Anders Dreyer delivered plenty of memorable moments as the breakout star of San Diego FC\u2019s inaugural Major League Soccer team, none more significant than in Monday\u2019s MLS Cup playoffs win over Minnesota United FC.<\/p>\n
With the score tied in the 72nd minute, Dreyer came charging into the box and fired a left-footed missile past goalkeeper Dayne St. Claire. SDFC advanced with a 1-0 win.<\/p>\n
Setting up the strike was Corey Baird, who made a heads-up play at the end line to save possession for SDFC. He dropped off a back-footed pass into space for Dreyer to put it away.<\/p>\n
Dreyer\u2019s goal broke a scoreless stalemate, inviting an eruption from the sellout crowd at Snapdragon Stadium. Raucous throughout the night, the audience reached a fever pitch with Dreyer\u2019s goal that the MLS All-Star called for more of with waves of his arms following the score.<\/p>\n
The top seed in the Western Conference, SDFC will host the Vancouver Whitecaps in Saturday\u2019s conference final, with the winner advancing to the Dec. 6 MLS Cup final. Saturday\u2019s match starts at 6 p.m.<\/p>\n
SDFC dominated possession all match, but could not break through with Minnesota United packing its defense near the goal. The home club could not muster many clear looks at the net, and the few SDFC found were off-line.<\/p>\n
Amahl Pellegrino had one of SDFC\u2019s best opportunities of the match in the 54th minute, set up on a cross from Dreyer, but Pellegrino\u2019s attempt sailed above the goal.<\/p>\n
Minnesota FC, meanwhile, fired more shot attempts in their limited possession with 11 to SDFC\u2019s nine, and finished with four shots on goal to SDFC\u2019s one.<\/p>\n
Clutch plays from goalkeeper Pablo Sisniega denied the visitors with three saves.<\/p>\n
None of his plays were more vital than in the 64th minute, when Sisniega came out of the net, stumbling along the way but recovering to knock possession away from Kelvin Yeboah on what looked like a surefire scoring opportunity for the Minnesota United forward.<\/p>\n
Sisniega\u2019s key stop came not long after Ian Pilcher, in the highlight of an all-around excellent night for the defenseman, came sprinting in to make a sliding save of a Robin Lod attempt.<\/p>\n
Lod\u2019s shot slipped beyond Sisniega, but Pilcher\u2019s play kept the ball from crossing the line. Punctuating Pilcher\u2019s sensational play on defense, he broke up Minnesota United possession at another point in the second half and reacted with pumped fists and a roar to the crowd.<\/p>\n
The significance of the contest was also apparent in the physical play that spanned all 90 minutes. The two sides combined for six yellow cards, with the first handed out to Minnesota United\u2019s Nectarios Triantis just 15 minutes into the match.<\/p>\n
Minnesota United\u2019s Anthony Markanich and Carlos Harvey, and SDFC\u2019s Pilcher and Sisniega were all booked in the second half.<\/p>\n
Harvey was also involved in a play in the first half that invited hearty boos from the partisan crowd, as he became entangled with Baird on a run in the box. The home audience, wanting a penalty kick, exploded with chants at the officials.<\/p>\n
Portions of the Snapdragon Stadium crowd also let out chants for Hirving \u201cChucky\u201d Lozano, the star forward out of Mexico.<\/p>\n
Lozano, who missed two of SDFC\u2019s opening-round matches against Portland Timbers, was again held out of the starting 11 on Monday. He replaced Pellegrino in the waning moments of the semifinal matchup.<\/p>\n
SDFC coach Mikey Varas indicated last week that both Lozano and Dreyer would be available after dealing with injury and illness, respectively.<\/p>\n
Dreyer making the start and scoring the decisive goal followed a recent arc for SDFC in which the Danish midfielder has established himself as the standout in the club\u2019s expectations-defying campaign.<\/p>\n
Dreyer has already been named MLS Newcomer of the Year, and he\u2019s a finalist for the league\u2019s Landon Donovan MVP Award.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anders Dreyer delivered plenty of memorable moments as the breakout star of San Diego FC\u2019s inaugural Major League…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":402953,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,3549,15520,7264,221,62,7289,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-402952","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-san-diego","12":"tag-san-diego-fc","13":"tag-sandiego","14":"tag-soccer","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-top-stories-sdut","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115608764134747760","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}