There’s no getting around it – set pieces are killing Minnesota United.

After Saturday’s draw at Houston, manager Eric Ramsay noted that the team’s own numbers ranked Minnesota as “one of the worst” teams in the league at defending set pieces. Wednesday against DC, the Loons got even worse, giving up goals in the 90th and 91st minutes, both from set pieces, to turn what looked like a win into perhaps the worst loss of the team’s now-nine-game winless stretch.

“I don’t think you could lose a game in a worse way,” said Ramsay.

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There was something of a back-to-school air to Minnesota United training on Tuesday morning.

For the first time since the first week of June, zero players were away with their national teams. Tani Oluwaseyi and Dayne St. Clair were present and accounted for, having finally returned from their Copa América sojourn with Canada.

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Khaled El-Ahmad, Minnesota United’s first-year chief soccer officer and sporting director, knows what he wants for his club.

Specifically, the total elimination of disposable plastic water bottles. He wants those gone. Yesterday, if possible.

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Over the past seven games, Minnesota United has been in a free fall down the Western Conference standings. The Loons, in third place after defeating Sporting KC, have dropped all the way down to the 10th spot, out of the playoffs.

Since he took over the Loons, coach Eric Ramsay has mostly gone game-by-game with his approach. He rarely mentions the team’s spot in the table, or whether they might be in the playoff places — but that doesn’t mean he’s unaware. And he’s setting his goals for the rest of the season realistically.

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Minnesota United dropped a sixth straight game in Los Angeles, a continuation of a streak of “relentless disappointment,” to quote manager Eric Ramsay.

Here’s my game story for the Star Tribune; here’s the extended analysis.

A month ago, Minnesota United was one of the hottest teams in MLS. With 28 points in 15 games, they were sailing along at a pace that would have won the Western Conference in three of the preceding four seasons.

The Loons’ record since then, though, shows just how much of a hole has been blown in the side of what was a promising voyage: Six games, zero wins, just one point.

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I was back covering the Minnesota United game for the Star Tribune, and the Loons made the wrong kind of history, losing their fifth consecutive game for the first time since the club joined MLS.

Here’s the game story; here is the analysis / notebook, with some extra postgame quotes.

In 2023, Minnesota United had four goalkeepers on its first-team roster – overkill, perhaps, but an acknowledgement that no team ever wants to run short of keepers.

This year, the Loons went with a different plan: two goalkeepers on the MLS roster, two more signed to their MLS NEXT Pro roster.

Though they knew that starter Dayne St. Clair would likely miss some time with the Canadian national team during Copa América, they had MLS veteran Clint Irwin ready to fill in, plus Alec Smir and former Homegrown player Fred Emmings signed with MNUFC2 and eligible for short-term backup duty.

All that could go wrong was a few poorly-timed injuries – which, in this month of cascading roster disasters, is of course exactly what happened.

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A key theme of this Minnesota United season has been the constant presence of young players around the first team. Fans have seen eight players make their MLS debuts this year, all new acquisitions or players from MNUFC2, the second team.

The only issue: Many of those players have yet to make their mark, meaning that the Loons — losers of four straight games, heading into Wednesday night’s home game against Vancouver — still have significant depth problems during their biggest roster crunch of the year.

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Kervin Arriaga has been one of the breakout players for Minnesota United this season – so much so that he’s now moving to play under even brighter lights in Europe.

The 26-year-old Honduran is joining Serbian giants FK Partizan, for a mid-six-figure transfer fee, one that could increase depending on Partizan’s success. The Belgrade club, 27 times league champions, will attempt again this year to dethrone cross-town rivals Crvena zvedza – better known here as Red Star Belgrade – for the first time since 2016-17.

Partizan is also in the UEFA Champions League second qualifying round, with their first game set for July 23rd or 24th; they would need to win three rounds of play-offs to make it into the 36-team group stage.

I tell you all this because it’s the beginning of trying to explain something that doesn’t make immediate sense: why would Minnesota United sell Kervin Arriaga?

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