Loons open Leagues Cup 2025 with dominating three goal win

On Wednesday night in St. Paul, Minnesota United opened the 2025 Leagues Cup campaign. With a goal to continue their success from both MLS and USOC this season in the Leagues Cup, expectations for the Loons are high. The stakes are also high with only four MLS teams making the knockout stage and only three league phase matches to secure their spot. Minnesota would open the competition with struggling Liga MX side Querétaro FC.

Ramsay rolls out a relatively fresh XI for the first match of the round.[5-4-1-esque] DSC / Rosales, Duggan, Romero, Diaz, Gressel / Pereyra, Lod, Gene, Hlongwane / YeboahSmir, Keller, Ant, Tani, Boxy, Trapp, DJ, Harvey, Mesanvi, and Randell on the bench.#MNUFC | #MINvQUE | #Los75DeGallos

— Northland Soccer Journal (@northlandsoccer.com) 2025-07-30T23:49:56.980Z

Minnesota United started the match off hot with two goals inside the first thirty minutes of football. Bongi Hlongwane scored in the 11th minute from the centre of the six yard box after a through ball from Joseph Rosales on the left side of the six. Kelvin Yeboah tacked on the second with a direct free kick goal from the left side of the penalty arc, that was curved into the bottom right corner of the goal.

Bongi said about his performance, “I don’t know what I can say about this tournament, but there’s something I have for this tournament. I think it’s giving me flashbacks from 2023.”

“It was just the position of the free kick. I think it was favored for a right footed taker, Joaquin [Pereyra] is also very good at taking free kicks so once he [Pereyra] put the ball down it became more favorable for me to take it and I was glad that I did because it ended up in the goal,” said Kelvin Yeboah

Querétaro FC evened up the score, 22 minutes into the second half with a goal from Jhojan. With the visitors down just one with 23 minutes to play, everything immediately turned around for Querétaro. Ángel Zapata was issued a yellow in the 75th minute, Querétaro’s third (18′ – Mendoza, 36′ – Escamilla) of the evening. Markanich scored a goal in the 79th to put the Loons up by two again. Then Zapata was sent off on a second yellow in the 87th. Minnesota took the opportunity and nailed in a fourth goal, this one coming from Tani Oluwaseyi at 90+1′.

“There’s no margin of error. We made it very clear to our players this week that it’s not possible for us to lose games at home,” said manager Eric Ramsay. “After winning tonight, we have a huge challenge against Club América but the players want that kind of challenge.”

After the three goal win, the Loons head to Houston, TX for a Saturday night showdown with Mexican powerhouse Club América. Las Águilas (the eagles) are in a must win situation for the Leagues Cup. Following their draw and loss in penalties to RSL, América could be knocked out if they get anything other than three points. For Minnesota a win puts them one step closer to being one of the only four teams from MLS to advance to the knockout stage. Kickoff is set for appx. 8pm CT with the match airing on both MLS Season Pass and FS1.