one of those games, and he was willing to point the finger at himself as well.

“There is not one part of me that puts that entirely on the players, nor individually on the players that came on,” Ramsay said. “It was a combination of my decision-making, our decision-making, the way in which the players on the pitch absorbed the subs, and of course the way in which they performed as they came on. We as a collective have to look at ourselves in a really harsh way there, because there’s almost an inexplicable drop-off.”

That the Loons struggled when the substitutes came on in the second half is all the more worrying because Saturday, against the visiting LA Galaxy, they will be missing five of their starters from the Sporting Kansas City match.

Oluwaseyi, Lod, St. Clair, Harvey and Michael Boxall will be on international duty. It means that almost all of the struggling substitutes, and Díaz in particular, potentially will be key members of the lineup against last season’s MLS Cup winners.

“I would probably look at it the other way and say that it’s a really good opportunity for us to put right what went wrong tonight,” said Ramsay, who said he wanted to reestablish the sense of depth in the squad. “I mean it when I say I do trust the squad that we’ve got. We’ve made multiple changes in each of the games so far, and each of the first three has stood us in good stead. Tonight, it hasn’t.”