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Preview | Minnesota Rides Momentum into Midweek Matchup Against LAFC

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Twelve games left in the regular season, Phase One of League Cup and the U.S. Open Cup semifinals on the horizon, two Loons in the upcoming All-Star game — what a whirlwind for Minnesota United, right? The Black and Blue have found great success thus far in the midst of all that chaos, moving one step closer to a trophy, winning back-to-back fixtures at Allianz Field, and climbing to second in the West. We’ll see if LAFC is ready to take on a team with this much momentum when they visit the stadium this Wednesday.

Run of Form

Minnesota United FC
Run of Form: W-W-W-D-W (All Competitions, no friendlies)

The Loons have been lethal of late. On a July winning streak that spans U.S. Open Cup and regular-season play, they’ve netted nine goals across three fixtures this month, seven of them on the home pitch. They’ve generated this offensive onslaught primarily by keeping to their strengths: strong off-the-ball movement, dynamic set pieces, and direct transition attacks. Across all competitions, they’ve scored multiple goals in every game this summer. With 12 different goal-scorers this season, incredible depth, and phenomenal chemistry up and down the pitch, these guys are not to be taken lightly. Minnesota has only beaten LAFC once at Allianz Field, in Eric Ramsay’s managerial debut in March 2024, but this team looks equipped to double that tally. Do you understand why I’m mildly afraid of birds?

Los Angeles FC
Run of Form: W-W-L-D-L (All Competitions)

Steve Cherundolo’s side is nothing to be laughed at, either. They’re sixth in the West, but with multiple games in hand on all five teams ahead of them, they are positioned to make a rapid ascent up the table. Denis Bouanga leads the club in both goals and assists (10 and seven), having scored three times in his last five regular-season games, while 21-year-old forward Nathan Ordaz has netted five of his own. The club stayed busy in June with the Club World Cup, but are now back to focusing all of their resources on regular-season success. They haven’t had a regular-season road match since the end of May, but have generally had a rough go of it away from BMO Stadium this year with an away record of 1-3-4.

Keys to the Match:

PK Points

Minnesota may have fallen to LAFC on the road at the start of the season, but even in their 0-1 loss, they managed to keep star scorer Denis Bouanga away from the goal. Recently, though, Bouanga’s sharpshooting prowess has come through not in the run of play but in drawing and converting penalty kicks. He’s scored three times in his last four regular-season matches, all of which came on penalties Bouanga drew between the 40th and 60th minutes, which translated to right-footed PKs with an xG of 77%. It’s a very specific danger that the boys need to be on the lookout for; this is not a man you can afford to foul in the penalty area. You don’t want to give Denis Bouanga a penalty kick in the same way you don’t want to give Joaquín Pereyra a corner.

Staying Level

Dayne St. Clair still leads the league in clean sheet percentage (44.4), but shutouts for Minnesota have been sparse so far this summer. The Loons have tended to find their victories through dominating 45-minute performances that are paired with less-impressive stretches on the other side of the halftime whistle. Coach Ramsay said in a postgame press conference that while spells of the team’s performance on Saturday were incredibly strong, there were also troubling stretches where he noted some lapses in on-field decision-making, slips like the one that led to San Jose’s singular goal. The team rarely dominates for the full 90 — few teams do — and while it hasn’t cost them a match yet this month, those brief dips in focus have the potential to be damaging. Whether the solution to that is earlier substitutions or a larger mid-game shift in approach, the team has to seek out a way to keep their momentum as consistent as it is powerful.

The Breakaway

I could spend several paragraphs waxing poetic about how Minnesota leads the league in set piece goals (15), but you already know that, and so does the rest of the league. Opposing teams are recognizing what a threat the Black and Blue pose on set pieces, and they know the level of defensive attentiveness necessary to keep it at bay, even if it’s easier said than done. Now, while everyone’s focused on keeping Boxy’s long throws and Pereyra’s corners out of the box, we need to get back to our direct, counterattacking threat. Look at the fourth goal in the Loons’ latest match against San Jose: a direct, no-nonsense approach that saw Oluwaseyi, Yeboah, and Rosales all forcing the action through aggressive attacks, brave passes, and selfless movement. When Oluwaseyi or Yeboah gets up front like this, it’s a one- or two-on-one battle from shooting range. Particularly when the Loons are leading late and the opposition is pushing forward, this kind of rapid-fire run of play before the defense can truly get back into gear could be the difference-maker as the Loons fight for the top of the table.