If you know anything about soccer, you know something about Lionel Messi — and Saturday, Messi and Inter Miami are coming to Allianz Field, to take on the Loons.

Inter Miami posted pictures of Messi boarding the team plane on social media Friday, removing fans’ first worry — that the great one wouldn‘t even bother making the trip to Minnesota.

If he’s not the greatest soccer player of all time, he’s at least one of three, maybe four names that are always in the running.

If you don‘t know Messi, though, let me try to explain.

Read more: Lionel Messi and Inter Miami vs. Minnesota United at Allianz Field

GAME STORY: Minnesota United FC takes MLS win over Austin FC

For the first time in 2025, Minnesota United lined up Saturday against Austin in the formation the Loons played for most of 2024 — a 5-2-3.

It wasn’t exactly a tactical decision, since the genesis of the switch was an injury to striker Kelvin Yeboah, who might be the Loons’ best player so far this year. But it seemed to work out just fine, with Minnesota winning 3-0 in Austin.

Read more: Analysis: Minnesota United reacts to Kelvin Yeboah injury

Khaled El-Ahmad, chief soccer officer for Minnesota United, has now been in charge in Blaine for a little more than a year. The Loons travel to Austin on Saturday, with El-Ahmad’s first real winter transfer window behind him, and the CSO’s vision for how he wants the Loons to compete is emerging.

In El-Ahmad’s words, it’s about being a club that will “make smart decisions with the resources that we have.”

Read more: Minnesota United CSO Khaled El-Ahmad builds for now and future in MLS

Minnesota United moved to shore up the right side of its attack on Tuesday, signing right winger Julian Gressel after he was waived by Inter Miami.

Gressel won an MLS Cup with Atlanta in 2018 and again with Columbus in 2023, and started 38 games across all competitions last season for the record-setting Miami team that won last year’s Supporters’ Shield.

Read more: Minnesota United signs Inter Miami castoff Julian Gressel

GAME STORY: Minnesota United loses to Vancouver Whitecaps

Sunday’s game was a chance for Minnesota United to prove it belonged at the top of the Western Conference, alongside the visiting Vancouver Whitecaps, the team that’s leading the MLS standings and has one foot in the CONCACAF Champions Cup final.

By the end of the game, it was clear: Vancouver’s second string is good enough to hang with Minnesota, and its first string is good enough to blow the Loons’ doors off.

Read more: Minnesota United finds MLS leader Vancouver is way ahead

CONTROVERSY: Minnesota United wingback Joseph Rosales was at the center of a controversy in second-half stoppage time Sunday after two Vancouver Whitecaps players appeared to accuse Rosales of using some kind of slur.

Read more: Minnesota United’s Joseph Rosales in midst of slur controversy

In terms of picking up points in the standings, you’d have to say that Minnesota United has their problems solved. After a summer stretch in which the Loons lost eight of 11 games last year, Minnesota has now lost just three times in their last 19 regular season games.

As the Loons take on Vancouver Sunday afternoon, defending their current eight-game unbeaten run, they are trying to solve a new problem: how to get all three points for a win, instead of settling for just one for a draw.

Read more: Minnesota United face Vancouver Whitecaps in MLS showdown

What could the Loons do at the end of the transfer window?

It’s a bit of an oddity that MLS has, effectively, two different trade deadlines. Rosters are frozen five weeks or so before the end of the season, but even beyond that, there are only two designated transfer windows during which Minnesota United can add players.

The secondary transfer window (July 24-Aug. 21 this year) is often when bigger-name players from Europe arrive, since that’s the European offseason. But the primary transfer window closes Wednesday, so the Loons take on FC Dallas on Saturday knowing this is the team’s last chance to reinforce the squad — at least until the season is almost three-quarters over.

Read more: Minnesota United approaches MLS trade deadline with no obvious needs

Minnesota draws 0-0 with Dallas

For the second week in a row, the Minnesota United defense was impenetrable — but its offense was punchless, and the game Saturday at Allianz Field ended in the Loons’ second consecutive 0-0 draw, this time with FC Dallas.

The Dallas starting lineup was missing former MLS MVP Lucho Acosta and a designated player, striker Petar Musa. Dallas was also missing two former U.S. national team players and several other recognizable names.

So, easy pickings for Minnesota United, undefeated in seven games and returning home from a two-game road trip as conquering heroes?

Not hardly.

Read more: Minnesota United settles for draw against FC Dallas

More from Eric Ramsay and others about MNUFC’s draw

Minnesota United is on an eight-game unbeaten run and has given up only one goal in the past four games combined. Unfortunately, the Loons also have gone four hours of game time without scoring a goal of their own, and so the talk is less about what’s going well — and more about what needs to improve.

Read more: Analysis: Minnesota United can’t lose, but it also can’t score

GAME STORY: Minnesota United and Toronto FC play to a draw

Minnesota United didn’t play its best game in a 0-0 draw at Toronto on Saturday. Facing a Toronto side that was set up, more than any other team this year, to deny its opponent chances to counterattack, the Loons couldn’t figure out a way to break through.

Eventually, they ended up with just one shot on target, no shots of any kind in the final 25 minutes, and one certainty: If they keep having success, this sort of thing is going to keep happening.

Read more: Analysis: Minnesota United learns success comes at a cost

Minnesota United’s trip to Toronto on Saturday afternoon is just another don’t-forget-the-passport road trip for most, a “free hit,” as manager Eric Ramsay described it two weeks ago — a chance to pick up some points against an Eastern Conference team.

Except, that is, for Dayne St. Clair and Tani Oluwaseyi. For those two, they get an extra responsibility on Saturday: ticket broker.

Read more: Minnesota United visits Toronto - a home game for Tani Oluwaseyi and Dayne St. Clair

In June, U.S. Bank Stadium will host something Minnesota has never seen before: a knockout game in a major international tournament. And CONCACAF has gone one better, by putting a doubleheader in Minneapolis.

On June 29, two of the quarterfinals of the Gold Cup — the biannual tournament for men’s international teams in North America, Central America, and the Caribbean — are coming to U.S. Bank Stadium. Games will be at 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. Assuming it works like other CONCACAF events, like when Allianz Field hosted group-stage games in 2019, ticket packages will include seats for both games.

Read more: U.S. Bank Stadium to host Gold Cup quarterfinal doubleheader

Game Story: Minnesota United takes down NYCFC in visit to Yankee Stadium

Minnesota United has a six-game unbeaten streak, and four wins in that stretch. The Loons have scored first in all but one match this year.

In other words, their main problem this season is a problem that other teams might wish they had: It’s just so dang hard defending all these second-half leads.

Read more: Analysis: Minnesota United keeps pulling ahead, then pulling back