How Minnesota United dug out of a huge hole and made the MLS Cup Playoffs

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.

Here are the five biggest factors in how the Loons pulled off their unlikely return to the playoffs:

With no ability to bring in new players, and while learning a new league and a new country on the fly, Ramsay debuted a new formation four games into his tenure — and the team promptly ripped off a five-game undefeated streak that included four wins.

Over time, the Loons have settled into the system, a comfortable 3-4-2-1 setup that usually looks more like a 5-2-3 while defending. It’s a system that accomplishes Ramsay’s first goal, keeping opposing teams out of the middle of the field, while allowing for some tactical variation — especially in how the wingbacks on either side of the field are used.

The Loons don’t have the ball much; Minnesota was last in the league in passes attempted this season, and second-to-last in possession. But Ramsay has always insisted that it’s possible to control matches without the ball, and in doing so, he’s not only created a defense-first team that’s hard for opposing managers to attack — but a team that scored six more goals than any other squad in Loons franchise history.

Minnesota, like basically every MLS team, can’t just go out and buy an entire squad’s worth of players to fit the coach’s system. The Loons depended all year on players who were willing and able to play multiple positions, including positions that they’d basically never played before — like Joseph Rosales, who moved from attacking midfield to left wingback, and Carlos Harvey, a midfielder now playing center back.

Not every player is able, or willing, to learn a new position on the fly. Without that flexibility and talent, Ramsay’s tactical moves and new system never would have worked.

In the summer transfer window, El-Ahmad took some big swings, including buying three players — Kelvin Yeboah, Jefferson Díaz, and Joaquín Pereyra — who immediately fit into the starting lineup. The trio has played seven games together, and the Loons are 5-1-1 in that span.

None of the three had MLS experience, which meant there was no way of knowing how they’d fit into a new country and a new league. That El-Ahmad managed to find three players who could help immediately is a big win for the Minnesota front office.

Minnesota’s top six players in league minutes this season are Rosales, Michael Boxall, Robin Lod, Dayne St. Clair, Wil Trapp and Hassani Dotson — all of whom came to MNUFC in 2021 or before. It’s a testament to the longest-serving Loons that even as everything changed around them this year — front office, manager, formation, everything — all six were still key contributors and leaders for a squad that needed stability in the worst way.

Coming into 2024, Minnesota had just one established striker, Teemu Pukki — and Pukki has scored only four goals this season, and none since July 17.

Lucky for the Loons, it didn’t matter. Tani Oluwaseyi tallied better than a goal every 90 minutes before making the Canadian national team for Copa América in the summer. Yeboah came in at the end of the summer and scored seven goals in his first six games. And players like Bongokuhle Hlongwane, who led the team with 11 goals, and Lod, who had seven goals and 15 assists, chipped in from outside the striker spot.

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A tale of three seasons

The first week of June, the Loons lost St. Clair, Oluwaseyi, and Harvey to Copa América; a week later, Pukki went on the injured list. During the eight games before all four returned, the Loons earned just two points, second-worst in the league.

Before that eight-game stretch, the Loons were fifth in MLS in points per game — and afterwards, the Loons were fifth in MLS in points per game. If it hadn’t been for the big summer tournament, we might be talking in even more glowing terms about the Loons’ season.

That Minnesota finished tied for ninth out of all 29 MLS teams, in the end, was due to a lot of factors. And while they will likely be the underdog in the playoffs, don’t let the seeding fool you — this is one of the hottest teams in MLS, and one with a good chance of getting something Loons fans haven’t seen in four years: a playoff win.