The connection between Emanuel Reynoso and Kevin Molino was first communicated during the first break in Reynoso’s first training session with Minnesota United in late August.
About 15 minutes in, Reynoso was sipping a drink when he approached coach Adrian Heath and pointed to Molino.
“Muy bien,” Reynoso said in Spanish. “Very good.”
Their chemistry and combination play has since thrust the Loons into the MLS Cup Playoffs Western Conference final against the defending champion Seattle Sounders on Monday night at Lumen Field.
“These two players, Reynoso and Molino, they stand out, of course,” Sounders defensive midfielder Joao Paulo said through a translator Friday. “They played both above average, and we need to pay special action to them.”
In the preceding two playoff games, Molino has scored two goals in each, while Reynoso has assisted on all three in United’s consecutive 3-0 wins over the Colorado Rapids and Sporting Kansas City.
Reynoso is new and has known nothing but success. He set an MLS record with multiple three-assist games in the playoffs, and he did it back-to-back matches. And in games the Argentine has started since early September, the Loons have lost only one of those 11 matches.
Molino is the old guard, who has endured two losing seasons with the club in 2017 and 2018. He is the only remaining player to face Portland in the club’s inaugural MLS game four years ago, and come Monday, he’ll be a cog for United’s biggest game in MLS.
Molino has overcome a torn anterior cruciate ligament and menisci tears in the second game of the 2018 season and now provides a double entendre to his “Hot Boy” nickname.
The Trinidad native’s moniker derived from “crazy dress code I used to wear in Orlando. The bright colors. They just named me ‘Hot Boy.’ I just stuck with it. Now I’m scoring goals, it becomes more a name some call me.”
Molino’s off-the-pitch fashion still turn heads in Minnesota, but he said it’s different because, well, it’s cold here.
Back in his Caribbean island home, Molino’s 7-year-old son has been screaming at the TV not only when his father scores goals but when his dad’s teammates do too. The little guy’s vocal chords must been stretched.
Molino has 13 total goals in the shortened regular season and playoffs in 2020, while he had 12 across the previous three years in Minnesota, the latter two hindered by injuries.
Molino has posted on Instagram the videos of his son celbreating, some in his gray No. 7 United shirt. “He is in love with the game,” Molino said. “Not being there with him is tough, but having ways and means, this is why social media is there, you can still connect to the people all over the world and not just my son but each and every one through these difficult times. I’m just happy to be a part of it and influence the kids and also my son.”
Molino shirks from taking personal credit, turning the attention to the work of forward Robin Lod, winger Ethan Finlay, center back Michael Boxall and goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair to name a few. “We have to give credit to these guys just as much as us,” he said of him and Reynoso.
Since the Loons moved Lod up to a false nine position — where the player doesn’t play like a traditional up-top forward and will track back to mix in more with the midfielders — the Loons have outscored opponents 9-0 in three games.
“It’s a tricky team when you play with a false nine,” Sounders coach Brian Schmetzer said Friday. “It’s hard to manage sometimes the fluidity of their attack.”
Heath said the tactical switch had been an internal conversation among staff before they used it on Decision Day against FC Dallas on Nov. 8. One factor was Lod had done it before with the Finland national team.
“We just thought that having another player who can join in with Kev and Rey and Ethan, we’d like to see it in a game,” Heath said. “Obviously when you see it in the game and it comes off and you score three goals and play well, you decide to let it go again. Now we’ve got to a stage where that is picking itself really.
“It would be silly of us to change that when it’s going so well and the players are enjoying playing that system, so we will keep it going.”
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Chemistry between Kevin Molino, Emanuel Reynoso pushes Loons into West final - TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press
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