Minnesota United dominates St. Louis City, rebounding from midweek loss in Texas

Coming into the match with a 3-2-0 record in their last five and a loss in their last match, Minnesota United aimed to rebound and did just that. With three different goal scorers the Loons thoroughly dominated City on Saturday night in St. Paul, walking out with their seventh clean sheet of 2025.

After falling to Houston Dynamo just a few days prior Eric Ramsey heavily rotated his squad retaining only three players; Will Trapp, Jefferson Diaz, and goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair from his starting eleven down in Texas. Ramsey also swapped his side from a 5-3-2 to a more fluid 3-4-2-1/5-2-3 formation for Saturday night's showdown against St. Louis City.

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Referee Ricardo Fierro made his control of the match known early issuing a quick pair of yellow cards in the open quarter-hour. The first being given to Joaquín Pereyra issued in the third minute after he fouled Timo Baumgartl. In the eleventh minute officiating Baumgartl himself was issued a yellow after a foul on Pereyra, showing some early consistency in the officiating.

From there on Minnesota United dominated the rest of the first half and forced St. Louis keeper Roman Bürki to make multiple not-so-easy saves, including a Carlos Harvey shot from 25 yards out that nearly slipped in on the near post. It took until just past the half-hour mark, but in the 33' minute Tani Oluwaseyi scored on a cheeky no look back heel with an assist from defender Nicolás Romero.

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MNUFC ended the opening half of play dominate in momentum, leading in possession, and holding a massive shot advantage. The Loons took 12 shots with 5 going on target while St. Louis only managed 5 shots and just 3 on target. Though of those three on target Dayne St. Clair was forced to make big save and wrangle the ball in off the rebound to avoid a second chance opportunity for STL.

St. Louis made a single sub at the half, bringing Simon Becher on to replace Tomas Ostrak. But even with the change, the second half of play continued on just as the first half did, as outside of the possession it was complete domination from Minnesota United.

After an early yellow Joaquín Pereyra struck home with the Loons second goal of the evening. A series of quick passes from Robin Lod to Tani Oluwaseyi inside the box, then sent to Pereyra who smashed a low shot home from inside the penalty arc.

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After a few more subs for the St. Louis in the 71st minute, Eric Ramsey made his first substitution of the evening bringing on Julian Gressel in the 76th to replace Hlongwane. After two minutes of being on the pitch Julian Gressel scored his first goal as a Loon getting a shot off the half volley that Roman Bürki failed to parry away and instead it bounced off his hand into goal.

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Ramsey brought on his last four subs in the dying minutes of the match, to close out the contest and secure a 3-0 clean sheet victory, one that is Dayne St. Clair's seventh of the 2025 campaign. The win over St. Louis brings the Loons to a 4-1-0 record in their last five matches and extends St. Louis City's winless skid to yet another match. The Loons and City will face off again on Wednesday night in a rematch, but this time in the US Open Cup Round of 16.