The formula for winning on the road in soccer is pretty standard, across the globe. First, be defensively sound; then, look to score on the counterattack, since most teams will try to control the ball at home. And of course, get a goal on a set piece, if you can.

It’s a plan that Minnesota United used to great effect this season. The Loons won eight road games and picked up 27 points away from home, both tied for the best in the Western Conference, and if you look back at those eight wins, a pattern emerges. Charlotte? Kept a clean sheet, scored on the counter, scored from a set piece. Atlanta? Allowed just one goal, scored on the counter, scored from a set piece.

Now, the Loons are faced with a winner-take-all playoff game on Nov. 24 against the LA Galaxy — on the road. So how can they come out of Dignity Health Sports Park with a win?

Read the rest at StarTribune.com…

Gonna be honest, there’s kind of a lot here; it took me a bit to get site updates running on my new machine. I bet these are not the sort of problems normal journalists have.

November 8

On the face of it, Minnesota United hasn’t been all that successful against the LA Galaxy, their MLS conference semifinal opponent, this season. The Loons drew with Galaxy at home, lost to a late goal on the road and so ended up with only one point in two games.

The two teams have two weeks to go until they meet in Carson, Calif., for a winner-take-all playoff game Nov. 23 or 24. But Loons coach Eric Ramsay isn’t headed back to the drawing board. “I feel like we’re a good matchup for them,” he said. “I don’t think it will be quite the David vs. Goliath match up that everyone will paint it as.”

Read more: Analysis: Minnesota United believes it matches up well with LA Galaxy

November 2: Minnesota 1(3) - Real Salt Lake 1(1)

Game story: Minnesota United wins close-as-can-be MLS playoff series, defeating Real Salt Lake again on penalty kicks

Dayne St. Clair came into Minnesota United’s first-round playoff series with Real Salt Lake knowing he had a good record in penalty shootouts.

After two more shootout wins, and RSL converting only five of 10 attempts across the two games, his confidence is now even higher.

Read more: Analysis: Goalie Dayne St. Clair makes clear that going to penalty kicks with Minnesota United is bad strategy

November 1

Thursday’s winter-weather slop-fest chased Minnesota United indoors for training. Friday morning, the team moved practice to Allianz Field, which has both natural grass and under-soil heating.

If the rumors about MLS changing its schedule are true, the Loons might have to get used to this sort of thing.

Read more: Minnesota United analysis: What if MLS flips to a fall-spring schedule?

October 29: Real Salt Lake 1(4) - Minnesota 1(5)

Game story: Minnesota United beats Real Salt Lake to open MLS Cup first round

Minnesota United’s penalty-shootout victory over Real Salt Lake had many architects. There was goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair, whose presence helped force two RSL players to miss the net with their attempts. There was defender Jefferson Díaz, who calmly converted his sudden-death effort despite not being one of the five originally selected penalty takers. There was manager Eric Ramsay, who insisted that his team practice penalties multiple times in the lead-up to the game.

And, of course, there was the entire MNUFC front office.

Read more: Minnesota United employees heckled team to prepare for penalty shootout

October 28

A year ago, Minnesota United was at the end of an era. Manager Adrian Heath was fired after a stretch-run faceplant, and the club took its time getting the new brain trust in place.

Khaled El-Ahmad was hired as chief soccer officer, but couldn’t start work immediately. When he finally did, he didn’t make big offseason signings and took his time hiring a coach, meaning that new manager Eric Ramsay didn’t arrive until the fourth game of the season. And while all this was happening, Emanuel Reynoso, the squad’s best player, went AWOL twice and burned his bridges with the club.

It was a recipe for a rough 2024. A coach with no preseason planning or training time, a front office that had seemingly misplaced its checkbook, the team’s best player hastening his own departure; everything pointed to Minnesota taking a pass on being competitive for 2024, and beginning to build for 2025.

Instead, the Loons are not only back in the playoffs as the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference, but as one of the hottest teams in MLS. Minnesota is almost universally being picked to upset No. 3 Real Salt Lake in their best-of-three first-round series, and to move on to the final eight of the league playoff picture.

Read more: How Minnesota United dug out of a huge hole and made the MLS Cup Playoffs

October 25

The distance between the penalty spot and the goal is one of the shortest distances on the soccer field. It’s 12 yards, short enough that most people secretly believe that they could beat a professional goalkeeper from the penalty spot, short enough that the historical penalty conversion rate – a shade under 80% – seems surprisingly low.

The longest distance on a soccer field is the length of the field, but talk to enough people in soccer, and they agree: Actually, the longest distance is the length of the walk from the halfway line to the penalty spot, during a game-deciding penalty shootout.

Read more: Analysis: Minnesota United’s playoff series has penalty kicks written all over it

October 22: Minnesota United in MLS Cup Playoffs: How to watch, what to know

October 20: Analysis: Minnesota United’s Eric Ramsay strikes managerial gold with a single decision

October 19: Minnesota United cruises past St. Louis City on final day of MLS regular season

October 18: Minnesota United faces St. Louis City with MLS playoff positioning at stake

Minnesota United’s success since the end of August has helped validate the team’s summer roster moves. Kelvin Yeboah, Jefferson Díaz, and Joaquín Pereyra have all slotted into the starting lineup, and all are signed through at least part of the 2027 season.

The Loons, who finish the regular season Saturday, won’t have to decide whether to keep those players around, but they can’t say the same for another big chunk of their current lineup. When the offseason starts, it’ll be front-office crunch time.

Minnesota United faces tough roster decisions once the MLS playoffs end

Sure, Minnesota United is headed to the MLS playoffs, but there’s more to Minnesota soccer than just the denizens of Allianz Field. Let’s go around the state and round up ten non-Loons things to know about Minnesotans in the soccer world.

Analysis: Minnesotans taking soccer by storm, especially at college level

Among Minnesota United’s arrivals from the summer transfer window, Kelvin Yeboah and his seven goals in seven games have stolen the headlines. But two more — defender Jefferson Díaz and attacking midfielder Joaquín Pereyra — have also become lineup mainstays, with both starting every game since coming to Minnesota.

With the Loons heading to Vancouver on Saturday for an important game for postseason seeding, it feels like one of the new duo is adapting quickly — and the other is still trying to find his feet.

Analysis: Minnesota United finds a fit for key newcomers Joaquín Pereyra, Jefferson Díaz

Game Coverage

Minnesota 0, Real Salt Lake 0 (Star Tribune)

Minnesota 1, Vancouver 0 (Pioneer Press)

When Bongokuhle Hlongwane first arrived at Minnesota United, most of us just wondered how to pronounce the South African attacker’s name.

Nearly three seasons later, Minnesota fans have grown accustomed to the pronunciation; for the record, the team’s media guide lists it as “Bong-go-HOOK-leh Hluh-ONG-wah-neh, but most just call him “Bongi”. As the Loons enter Wednesday’s game at Real Salt Lake, though, there are now other topics to consider.

Read more: Bongokuhle Hlongwane has been a goal-scoring machine for Minnesota United

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 (with a bit more added out West, to make the schedule work) - plus a number of exhibition games against the other league / division.

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.

There are still a couple of games to go in the season, but let’s look at the playoff picture, if we remove cross-conference games.

WESTERN

Out west, the playoff teams don’t change, and - par for the course for the West this year - there’s a pretty jumbled mess of teams behind the Galaxy. That said, this does show how strong Vancouver and Houston have been against the West this year, and how much Seattle has struggled.

The Sounders managed to get five of the worst eight teams in the East on their schedule this year, including three of the bottom four - and their one game against a decent Eastern team was the game against Columbus, when the Crew had to play a defender in goal for more than half the match. And so Seattle rolled up five out-of-conference wins and might host a first-round playoff series.

Minnesota, on the flip side, had one of the hardest cross-conference slates. They had to play two of the East’s top three, plus road games against three other playoff teams in the East - as well as a road game against Atlanta, which might still make the playoffs. They managed three wins in those four road games, an impressive haul - but they also blew a stoppage-time lead against D.C. at home, and turned three points into zero, which means this is partly their own fault.

EASTERN

At the top, Miami and Columbus are still looking good, but FC Cincinnati less so - they’d be back in the pack without their wins against the West, including against San Jose and St. Louis (and, as a credit to them, also Colorado and Minnesota).

At the playoff line, Atlanta and Nashville can feel a bit hard done by. Atlanta only got one non-playoff team from the West on their schedule this year, and had to play both Los Angeles teams and Real Salt Lake; the Five Stripes got only two points in those six games, and are currently outside the playoff picture.

Nashville also had to play both L.A. teams… but got just one point from games against Austin and San Jose, and so can blame only themselves.

Toronto, meanwhile, avoided the top three from the west, and got to play three of the bottom five, beating Dallas and Austin to jump up the standings (though they also shot themselves in the foot by losing at home to Sporting KC).

Overall, Inter Miami and the LA Galaxy won’t split the Supporters’ Shield. But what I’m telling you is this: maybe they should! It’d make more sense!

Every pro soccer player has to overcome adversity along the way, but 17-year-old Darius Randell — born in Liberia and immigrated to Minnesota — had to overcome one of the most difficult obstacles of all.

His mom.

Analysis: Darius Randell, 17, is a reason for Minnesota United FC to hope

Minnesota United has tried all season to get younger. The team’s summer shopping spree brought in six players, none of them old enough to remember when the years on the calendar started with the numbers 1 and 9.

Michael Boxall, though, is always going to be an exception. Tuesday, MNUFC announced that they’d signed their captain to a contract extension through 2025, with a team option for 2026 — immediately following what might have been Boxall’s best game of the season, last Saturday against Sporting Kansas City.

Analysis: Minnesota United had its reasons for signing Michael Boxall to extension

Minnesota United striker Kelvin Yeboah has brought a lot to the team in the five games since his arrival. Goals, absolutely; the Italian already has scored five. Energy, definitely; Yeboah has started every game, played 90 minutes in four of them, and manager Eric Ramsay has lauded him even more for his defensive effort than for his scoring.

But there’s something else that Yeboah brings, and will have a chance to display again on Saturday, when the Loons host the Colorado Rapids. In hockey, we’d probably call it “sandpaper.” In baseball, maybe just the term “grit” would suffice.

For Minnesotans? Well, we’d probably just call it “interesting.”

Analysis: Kelvin Yeboah brings goals and needed edge to MNUFC

Game Coverage

Minnesota 2, St. Louis City 1: Pioneer Press

Loons go on the road and spoil another St. Louis City home game with win

FC Cincinnati 2, Minnesota 1: Star Tribune

Minnesota United falls into early hole in 2-1 loss to FC Cincinnati

Analysis: Minnesota United’s struggles at home continue

Minnesota 2, Sporting Kansas City 1: Pioneer Press

Loons capture first away win at Sporting Kansas City in eight years

Minnesota United might have played nearly eight full seasons in MLS, but when it comes to youth development, the Loons are still figuring things out.

Eight years ago, they started their academy with 13- and 14-year-olds, with the idea of having the academy grow along with the team. The pandemic’s onset and other factors caused a rethink, one that eventually resulted in the club shutting down the program entirely before restarting it.

Read the rest at StarTribune.com…

Other recent links

Pioneer Press game story: Loons 3, St. Louis City 1

Star Tribune: St. Louis pregame coverage, as MNUFC begins stretch of six games in 22 days

Star Tribune: How will the Loons use new Designated Player Joaquín Pereyra?

Game Story: Minnesota 2, San Jose 1

Analysis

Minnesota United began the year with one striker, Teemu Pukki, who was one of the team’s high-paid designated players. The Loons have since added another DP forward, Kelvin Yeboah, plus one of Major League Soccer’s breakout young players up front, Tani Oluwaseyi.

Saturday night, the Loons were reminded: When it comes to the options up front, don’t forget about Bongokuhle Hlongwane.

Read the rest at StarTribune.com…

Striker is soccer’s glamour position. It’s the forwards who score the goals and sell the jerseys, and it takes something pretty special for players at any other position to break through to that level of fan popularity.

Minnesota United played two strikers last week against Seattle, with a three-man midfield behind them. As the Loons travel to San Jose on Saturday to take on the last-place Earthquakes, it’s easy to focus on the glamour up front. It’s just not where the Loons themselves are necessarily focused.

Read the rest at startribune.com…

Other links, all by me, for the Minnesota Star Tribune

For Minnesota United, it’s like a whole new season - that lasts nine games

Six new Loons to know, as Minnesota kicks off their final stretch of the season

Seattle 3, Minnesota 2: Game story

Analysis: Sang Bin Jeong is back at right back, thanks to his versatility

Set pieces still baffle Minnesota United. Here’s what they’re doing to work on them.

Minnesota Aurora launch new community ownership drive, looking for 7,000 new owners

Minnesota United FC has had a bit of a break for the past couple of weeks, so I’ve had a bit of a break as well.

With transfer news, Olympic soccer, and Minnesota Aurora news, though, I have written a few things… so here are those links.

Transfer news

Loons sign Matus Kmet
Caden Clark traded to Montréal
Three players loaned out to make roster space

Summarizing MNUFC’s transfer window

Minnesota United made a big bet in the offseason, hiring Khaled El-Ahmad to be the team’s new chief soccer officer and sporting director — by any measure, a hire from outside the usual MLS pipeline.

After his first summer transfer window in charge, one thing is clear: El-Ahmad is doubling down, and betting big on himself.

Read the rest at StarTribune.com…

Minnesota Aurora drops out of running for NWSL franchise

Minnesota Aurora FC has been plenty successful, both on and off the field, in its short history. Unfortunately, when it comes to making a step up from the “pre-professional” USL W League to the NWSL, the country’s top women’s professional league, that success takes a back seat to what really makes the soccer world go round: money.

Read the rest at StarTribune.com…

The USA men’s Olympic soccer team lost in the quarterfinals. Does it mean anything?

Given the way that men’s soccer at the Olympics works, it’s pretty easy to make the case that the United States’ exit in the quarterfinals doesn’t mean much. That said, it doesn’t mean nothing, either.

Read the rest at StarTribune.com…