Minnesota United ties Real Salt Lake 0-0 and clinches MLS playoff spot

Minnesota United usually travels to away games the day before the match, but this week, the Loons flew in early for Wednesday night’s game at Real Salt Lake. Minnesota arrived in Utah on Monday morning with the hope of acclimating to the thin mountain air.

In the end, what was missing from the game was not oxygen but goals, as the Loons drew 0-0 with RSL in Sandy, Utah.

The draw, combined with FC Dallas’ 3-2 loss at San Jose, meant that the Loons officially qualified for the MLS postseason in Eric Ramsay’s first year as manager. Minnesota ended the night in eighth place in the Western Conference standings, in the driver’s seat to at least host the 8-vs-9 wild-card game — and just one point back of Vancouver for seventh place and the chance to avoid the wild-card game entirely.

“I think it’s probably one of those games that neither coach nor set of players walks into the locker room after the game feeling particularly thrilled — nor too disappointed,” Ramsay said during a postgame video conference.

Ramsay’s squad kept a third consecutive clean sheet on defense. It was the first three-shutout streak in MLS play for MNUFC since the final regular-season game, and first two playoff games, of 2020.

The Loons’ travel schedule was an attempt to avoid repeating the team’s early-season trip to Colorado, when the Loons could barely get on the ball for most of the game. The result in the end, though, was the same from both visits to the mountains: one point in the standings, a decent result against one of the best teams in the Western Conference.

The earlier game, though, could hardly have been more different. The Loons somehow scored three first-half goals in that game at Colorado but had to hold on for dear life to clinch a 3-3 draw; Minnesota completed just 120 passes in that entire game, one of the lowest totals in MLS in years.

It took the Loons just 37 minutes to beat that pass total in this one, and it wasn’t nearly the total chaos that defined the earlier game.

“We didn’t start the game nearly as poorly as we did in Colorado,” Ramsay said. “Obviously, when we went there, it was by far our worst performance of the season on the ball — and tonight that wasn’t the case.”

Minnesota started the game with a surfeit of misplaced passes and giveaways in the defensive half of the field. Though the team’s passing improved as the half wore on, the Loons ended the first period without a shot on target.

Carlos Harvey, the team’s right center back, somehow fashioned the best chance of the first half, shooting just wide of the post from Minnesota’s first sustained pressure of the match. Harvey, overlapping down the right-hand side, also ended up getting the team’s first official shot on goal in the 55th minute, though it looked more like an attempt at a cross that was gathered by goalkeeper Zac MacMath.

BOXSCORE: Real Salt Lake 0, Minnesota United 0

MLS standings

Dayne St. Clair made several top-level saves, none better than in the 69th minute, when he parried a Chicho Arango shot over the crossbar and out of play.

The game finished with a near-brawl, as Real Salt Lake defender Brayan Vera was sent off in second-half stoppage time for a strange incident in which he ran into Minnesota’s Michael Boxall while appearing to spit in the direction of the defender. Referee Ricardo Montero, after a check on the video replay monitor, sent off Vera for what he termed a “spitting offense.”

“I really feel for Boxy in that situation because that’s, I reckon, one of the worst things that can happen to you on the football pitch,” Ramsay said.

It was the last incident in a physical game in which Montero handed out yellow cards from beginning to end; the Loons earned four of their own, the first to Jefferson Díaz in just the fifth minute. Boxall also earned one for the late fracas, which would see him suspended for Saturday’s game at Vancouver, unless Minnesota can successfully appeal.

Minnesota has never won an MLS game at Real Salt Lake, though the Loons can still claim reasonable success, having now held RSL to a draw in six of their eight tries. Going back to a previous era, though, the Loons — or as they were known at the time, the Minnesota Stars — can claim a U.S. Open Cup victory at RSL, having won 3-1 there in 2012.

This was Ramsay’s 31st game in charge of Minnesota United and also represented a milestone for him as a head coach: This was the first time in his career that he had named the same starting lineup for two games in a row. For once, though, it was a lineup that ended the game without a goal.