Analysis: Minnesota United is making defense its linchpin, evidence going back 10 games shows

Two games into 2025, you would have to say the Minnesota United defense is in midseason form. The Loons held CF Montreal without a shot on target Saturday in a 1-0 victory at Allianz Field and to a reads-like-a-typo total of 0.17 expected goals (according to the stat provider for MLS).

Going back to last season, it’s Minnesota’s sixth clean sheet in its past 10 games, and it’s clear defense has become this team’s calling card.

“If you’re watching us from afar and you’re seeing those two performances,” Loons coach Eric Ramsay said, “you’re seeing a team that’s very difficult to beat, a team that gives very few chances away [and is] very comfortable defending in a certain way.”

On the other side of the field, though, things have been shakier. The Loons haven’t scored a goal from pure open play in two games, and in fact they didn’t score from open play in their last two preseason games either (though putting stock in preseason matches is usually a mistake). On Saturday, their goal was scored by Kelvin Yeboah after a long throw-in — an effective set piece, of course, but not something that anyone might add to his highlight reel.

“I don’t think we will struggle over the course of the season,” Ramsay said. “I really trust that we’ve got forward players that can take chances, and I think we were very close on a number of occasions today. … I don’t worry about that in the long run. I feel we’ll come good for sure.”

Ramsay has chosen to put both Yeboah and Tani Oluwaseyi into the lineup at forward, a departure from the bulk of last year, when most games had one or the other as a lone striker. So far, the two seem as if they’re still getting comfortable with the new setup.

“It’s not without its teething problems,” Ramsay said. “I think it’s almost too easy a narrative to jump on the fact that it looks a little bit messy.”

LOONS 1, CF MONTREAL 0: Season’s first goal is a winner

Yeboah was asked whether he was getting more comfortable playing alongside Oluwaseyi.

“Absolutely, absolutely,” he said. “Playing with two, we can be even more dangerous, and now we are getting the hang of it. Game by game, we are getting better. … The defense has to think about one more person, so you can use the movement of the other striker, so you have more space.”

It might be natural for the two strikers to divide the pitch in half and work almost in turn, rather than in tandem. Oluwaseyi indicated the coaching staff is looking for the opposite.

“I think the biggest thing that the coaches have tried to stress to us is just to be closer to each other,” Oluwaseyi said. “I might drift wider, he might come short, and then you see the gap between us is a little wide. The coaches have just tried to tell us to stay as close as possible to each other and play off each other. … [Then] there’s at least one option because sometimes the midfielders can’t get there on time, but I’m always going to be right next to him.”

The most obvious difficulty might be when either striker happens to have a slight opening, or intercepts a wayward back-pass, or otherwise finds himself in a situation where he would be accustomed to just going straight for goal. At times, both have seemed trapped in two minds — whether to take a shot like usual or to attempt a difficult pass across the goal.

“I think the great players are able to process those things really quickly and pick the best option,” Oluwaseyi said. “I can always work on it and improve, for sure.”

On the floor of the Loons locker room after Saturday’s game, there was an old-fashioned flip scoreboard labeled “SET PIECES” in both English and Spanish and reading 1 for Scored and 0 for Conceded.

That they have a separate scorekeeping method just for those situations shows the emphasis the Loons put on set pieces.

“We’re going to get five or six [chances] a game, but if we execute on one like we did today, we can up our goal contributions,” said Oluwaseyi, who got the assist on the goal that came from a long throw-in.

The team uses center back Michael Boxall as the player to take those long throw-ins, and from the outside it appears his job is simple: get the ball as close to the penalty spot as possible and hope for something unpredictable to happen. Ramsay, though, said there’s more to it than chaos.

“It looks messy, but there is a lot of purpose to that,” he said. “We put a lot of effort into being a big threat on set plays. I think if you look at the makeup of our lineup, we’ve got a powerful side, we’ve got an aggressive side in the air, we have to make sure we capitalize on those moments.”