If one thing can be said about the 2026 Minnesota United squad it is the players don't quit. Resilience has been a key for the club all season and last night was no different. Going down early the Loons made it two straight home matches with a come-from-behind win. Minnesota has not scored first since the 12 September loss at St. Louis City. And their last win when scoring first came all the way back on 22 April at FC Dallas.
“I think we would all prefer to be leading from the front. But when you look at the points that we’ve gained after conceding the first goal, you can never count us out of a game, and I think the guys have showed that multiple times this year, and tonight’s another example of it," Cameron Knowles said following the Loons win on Wednesday night.
Multiple times in 2026 the Loons have shown they can hang with the best teams in the league. This summer the Loons drew the return fixture at home against Vancouver after having lost 6–0 to them before the World Cup break. In September MNUFC fell to St. Louis in the midst of five straight losses. One month later the Loons took a convincing win and ended St. Louis' long running unbeaten streak.
“Unlucky moment in the first half that leads to their [Sporting Kansas City] goal, and then a number of good chances, obviously the disallowed goal early on," said Knowles. "You feel like right in that moment, as we have previously coming out at halftime and putting an imprint on the game, I thought that was going to be a really good moment for us. And then for the guys to bounce back from that and continue, I thought the guys that came into the game were huge, gave us a great lift as well. But, certainly to come back, come from behind, and the three goals is big.”
Sporting Kansas City's only goal of the night happened in part due to a deflection from Nectarios Triantis. A goal that, following the match, Anthony Markanich said that SKC "didn’t deserve" to score. Nectarios Triantis took a bit more of a positive view of the play saying;
“It is football. It is high intensity and a little touch can unlock our defense. Unfortunately these things happen but you can't let it affect you that early in the game. And as you can see, the assist in the second half, so I did not let it affect me and I kept going and we got the win.”
Following the deflection Triantis snagged one assist and nearly had a second one, though that goal was called back due to a foul. A call the crowd in St. Paul did not agree with and many supporters questioned the officiating. But even after the disallowed goal the Loons still managed three more, showing the tenacity needed to mount another comeback win.
“I think we need that resilience," Triantis said. "We need that resilience to get the wins and it is unfortunate that we went down that early in the first half, but again, that resilience that we showed, and the mentality and courage from all the boys - no one let each other down and we fought as a team together. When you do that, you get the win.”
