Minnesota United chief soccer officer Khaled El-Ahmad said at the beginning of the offseason that the team would focus on bringing in younger players, and the Loons may be about to acquire their first.

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When Minnesota United trains in mid-January, the Loons do so in an inflated dome at the National Sports Center in Blaine. It’s warmer than the outside air — but not exactly warm, especially when the temperature was below zero this week.

Six below zero is a shock to everyone, but for those experiencing their first Minnesota winter, the pain was acute.

“I am trying to get used to it but just simply can’t,” said Argentina native Joaquín Pereyra, via translation from club translator Marleine Calderon. “I try to go out, but I’d rather stay home. [At training] once we start moving, our bodies get warm, but when I wake up in the mornings, it’s so hard to get up.”

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Ah, early January, when the thoughts of Minnesota sports fans naturally turn to … soccer?

Don’t laugh. As hard as it might be to believe, Minnesota United is about to get its 2025 campaign underway.

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Lionel Messi is coming to Minnesota.

Though Minnesota United released its entire 2025 schedule on Thursday afternoon, there’s no use in pretending one game doesn’t stand out: May 10, against Inter Miami, 3:30 p.m. at Allianz Field.

“We’re really excited, just for our fans to potentially have the opportunity to see the greatest player of all time play at Allianz Field,” Loons CEO Shari Ballard said.

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Nov. 27: Minnesota United’s offseason may have begun abruptly, after they were knocked out of the playoffs last Sunday, but their time off will be busy.

The expansion draft for San Diego FC, MLS’s 30th team, is Dec. 11. Free agency begins Dec. 12. But the first step in the offseason was Wednesday, the day that Minnesota had to decide on 2025 contract options for a dozen players.

Perhaps not surprisingly for a squad that ended the year as one of the hottest teams in MLS, the Loons are picking up all but a handful of those options.

Read more at StarTribune.com…

Dec. 11: Minnesota United FC returned to the playoffs in 2024, but the gap between the Loons and the top of the Western Conference was evident.

If you count their penalty-shootout playoff wins against Real Salt Lake as regulation draws, the Loons won only one game of 14 against the five teams that finished above them in the standings this year.

Chief soccer officer Khaled El-Ahmad has to figure out how to catch the class of the West — LA Galaxy, LAFC and the Seattle Sounders. But El-Ahmad says he knows what the team needs to close that gap: more of the same.

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Minnesota United set out to be the best version of itself in its MLS conference semifinal with the LA Galaxy. The Loons wanted to be defensively compact, limit the space in which Riqui Puig and company had to operate, and frustrate the Galaxy’s offensive weapons — leading, they hoped, to a few chances to hold the ball themselves.

After conceding six goals of every variety, the only possible question to ask: What the heck went wrong?

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Game story: Minnesota United’s season ends in Western Conference semifinals with 6-2 loss to Galaxy

He didn’t admit it then, and he certainly wouldn’t admit it now, but there must have come a time this summer when Minnesota United coach Eric Ramsay wondered, at least briefly, whether he had made a big mistake.

At one point, his team had lost a club-record six consecutive games. His starting goalkeeper and top striker had been commandeered by Canada for Copa América, something that his new league didn’t seem to have considered as a possibility when making the schedule. His best player had disappeared, months before, and then was unceremoniously sold.

It’s one thing for a young British manager to take his first head coaching job in MLS, a league that’s not entirely well-respected in the hallowed halls of English football; it’s quite another to have it go poorly.

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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?

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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)