It’s not every day that a new friend comes to town — how exciting! The 30th team in MLS history is making their first trip to Minnesota this weekend, and it promises to be one of the matches of the season. Get ready to watch your Loons take on the best team from California this weekend in a battle for the second spot in the Western Conference.

Minnesota United (8-3-6)

Run of Form: W-D-D-W-W (All Competitions)

The Loons are back on track after a bit of a blip at the beginning of the busy period (knock on wood). They’ve put together a five-game unbeaten run, and they’ve looked comfortable in the process. A pair of wins over St. Louis, a draw with conference leaders Vancouver, and a first-ever win on Seattle soil should have the Black and Blue locker room in good spirits. How good of spirits? We’ll have to wait and see when they line up this weekend with more than a few changes against another Western Conference heavy-hitter.

San Diego FC (9-5-3)

Run of Form: W-L-W-D-W

I never know what to do with expansion teams in their debut season. They could be really bad, really good, or look pretty good before they reveal that they’re actually bad (hello, St. Louis). Right now, it appears that San Diego has struck gold with a squad that’s not only picking up results but firing on all cylinders in the process. They’ve had no trouble scoring or defending, scoring 29 times and conceding just 18. They win the games that the table suggests they should (beating Colorado, Austin, and the LA Galaxy within the last five games), and they haven’t allowed more than one goal in a game since late April. That’s pretty good form.

Keys to the Match:

We Don’t Do Exorcisms

I have been waiting for this game for so long. Early on this year, both of these teams established clear identities — and they couldn’t be more different. San Diego leads the Western Conference (second in the league) in average possession at 59.5%, while everyone knows by now that MNUFC is last in the league with an average of 38.2% possession per game. The stylistic differences don’t stop there, though. SDFC have attempted nearly 11,000 passes this season, while the Loons have barely cracked the 6,000 mark. While San Diego has taken almost 12,500 live touches, the Black and Blue have taken 8,302. A lot of the easily identifiable differences come from these two clubs’ approaches to possession, but there’s more to it than that. San Diego appears to believe in their ability to create chances through movement, demonstrating that while they’re capable of playing direct, they aren’t at a loss for options if the direct option doesn’t present itself. Long story short, this is the Major League Soccer stylistic matchup of dreams. The Loons won’t be relieving the new guys of their possession, nor will the visitors be thinking about giving it away. Both teams will get exactly what they want this weekend, barring any radical changes in approach.

Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It

Na na na na na na, right? In the spirit of Will Smith’s 1997 hit (not that kind of hit, Chris Rock), your Loons are going to have to do some thinking on their feet ahead of this one. As many as six regular starters could be missing due to international duty, meaning that more than half of Saturday’s lineup will be rotated in some way. The key absences of Dayne St. Clair and Michael Boxall take two pillars of leadership out of two huge positions, meaning the Loons will be looking for some huge performances from reserve players to fill their shoes as much as possible. If I had to guess, I’d say Owen Gene will start alongside Wil Trapp in the midfield, Alec Smir will get another run in goal, and Morris Duggan could slot into the backline if Boxy’s not back in time. The rest of the changes will be more common, with the likes of Kelvin Yeboah replacing Tani Oluwaseyi and Anthony Markanich stepping in for Joseph Rosales. The only outlier in my eyes is finding a replacement for Robin Lod, who doesn’t really have a like-for-like fill-in on this squad. I could see either Bongokuhle Hlongwane or Julian Gressel getting a run in his spot, with the other getting the right wingback spot, but let’s hope our Finn is back and ready to go by the weekend. Regardless of how Coach Ramsay adjusts the squad, it’s going to look quite different, and we’re likely to see some fresh faces off the bench at some point.

Chucky and Friends

“Hi, I’m Chucky, and I’m your friend to the end,” he says, right before he scores on you. Hirving “Chucky” Lozano is so good, his U11 teammates at Pachuca gave him a nickname worth fearing, and it stuck. In his first season in MLS, the Mexican international has five goals and seven assists in 14 games. His Danish friend, Anders Dreyer, has tallied six goals and eight assists, one-upping his attacking partner in both categories. (He’s had three extra games to do it, though.) The best part? The Loons might not have to worry about either of them this weekend! Lozano, though he was called up to Mexico’s national team for the Gold Cup initially, has withdrawn due to injury. Dreyers is currently away with Denmark and may not be back in time. Even if he is, it remains to be seen whether or not he’ll be ready to play a full game or limited to partial minutes. I’m not suggesting that San Diego poses no threat whatsoever without their two brightest stars — they’ve had 12 different goal scorers in 2025 — but they’re definitely significantly less scary without Chucky and his friend leading the line.