Minnesota United gives up two late goals, lets D.C. United slip through its fingers

Just when it looked like the Loons might escape with a win to welcome their full roster home from national team duty and end an eight-game winless streak, D.C. United’s Christian Benteke ruined the homecoming party.

Loons forward Teemu Pukki put Minnesota ahead 2-1 in the 80th minute, only 10 minutes and stoppage time away from earning the Loons’ first victory since June 1.

But coach Eric Ramsay said after Minnesota’s last match that the team was, by its own numbers, one of the worst Major League Soccer teams at defending set pieces. And D.C. United (6-11-8) took advantage, finding an 90th-minute equalizer off a corner and 91st-minute game-winner after a free kick to claim a 3-2 victory Wednesday night at Allianz Field.

The goal blitz left the Loons (8-10-6) just as far from breaking the longest win drought in club history as they were when the game started. In four of the last five games, Minnesota has given up an equalizer or game-winner after the 80th minute.

“The word desire was kind of thrown out there in our postgame conversations, and I think that’s one thing that feels like each person can, you know, look in the mirror and say that we need a little bit more desire to close games out like that,” Minnesota forward Tani Oluwaseyi said. “I think we got beat by one guy, twice.”

Defending Benteke, the league’s second-highest goal-scorer this season, was a point of emphasis pregame, Oluwaseyi said. But Benteke had a brace for the visitors, opening the scoring in the 14th minute and later poking the game winner home after Minnesota defender Carlos Harvey missed a clearance in the box off a free kick.

“Obviously, we’re really suffering on the second phase of set plays, and I think that often that it’s a concentration thing,” Ramsay said. “It’s making sure that as the ball goes over your head, as you come back into the game, you’re really switched on to kill spaces and you show a real urgency and desire and a real cleanness when you’re dealing with the ball. And we’re just not seeing that.”

Benteke’s header off a D.C. United corner also set up Aaron Herrera’s close-range equalizer. D.C.’s first win at Allianz Field also caps off the club’s first back-to-back wins since April 2023.

Minnesota has lost seven and drawn two since June 8, when members of the Loons’ roster began to check in and out for international duty.

BOXSCORE: D.C. United 3, Loons 2

Returning to the Loons after a fourth-place Copa America finish with Canada, Oluwaseyi scored Minnesota’s first goal and his team-best eighth of the year by running onto Hassani Dotson’s header over the visitors’ back line.

“He gives us some of the edge. We can be a real threat on the transition in that sense. We can really take the space in behind that the opposition gives us,” Ramsay said. “In lots of moments in the game, [we] returned to being that team that can be a real threat in that sense. So it’s one step forward and a couple of steps back.”

Minnesota thought it had its game-winner when Robin Lod slipped the ball through to Pukki, who finished across the goal into the left side netting in the 80th minute.

Center back Michael Boxall’s 49th-minute yellow card means the Minnesota captain will miss Saturday’s match against the San Jose Earthquakes due to card accumulation. The Loons look to get at least three points out of the week with a Saturday win over San Jose (4-17-3), which has the lowest point total in the league this season.

Minnesota sits in ninth in the Western Conference — good for a play-in spot — with a third of the season left to play.

“It’s been a bad run lately, especially today being off and then giving up those two stupid goals in the end to lose the game,” Pukki said. “There’s still many games to go, everything is possible, but we need to obviously be better than the previous one.”