The Cascade Mountain Range boasts some of our nation’s most scenic and geologically complex mountains, making for a beautiful backdrop for soccer. These giant rocks coincidentally also surround a few pretty decent soccer teams, so why not stay a while and play a bit while you’re at it? After earning a draw against the northernmost Cascadia Cup participant, your Loons are crossing the border to take on the Seattle Sounders in a massive Sunday Night Soccer showdown that has huge implications in the race to get to the top of the Western Conference. This weekend’s match is available for free for Apple TV+ subscribers, as well as DIRECTV (channel 493) and Xfinity (channel 3971) subscribers, so be sure to tune in however you can.
Minnesota United (7-3-6)
Run of Form: D-D-W-W-L (All Competitions)
Though unbeaten in four games, the Loons are starting to show signs of fatigue from their busy schedule. Their high-scoring exploits from the start of the month have trailed off as May draws to a close, replaced by that defense-first mentality that has become the undercurrent of their identity in 2025. With the Miami win officially out of the run of form, a pair of wins over St. Louis and a draw with conference leaders Vancouver are the brightest spots left to point to, and those don’t feel like the signature wins of a team chasing a trophy. Coach Ramsay and company will look to keep their unbeaten run alive this weekend, and they’ll be hoping to do it in emphatic fashion.
Seattle Sounders FC (7-4-5)
Run of Form: W-W-D-L-W
Death, taxes, and the Seattle Sounders finding form. Few things are certain in life, but those three just don’t seem to go away. Despite a slightly shaky start to 2025, Brian Schmetzer’s side has surged up the table in recent weeks, winning six of their last nine since being eliminated from Concacaf Champions Cup action. While other clubs have only just now begun to deal with fixture congestion, the Sounders, who aren’t in this year’s U.S. Open Cup, got used to midweek games earlier this year, had a period to recover, and have shifted into another gear as they so often do. It hasn’t always been super convincing, but the Sounders are getting things done. They won’t be easy to beat, but when has that ever not been the case?
Keys to the Match:
Rewrite History
Since joining the league in 2017, your Loons have visited Emerald City a total of 10 times, between league play, Leagues Cup, and an infamous Western Conference Final in 2020. Of those 10 games, MNUFC won … none. Yikes. They’ve been outscored 22-5 all-time in Seattle, and are still looking to earn their first point on the Sounder’s home turf. Between Lumen Field being one of the league’s best-attended stadiums, a historically strong team, and an increasingly large monkey firmly fixed to MNUFC’s back, this has become more than a banana skin for the Loons; it’s darn near a crisis. In order to be the best in the west, they need to prove that they can compete with the clubs that have already climbed the mountain. While I’m not one to overstate the importance of any singular result in the span of such a long season, it’s hard to deny the fact that this game carries a symbolic weight. A win in Seattle would send a message to both the Loons locker room and the league as a whole that this Minnesota side is for real. Anything less, and they won’t respect MNUFC any more than they have since they joined MLS. Statement games are non-negotiable pieces of successful seasons; this weekend’s match could be the most important game of the regular season.
Absences Looming
With the Concacaf Gold Cup coming up in the second week of June, the Loons are about to lose a chunk of their starting lineup to international competition. The likes of Tani Oluwaseyi, Dayne St. Clair, Carlos Harvey, and Joseph Rosales are all but guaranteed to earn call ups, with friendlies elsewhere making it very possible that more Black and Blue stalwarts will be out of MLS action. That means that this weekend could be the last time we see a full-strength Loons lineup for almost a month. If ever there’s a time to throw everything and the kitchen sink at a regular season game, it’s now. Squad rotation should be thrown out the window this weekend, so expect a full-strength MNUFC to give this match everything they’ve got. Substitutions will continue to be a key piece of getting the most out of tired legs, so look to the fourth official at halftime and the hour-mark to see who and how Coach Ramsay is planning to split the minutes before he loses several of his regular starters.
Defending From the Front
This Seattle side is capable of pressing high to great effect, with youth and pace leading the line and causing problems for their opposition. The quality and relentlessness of players like Paul Rothrock, Jesus Ferreira, and Cristian Roldan make this team special, and if the Loons aren’t careful, an aggressive defensive performance from the hosts could spell disaster for the Black and Blue. Where Vancouver was happy to allow the Loons to pass harmlessly across their own back line, the Sounders are capable and likely to err on the side of stepping higher. While this ups the pressure on the visitors, it also creates opportunities to play through, in exactly the way that the Loons were creating chances in the opening few games of the season. When Seattle steps high, Minnesota will need to counter efficiently. When Seattle sits in, Minnesota will need better movement in the midfield from the likes of Wil Trapp and Carlos Harvey to help them unlock space to work with and find a way to be more effective in possession.
