Match Recap: Minnesota Sweeps Seattle, Celebrates with Legends

Minnesota United Football Club returned to Allianz Field for a third consecutive week, needing to snap their first two-match skid of the season. The Loons secured three points, snapping the Seattle Sounders’ ten-match unbeaten run and securing a regular season sweep of their biggest Western Conference foe. It certainly was not a pretty game but with some special guests in attendance for Heritage Night, the result put present-day United’s stamp on the West and on the annals of Minnesota soccer history.

The lineups are in.#MNUFC makes 1 change from last weekend, Rosales for Markanich.#Sounders send out two Roldans and Frei is back in net.

— Northland Soccer Journal (@northlandsoccer.com) 2025-08-17T00:17:07.105Z

Following an exceptionally disappointing loss to the Colorado Rapids last weekend, this weekend’s meeting with Seattle was sure to be a nail-biter. The first half was nothing of the sort, with both squads struggling to put anything together in the final third. Seattle led – unsurprisingly – in possession but could not put together scoring opportunities. Meanwhile, Minnesota stole plenty of balls to go on counter-attacking runs but gave away most of their final passes within scoring distance.

Sadomasochistic pleasure of soaking up waves of pressure. #MNUFC #MINvSEA

— Carl Atiya Swanson (@catiyas.bsky.social) 2025-08-17T12:44:05.907Z

However, both squads began to settle into something resembling themselves and matched each other’s energy. “I think the group as a whole had – you sensed it all week that there was a real regretfulness that had been felt by everyone after the Colorado [Rapids] game because we certainly from just a general intensity, effort, discipline, willingness, perspective, had really let ourselves down,” said Minnesota head coach Eric Ramsay. He continued:

“I think as the week wore on, you really got a sense of a group that were desperate to prove a point today. And I think you’d obviously look at the big leaders in the group and the way in which they defended the box, Boxy [Michael Boxall] in particular. Dayne [St. Clair] certainly played his part, but that’s a real collective effort and it needed top to bottom, to be absolutely on point from a defensive perspective, because you’ll have seen over two games, they’re [Seattle Sounders FC] one of the better teams in the league on the ball, very clean, very well organized, they’ve got players that can hurt you at every point over the course of the front four or five positions. So to have limited them to very little over the course of the game was pleasing.”

"Ugly game" is only skin deep. "Win" isn't.

— Ben Tallen (@bentallen.bsky.social) 2025-08-17T02:57:00.576Z

A lucky bounce following a Minnesota corner midway through the second half was all the Loons needed to come out on top. In the 73rd minute, Joaquín Pereyra stepped up to a recycled ball that had pinged around the box before trickling out wide. The DP sent a cross to the far post that was within reach for Carlos Harvey but the ball took a bounce at the goal line and skipped into the bottom corner of the net behind a helpless Stefan Frei. The trajectory was reminiscent of a freekick missile from Kelvin Yeboah but Pereyra’s service traveled slower and, he admits, was not a shot.

A goal is a goal is a goal when you are facing a perennial conference leader like Seattle but the two squads are on near equal footing at this point in the season. Still, these three points are big and Pereyra recognized that a change in mindset was important. “Today, the truth is that against Seattle, they’re always difficult games. It was a game of equals,” he explained. “We knew they were going to come and play. I think that besides that, the fact that we didn’t have a great game, I think the victory is celebrated a little more. But I think the difference is that against Colorado, we felt like winners before the game. And today, I think we’re going into a final.”

Pereyra honors Minnesota’s soccer past—Kicks Thunderous Strike.

— Mark (@markoftheeast.bsky.social) 2025-08-17T04:13:30.686Z

Sweeping Seattle was extra sweet with a bevy of Minnesota soccer legends in attendance to celebrate Heritage Night. Carl Craig himself was on hand to sing ‘Wonderwall’ after the win, more than a decade after he began the tradition during the club’s NASL days.

Pereyra notched the winning goal but goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair secured the three points with his ninth clean sheet of the season (tying his career season-high from 2023) and the backline’s first shutout since May. Clutch defense against players like Seattle’s Alex and Cristian Roldán, Jesus Ferreira, and Osaze De Rosario, needs to be the standard across the season, according to centerback Michael Boxall: “I think no matter what the circumstances we need to have tonight as our standard defensively. Because we’re not the team that’s really scoring two, three, four goals each game. So we kind of need to get back to what was working earlier in the season.”

With seven matches remaining in the 2025 season, plus a US Open Cup semifinal against Austin in September, Boxall’s instinct is correct. The Loons would do well to continue putting up 1-0 shutouts rather than pushing toward 3-2 wins. A return to Ramsay’s gritty midfield and stingy defense could see Minnesota United FC through to a deep postseason run.

Minnesota goes back on the road this week to play at Real Salt Lake on Saturday, August 23, before ending the month at home against Portland the following week. After celebrating the past in historic fashion, the Loons’ future is in their own hands.