Real Salt Lake coach Freddy Juarez is not among those people who consider Thursday's MLS is Back Tournament semifinal between Minnesota United and Orlando City (8 pm ET | ESPN2, ESPN Deportes in US; TSN, TVAS in Canada) an unlikely meeting.
Juarez's squad saw Minnesota up close and personal in Group D play in a match that finished as a scoreless draw.
"I'm not surprised by Minnesota," Juarez said. You saw them, the way they played us. Very disciplined, so they don't exert a lot of energy on offense until they really have to. And then they can put it away."
As for Orlando, although the teams played to a rather drab 0-0 result way back on Feb. 29 in both teams' regular season opener, Juarez game away from that believing Oscar Pareja was building something real.
"We actually talked about this as a staff," Juarez said. "When we played them at the beginning of the year, I thought they were a pretty good team. They were tough to deal with."
As for which results have caught him off guard?
"Maybe the Atlanta one surprised me," Juarez said, "of how they're not there."
