Whitecaps hope to extend Minnesota United's misery

Things haven't been easy for Minnesota United lately.

Faced with a depleted lineup and amidst a four-match losing streak, the Loons will aim to right the ship when they host the Vancouver Whitecaps on Wednesday in Saint Paul, Minn.

Minnesota (8-7-5, 29 points) has been outscored 11-5 during its skid.

"We've just started to look uncharacteristically easy to pull apart," Loons coach Eric Ramsay said.

The club is coming off Saturday's 3-2 loss to the Portland Timbers, a match in which Minnesota United owned a 2-0 lead by the 38th minute. Minnesota was already without 10 players, out for various reasons, heading into the match before losing team captain Wil Trapp shortly after pregame warmups started. Goalkeeper Clint Irwin was also injured in the match.

Each will be out three to five weeks; Trapp is out with a hamstring injury and Irwin is sidelined by a groin injury.

"I don't think anyone can deny the perfect storm of player unavailability and lots of games," Ramsay said. "Doesn't equate to an easy set of circumstances to operate within, but that's the nature of a league sport and that's what everyone signed up for. ... We're making the best of a difficult situation."

After scoring just once in 13 matches from March 30-June 15, Minnesota forward Bongokuhle Hlongwane has tallied two goals in the past three matches.

The Whitecaps (8-7-4, 28 points), meanwhile, have won three of their past five matches after an 0-3-3 stretch.

Most recently, they scored four straight goals after trailing 2-0 by the 12th minute in a 4-3 victory against St. Louis City on Saturday.

Vancouver striker Brian White had a hat trick in the win, snapping an 11-match goal drought across all competitions.

"You keep fighting, you keep trying to improve on the training pitch, you keep trying to get into good positions, you keep trying to score," White said. "That's the only way out of a bad slump."

Slow starts have been an issue for Vancouver as of late. Before the win against St. Louis, the Whitecaps allowed both goals of a 2-0 loss to the Portland Timbers in the first half on June 22 and fell behind 3-1 by the 39th minute, again conceding the opening tally, in a 3-2 loss to the New England Revolution on June 15.

Wednesday's match will be the first of three straight on the road for the Whitecaps. Vancouver is 4-4-2 as the visitor this season but has just one win in its past seven away matches (1-4-2).

--Field Level Media