Minnesota United 1 - St Patrick's Athletic 0St Patrick's Athletic's trip to face MLS side Minnesota United ended in a narrow 1-0 defeat at Allianz Field. The international friendly, a first for a League of Ireland club, proved a worthwhile exercise for Jon Daly's squad who will take plenty of positives from the experience. After the pre-game fanfare and national anthems, the game began in local temperatures of -1° Celsius. The Saints had the better of the opening exchanges with some crisp and effective passing moves. The best chance of the half fell to Ruairi Keating after a defence-splitting pass from Brandon Kavanagh. Keating, however, laboured on the ball and the chance went abegging. Shortly after Keating had the ball in the net but the goal was ruled out for offside. The game flowed freely as St Pat's looked comfortable, limiting Minnesota to some speculative efforts. Saints boss Jon Daly made one half-time substitution with goalkeeper Marcelo Pitaluga replacing Danny Rogers. Pat's again started brightly in the second half with Chris Forrester forcing a fingertip save from the Minnesota keeper Clint Irwin. Minnesota, however, took the lead on 57 minutes when a cut back in the Saints box was met by Kervin Arriaga who finished low past Pitaluga. St Pat's made three more substitutions on the hour mark with Jay McClelland, Conor Keeley and Alex Nolan replacing Brandon Kavanagh, Luke Turner and Jake Mulraney. The reigning FAI Cup champions had less joy going forward as the half wore on as the home side sought the second goal. Cian Kavanagh came on for Keating while Aaron Bolger replaced Jamie Lennon on 73 minutes. Leavy forced a free-kick on the left hand side of the 18-yard box three minutes later and Forrester tried to catch out Irwin with a cheeky free kick, but the veteran stopper was equal to the attempt. Pitaluga came to the Saints' rescue on 83 minutes when Sang Bin broke free down the left hand side and unleashed an effort that the Brazilian tipped over. The Saints had a great chance equalise in the 85th minute when Kieran Freeman's cross fell to McClelland who blazed over from close range after good initial work by Leavy. Arran Pettifer and Alfie Taylor came on for Leavy and Breslin late on as Daly emptied his bench. Despite the defeat, it proved a good exercise for St Pat's against a team that currently lies top of the MLS Western Conference.
