Sure, Minnesota United beat Inter Miami earlier this season. Sure, they might go on to do exceptional things in the MLS Cup playoffs.

But for longtime Loons fans, the highlight of 2025 is going to be that, after years and years, Minnesota finally seems to have the Seattle Sounders’ number.

GAME STORY for the Star Tribune: MNUFC beats Sounders on penalty shootout in Game 1

In two years of talking to Minnesota manager Eric Ramsay after the final whistle of games, I can only think of two times he’s been genuinely critical of a referee.

Both times, that referee was Alexis Da Silva.

In a short time, Da Silva has earned a reputation among Minnesota fans, one akin to that of Phil Cuzzi with Twins fans.

It began in the US Open Cup semifinal against Austin, when Da Silva declined to make several controversial calls. He declined to send off Osman Buskari, after Buskari - miles from the ball - had petulantly kicked out at Anthony Markanich, catching him above the knee. He declined to award the Loons a penalty, after Kelvin Yeboah was kneed so hard in the hamstring in the penalty area that Yeboah missed almost the entire remainder of the regular season. He declined to sanction goalkeeper Brad Stuver, even after it seemed clear that Stuver had stopped a promising Loons attack by handling the ball outside the penalty area.

In every case, Da Silva not only declined to make an important call, but declined to use the video monitor to review his decision.

So when Jackson Ragen shoved over Bongokuhle Hlongwane in the penalty area, nine minutes into the Loons’ playoff match with Seattle, as Hlongwane was attempting his shot, you can about guess what Da Silva did.

No penalty. No review.

“[It was] as clear cut a penalty as I’ve seen not given over the course of this year,” said Ramsay. “I’d be amazed if 99 referees out of 100 don’t look at that for five seconds and think that’s a penalty. It’s a real shame, in a sense, because you have to be able to trust officials in those moments that you’re going to get stuff like that, particularly with VAR these days. I’m glad I can stand here as the winning coach because with that not being the case, that would have been a real tough pill to swallow.”

As is almost always the case, the referee’s answers to a pool reporter’s questions were pretty boilerplate. Asked about the lack of VAR check, the “Since the VAR did not see a clear and obvious error with the on-field decision, there was no review recommended and thus the referee was not required to take a further look the on the monitor.”

In regards to the decision to not give a penalty, the referee said, “The determination of the contact made by Jackson Ragen on Bongi Hlongwane during the ninth minute was that the level of force was not enough to warrant a foul, and the player had a clear opportunity to shoot on goal. The contact did not rise to the level of a penalty kick and red card offense.”

Side note: I love that even referees refer to him as “Bongi”.

According to Dayne St. Clair, who likely omitted some of his own colorful language in the account, the yellow card that he earned from Da Silva in the next minute was simply for pointing out that Da Silva had just called a foul on a Seattle player for pushing Michael Boxall in the back, the exact same play that he’d declined to call on the other end of the field.

“The fact [is] that I got a yellow card for just saying it’s the same consistency, because Boxy gets the same push in his back, but because he’s the defensive player, he calls it,” said St. Clair. “[For] us, from referees, we’re always looking for consistency, and we felt like there was a lack of consistency throughout the game because it’s hard as a player, because you don’t know what’s a foul and what’s not, and you’re trying to waver the line.”

It was, admittedly, something of a surprise to see Da Silva back in the center for a Loons playoff game, so soon after he’d been at the center of Minnesota controversy. After this one, you can be sure that Minnesota fans will be checking from now on to see if he’s again in the center.

Yellow card accumulation not much of a factor in the playoffs

St. Clair’s early yellow was the beginning of a trend. By the end, five Loons had gone into the referee’s book, though St. Clair’s yellow might have been the only one that wasn’t deserved.

That said, those five Loons don’t now stand on the precipice of being suspended. In the playoffs, it takes three yellow cards to earn a suspension, and those yellow cards also reset following the conference semifinals.

Without getting sent off, then, basically the only way to get suspended for yellow card accumulation is to rack up a yellow card in each of the matches of a first-round series that goes to a third game.

It’s also worth remembering that yellow cards in a match don’t carry over to the penalty shootout, so it’s possible to get a yellow during the match and a yellow during the shootout, but not get sent off. So St. Clair in particular has a much easier path towards getting three yellow cards in two games.

It’s something for the Loons to keep an eye on, of course, but there’s no immediate danger of suspensions.

For those of us who are steeped in American sports, the beginning of the playoffs means one thing: finally, the games count, for real. The “regular season” is over, with all of the qualifications that term brings: regular. Normal. Workaday, ho-hum, quotidian… boring.

One of the fascinating things about MLS is that, while the league still treats the playoffs with American reverence, many of the participants weren’t raised with that same mindset. And you can include Minnesota United manager Eric Ramsay in that group.

“I look back with a lot of pride on the 34 games,” he said. “I think it’s a measure of a coach, a group of coaches, and a team of players, what they can do over 34 games on a really consistent basis, and that’s sort of the yardstick that I’m used to measuring team success by. And I think to a large extent that is sort of the body of work that I will look back on, at the end of this season, irrespective of how the playoffs go.”

In soccer terms, the playoffs are simply another cup competition, with slightly more restrictive qualifying criteria. Ramsay understands how much more weight the playoffs carry, here, and calls them a “really exciting thing to be part of” – but should the Loons fail to advance, he’s not going to call the season a failure.

“I don’t think they’re necessarily the competitions to judge the progress of a group, or judge the group’s ability,” he said. “Lots is controlled, to an extent, by it being a best-of-three, but anything can happen in these sort of one-off occasions… Irrespective of how it pans out over the coming weeks and months, [it’s crucial that we] not forget what we’ve done this season, and how it represented such a step forward in comparison to last season.”

In some ways, then, we can already write the summary of the Loons’ season: club records across the board. The Loons set MLS records for points (58, five more than 2019), wins (16), fewest losses in a full season (8), and goal difference (+17). They had more points per game (1.70) than the 2020 season, as well.

All of that said, you can be guaranteed that the players aren’t taking the playoffs lightly, even if it’s not the measure of their season. You could see it in training last Friday, as a minor skirmish broke out after a team-wide drill; the competition is ramping up.

“It shows that everyone wants to play and everyone wants to win this game,” said Bongokuhle Hlongwane. “So I think this game means a lot to us.”

Injury updates

As always, Ramsay wasn’t tipping his hand on Sunday about who might start, but he did say that Kelvin Yeboah and Morris Duggan were available for selection.

“Both have trained somewhere near fully with us, making some allowances for the particularities of their injuries,” said Ramsay. “But if I opted to start both of them, both would be available.”

Carlos Harvey, who’s been doing outside training sessions as he recovers from meniscus surgery, is still a bit further away. “Obviously, [Game 1] is a step too soon, and it will be touch and go for the second game,” said Ramsay. “I think if [the series] goes to a third game, then he’s got every chance of being involved in that one, and that will take us somewhere near to the full contingent.”

The playoffs have meant that both Yeboah and Harvey are on accelerated return timelines. “I think we’re at that delicate stage with both Kelvin and Carlos, whereby I think if it was a different stage of the season, you’d probably show more patience,” said Ramsay. “We’ve got to force the issue, within the parameters of safety and health for the players. But both of them are itching to get going, and we’ve got to make sure that we make sensible decisions.”

MNUFC2 and the “biggest upset in league history”

Minnesota United 2 is making the most of its first-ever playoff run. The Loons beat Real Monarchs (Real Salt Lake’s second team) in the first round, and Sunday, pulled off an even bigger upset: a 2-0 win against St. Louis City 2.

Logan Dorsey capitalized on a defensive mistake in the first half and lashed home the opener, and Darius Randell headed home a corner kick in the second half to give the Loons an insurance goal.

At the end of the game, broadcaster Jake Griffith referred to it as “the biggest upset in league history,” given that SLC2 was the top seed in all of MLS NEXT Pro, was playing at home, and was viewed as something of a juggernaut.

The Doubloons played SLC2 three times in the regular season, losing all three – 3-2 at home and twice on the road, once in a penalty shootout and once 4-0.

Next week, MNUFC2 heads back to the mountains for the Western Conference finals, to play Colorado Rapids 2. It’s a feather in the cap for the second team, which is having by far its best of the four seasons of its existence.

“We’re really pleased with them because they’re a really good group of guys,” said Ramsay. “The players, they’re a phenomenal group to watch work.”

MORE, FOR THE STAR TRIBUNE: MNUFC plays Seattle Sounders in first round of MLS Cup playoffs

I’ve posted the MLS conference-only standings before, and there’s a simple reason: the MLS schedule is silly.

What you have in MLS is two leagues, Western and Eastern, each playing a full round-robin, plus a number of exhibition games against the other league / conference.

It’s quite obvious that mixing all of these games together, when it comes to playoff seeding and qualification, is nonsense. It’s highly dependent on which teams from the other conference land on your schedule.

With this in mind, let’s look at the “true” standings in each conference, with the exhibition games removed.

WESTERN

Removing Eastern Conference games ends up with no major changes to the overall standings in the west, happily. The bands of teams are even more clear (SDFC and Vancouver at the top, Minnesota and LAFC in the next , then a glut of teams with losing records below them).

EASTERN

The biggest change to the East standings is that Cincinnati drops all the way down to fifth place, from second. They avoided the entire top five in the West, and cleaned up, earning 16 of 18 possible points in those matchups.

Cincinnati’s polar opposite is NYC, which had a tough schedule - drawing Minnesota, LAFC, and Seattle - but also managed just four points against the West, total.

Philadelphia still wins the East in this scenario, but it comes down to number of wins (or goal difference, if you prefer).

Congratulations to San Diego and Philadelphia, who are (still) the true conference champions in MLS. And it’s nice to know that this year, the playoff teams remained the same.

In the future, though, I still think MLS needs to change how the champions of each conference are calculated, to this method. It’s only fair.

It’s not entirely clear who the soccer version of Hank Williams Jr. would be, but in a different world, that person might be asking Minnesota United fans a question: are you ready for some fútbol?

The Loons will take on the Seattle Sounders in the first round of the MLS playoffs, and Games 1 and 2 are both set for Monday nights. Minnesota will play host to the Sounders at Allianz Field at 8 p.m. Oct. 27, with Game 2 set for 9:55 p.m. Nov. 3 at Lumen Field in Seattle.

Read more: Loons face Seattle Sounders in MLS playoffs

Major League Soccer announced Thursday that Minnesota United goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair is one of three finalists for the MLS Goalkeeper of the Year award.

St. Clair finished the year as the top shot-stopper in the league, according to the advanced stats. American Soccer Analysis rated him as saving almost 10 goals above expected in 2025, the fourth-best season of any keeper in their database, which goes back to 2013.

LOONS NOTEBOOK: St. Clair, Pereyra contract extension, injuries, Momoh Kamara

EARLIER: MLS playoffs: Everything you need to know

EVEN EARLIER: Minnesota United finishes MLS regular season with 2-1 loss at lowly LA Galaxy

Saturday is MLS’s self-styled “Decision Day,” the final day of the regular season, and Minnesota United is headed west to play the LA Galaxy. Every team in the league plays at the same time — Eastern Conference teams at 5 p.m. Central, Western Conference teams at 8 p.m. — and for the second year in a row, Loons fans get to have a calm final day of the season.

In 2021, 2022, and 2023, Minnesota needed a positive result on “Decision Day” to claim a playoff spot. They managed to squeak into the playoffs the first two years but missed out in 2023.

Read more: What’s at stake for MNUFC on MLS Decision Day?

When Minnesota United lined up for Saturday night’s 3-0 win against Sporting Kansas City, the Loons once again did so without their usual back five. Instead, manager Eric Ramsay chose a formation so classic that a venerable English soccer magazine was named for it: the 4-4-2.

The wrinkle was that, while the traditional formation includes two strikers, the Loons lined up attacking midfielders Joaquín Pereyra and Robin Lod as their front men — meaning, effectively, that they were playing with zero strikers.

Read more: Minnesota United adjusts lineup due to injuries, transfers

GAME STORY: Minnesota United shuts out Sporting Kansas City in regular-season home finale

EARLIER: MN United face Sporting Kansas City in final home game of regular season Saturday

For all of 2025, there’s been one sure-fire cure for whatever ails Minnesota United: a couple of hours on an airplane.

The Loons have lost just twice away from home all season, and they extended their road unbeaten streak to nine MLS games with a 1-1 draw at Colorado on Saturday night.

Read more: Minnesota Loons rally to tie Colorado Rapids 1-1

Following Minnesota United’s win at San Diego two weeks ago, the Loons were riding high. They were about to play a U.S. Open Cup semifinal, and they were within striking distance of the lead in the race for the Supporters’ Shield.

In the span of four days and two losses, though, their chances at both of those trophies disappeared.

“We thought we had a good chance at winning, or competing, for three trophies, and now we are only [alive] for the last one,” Loons midfielder Robin Lod said.

Read more: Minnesota United tries to get back on track vs. Colorado

Minnesota United’s training sessions are exactly what you would expect for the most part. The team works on tactics and on fitness, practices set pieces and works to build precision on the ball — serious work, in other words.

All except when they warm up on the day before a game. That’s when things get a bit, well, silly.

Read more: Friday is game day at Minnesota United practice

Minnesota United has been proud all season about how rare it is for them to be behind on the scoreboard.

Of course, that was with their first string in the game. With a team full of backups and new players, maybe all bets are off.

Read more: Beat-up, tired Minnesota United blanked 3-0 at home by Chicago Fire

EARLIER: Loons’ Kelvin Yeboah, Carlos Harvey out at least a month