Tell your friends and family — heck, tell your acquaintances, and give your enemies a heads up. (If you have any, that is. We’re Midwestern, after all.) The U.S. Open Cup semifinal is here, and it’s going to be glorious. Your Loons are set to host Austin FC this Wednesday, as both sides look to take another step towards lifting the coveted Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, along with the Concacaf Champions Cup spot that comes with it. This one is going to have huge implications, so whether you’re watching from the stands, your couch, or your favorite watering hole, be sure to watch to the very end.
Minnesota United
Run of Form: W-D-W-W-L
The Loons are on right now. With the Leagues Cup hangover loss to Colorado getting further and further behind in the rearview mirror, that trademark MNUFC defense-first style has come back to the fore, and it looks better than ever. Let me prove it to you. In their last four games, the Loons have completed a season sweep over Seattle for the first time in club history, won their first-ever match in Utah, and taken down the top team in the Western Conference. The only blip in those four games was a draw against the ever-stubborn Portland Timbers, a result that any team in the league would be pleased with. After watching these Loons, though, I’m beginning to think that they won’t be satisfied with dropped points of any kind from here on out.
Austin FC
Run of Form: L-W-W-L-D
Austin have been experiencing a bit of a late-season resurgence, climbing the table ever so slowly and picking up enough results to all but cement themselves as a playoff team. None of those results mean anything in the context of Wednesday’s Open Cup match, but form always gives us a clue about how any game might play out, so we’ll go through the usual analysis here. The recent performances of Owen Wolff and Myrto Uzuni have jumpstarted the goal scoring, and have gotten this side to play some of their best soccer of 2025. They’re trending in the right direction, and despite a 2-0 loss to Dallas in their last match, they’ll be more than up for this semifinal.
Keys to the Match:
Cup Competitions Hit Different
Though El Tree have been anything but consistent from a results standpoint this year, they’ve proven at least one thing to be consistently true: They’re capable of beating just about anyone. Lucky for them, that’s perfect for cup competitions, where sustained success doesn’t matter as much as an ability to get things done in the moment at hand. Unfortunately for them, the Loons have proven themselves capable of the same, and they’ve added the consistency that their visitors have lacked this season. Neither of these teams has won any major trophies since joining MLS, meaning they’ll be extra hungry to take the next step in their club’s history and start adding to those empty trophy cases. They say the first one is the hardest to win, but once it’s yours, the sky’s the limit. There’s something about lifting one trophy that makes it easier to see yourself lifting another, and before you know it, winning becomes an expectation rather than a goal. As Will Durant once said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” This is an opportunity for both of these clubs to pick up a new habit, one I reckon they won’t want to kick any time soon.
Ghosts of Games Past
MNUFC has already played Austin twice this season, winning a 3-0 match in Texas’ capital at the beginning of May and drawing the return leg 1-1 at Allianz Field later that same month. An entire summer has passed since the last matchup, but the familiarity remains. When these sides take the field on Wednesday, there won’t be many surprises. Sure, both sides have bought and sold some players, but the way they play, the stars expected to make plays, and the engines that make each team run are the same as ever. I’ve heard that it’s hard to beat any team more than once, but I suspect that these Loons might be a different beast. Their style is clearly defined, and it doesn’t take much research for anyone to figure out what they’re going to do once the whistle blows. The onus falls firmly on Austin’s shoulders here, especially as the visitors. If they don’t have any new ideas on how to break the Loons down, they’ll have to rely on forcing mistakes against a team that hasn’t been mistake-prone in 2025, and that could lead to a long, disappointing night for Nico Estévez. Maybe the Austin boss will jazz up the formation; maybe he’ll shift a few players around to throw off any scouting the Loons have done; or maybe he’ll take a page out of Coach Ramsay’s book and just trust that his system will work. No matter his strategy, he’s the more likely of the two coaches to be up late thinking about how to approach this one.
Big Games Need Big Goals
It’s no secret that the Loons are fighting on multiple fronts this season, especially after their huge win over San Diego on Saturday. Fans of any sport know that there’s a difference between getting to the big dance and actually finding your rhythm when you get there, and it usually boils down to experience and preparation. Robin Lod has scored in an Open Cup final, Wil Trapp and Michael Boxall have played more professional minutes than most players in the league, and Julian Gressel has won just about every trophy he’s had the chance to compete for. With layers of established experience coming together to guide this squad, it comes down to preparation for the players who haven’t been here before. While it would be nice to just rely on the guys who have been here before, it’s more likely that a certain Kelvin Yeboah — or even Mamadou Dieng — will find himself in a massive moment before the final whistle, and execution is going to be critical. These are the moments that we play for, and this is the time for these players to take the next step in their careers. A good performance on this stage could set the Loons up for a truly historic finish to the season, and it’s the perfect opportunity to initiate the uninitiated.
