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Loons lose out in bid to bring back striker Luis Amarilla - Brainerd Dispatch

The Paraguayan striker was on a one-year loan in Minnesota last season and his Argentine parent club Velez Sarsfield has agreed to a separate one-year loan with Ecuador’s historic capital-city club Liga de Quito, that club announced Thursday.

Amarilla scored three goals in 10 games for United but missed the last 13 games with a season-ending ankle injury that required surgery. Despite the injury, Loons manager Adrian Heath expressed desire to bring back the 25-year-old for 2021.

The Loons were going to bring in one striker regardless of Amarilla’s return for 2021 and will now have to make it two newcomers at the top of their attack.

Amarilla expressed self-confidence in stating his objective of scoring 25 goals in MLS last season and was off to a hot start with two goals in the first two games in March before the season was shutdown due to COVID-19. His third goal came during the MLS is Back Tournament knockout stages in mid-summer.

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Amarilla led Ecuador’s top league in scoring with Universidad Catolica in 2019 before coming to Minnesota.

Loons trade up

Minnesota United continued to show the emphasis the club places on the MLS SuperDraft by pulling off two trades to move up for consecutive first-round picks on Thursday.

Starting with only the 25th selection in the opening round of the college draft, the Loons acquired New York City FC’s 17th pick and selected Wake Forest attacker Justin McMaster. Minnesota gave NYCFC $50,000 in General Allocation Money and potentially $25,000 in GAM if McMaster plays 25 total games across the 2021-22 seasons.

The Loons front office then moved quickly to secure the 18th pick and took Cal-Davis center back Nabi Kibunguchy. Minnesota gave Toronto FC its 25th pick and $50,000 in GAM in 2021.

United kept its second-round pick, the 38th, and used it on Georgetown left back Sean O’Hearn.

McMaster, a Jamaican youth national team player, was a part of the Philadelphia Union’s academy but was unsigned. He said he uses that as motivation to show his worth in MLS. “It definitely gave me a drive and a hunger to push myself, knowing that I was an option (for) them and they passed up on me,” he said in a video conference call Thursday.

At 5-foot-9 and 165 pounds, McMaster, 21, missed all but one college game in the 2020 season after a nine-month rehab from a torn anterior cruciate knee ligament in December 2019. United manager Adrian Heath said McMaster wouldn’t have been available at 17 if not for his injury.

McMaster had 12 career goals, including four game-winners, and eight assists in 2,554 minutes across 58 collegiate games.

“Justin McMaster is in the mold of a Kevin Molino,” MLSsoccer.com commentator Charlie Davies said. “This is a winger that can come inside, combine. He has good technique, can beat people on the dribble. He’s creative and can also finish.”

Kibunguchy, of Elk Grove, Calif., was a member of the U.S. Under-19 team and played 52 collegiate games. When he was picked, MLS’ video stream showed a Kenyan flag hanging in the background. Both of his parents were born in the African nation and came to the U.S. at young ages. His father was in Kenya during Thursday’s draft but able to tune in.

“Around me was just my mom, my uncle, my really close friends, my support system for the last four or so years,” Kibunguchy. “It was great to have them around me at such a big moment.”

Kibunguchy is 23, and that older age for a rookie could be a boon for him in the league, MLSsoccer.com commentator Matt Doyle suggested. “It’s kind of like (Loons’ left back Chase Gasper, who was taken in 2019). Gasper was about a year older than most of the other guys in that draft and that maturity, physically and mentally allowed him to have a quicker transition to MLS. Maybe we can see something similar happen here.”

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