If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times, whether it was here or elsewhere: Minnesota United is built for the Leagues Cup.

Sure, Sunday night’s game might have been their first competitive international game as a franchise, but it’s very clear that international tournaments suit the Loons, after they clobbered Puebla 4-0. Despite going down to ten men after just 29 minutes, following Michael Boxall’s first red card as a professional, the Loons got two goals apiece from Bongokuhle Hlongwane and Emanuel Reynoso. Three of the goals came after halftime, when we assumed MNUFC would be parking the bus.

All four of the goals were, in some way, special deliveries. The first three came on the counter-attack, and the fourth was probably the best free kick any Argentine player scored in the Leagues Cup this weekend.

It’s hard to pick between Hlongwane’s two goals. On the first, he turned a defender, ten yards into his own half, then raced the length of the field with the ball. He managed to force the ball past the same defender, then buried a sharp-angle shot into the bottom corner.

His second was, as manager Adrian Heath pointed out, even more rare, and not just because it came from a right-footed cross from the left-footed Reynoso. “I didn’t think that [Bongi] would ever score with a header, to be honest with you, but obviously we’re pleased,” said the manager.

To Bongi’s credit, it was a bullet of a header, virtually un-saveable. And just eight minutes later, Reynoso got himself into the goal column too. Hlongwane intercepted a pass, again in his own half, flew down the right wing, and picked out Reynoso near the near post. All the Loons number 10 had to do was chip the ball over the onrushing Puebla keeper for the Loons’ third goal.

The Loons’ fourth was just one of those Rey moments. Faced with a free kick from outside the area, perhaps eight yards beyond the right-hand corner of the penalty area, Reynoso saw that the keeper was playing too far towards the far post, and so swung in a bullet and buried it at the near post.

Honestly, it was a special night at Allianz Field, in a season that’s been short on home highlights for the Loons. All I can think to compare it with was last season’s friendly win against Everton, when Minnesota started pouring in goals against a Premier League side and couldn’t stop. I don’t think anyone knew what the Loons would look like against a Liga MX team, even one like Puebla that’s been middling in past seasons and not too good so far in this one. And when they went down to ten men, I think most people were probably expecting Minnesota to do little but try to cling on to their 1-0 lead.

Instead, not only did they see out a clean sheet, and fairly comfortably… they got three goals in 16 minutes in the second half. “I said before the game tonight that I don’t think that it’s ever been as close as it is now between Liga MX and MLS, and the results in the last couple of days have shown that,” said Heath.”I think that we are closing the gap. When I first arrived in the States 13 years ago, that was not the case.”

(Hlongwane also had some true hot-take quotes about how Liga MX can’t approach the standards of MLS, but I’m inclined to let him off the hook for those hot takes, given that he likely doesn’t entirely understand how fraught these league-against-league comparisons are.)

The Loons’ confidence might be running at an all-time high right now. This is the best Reynoso has ever played, including his famous hot streak after arriving in 2020; he’s scored six goals in six starts. Bongi has ten goals for the season, including six in the league, and if anything his finishing has been poor; he could fairly easily be sitting at 15 for the year. If Teemu Pukki, who had kind of a poor game on Sunday, can also get going, Minnesota is starting to look very, very dangerous.

I’m not sure anything has changed much with the Twins. They’re still frustrating - but now they’re frustrating, and winning.

Minnesota beat the Chicago White Sox 5-4 in 12 innings on Sunday, after trailing 3-0 entering the bottom of the ninth, and swept their division rivals right into the gutter. It was the Twins’ second sweep in three series, following the All-Star break. They’re five games over .500, at 53-48, for the first time since they were 23-18 in mid-May. And their schedule’s not about to get harder; they have three with the Mariners (who they just split with), then three with the Royals (an awful team) and then three with the Cardinals (another terrible team). They even have two off days in that stretch.

Of course, the entire story of the season with the Twins is that they’ve failed to take advantage of situations like this, so who knows what’s going to happen.

Byron Buxton hit two home runs on Friday, then went 1-for-8 on the weekend, so it wasn’t exactly a turnaround. We should note that Carlos Correa has a .784 OPS in July, and an .852 OPS post-All Star break, so perhaps he is finally, really, turning things around this season.

We also must mention the Minnesota Lynx, who lost 98-81 to Las Vegas on Saturday. It was another defense-free game against Las Vegas, and the Aces led 48-30 at halftime. A’ja Wilson was 14-17 from the floor and scored 35 points; anytime an opposing player shoots 82% for the game on such a high volume, you know there are defensive issues.

This was the first in Minnesota’s hellish six-game stretch, but at 10-13, they’re not only still in the playoffs, they still have a 2.5-game lead on ninth-place Los Angeles. The bottom of the WNBA standings is the AL Central.

TODAY’S SLATE

TWINS vs Seattle, 6:40pm

ON DECK

SAINTS vs Toledo, Tuesday
LYNX vs Washington, Wednesday
LOONS vs. Chicago, Thursday