Minnesota United wins close-as-can-be MLS playoff series, defeating Real Salt Lake again on penalty kicks

Minnesota United is on to the next round of the MLS Cup playoffs.

Pretty good, for a team that didn’t win either game in regulation. But when you’ve got Dayne St. Clair in the net, why not just count on a penalty shootout?

For the second straight game in the best-of-three series, the Loons defeated Real Salt Lake in penalty kicks, this time after a 1-1 draw, and this time they clinched a trip to the conference semifinals in the process.

Real Salt Lake missed twice in Game 1’s penalty shootout, but this time around, at Allianz Field, St. Clair took over as the shootout hero. He saved the attempts from both Diogo Gonçalves and Diego Luna, and forced a miss from Matt Crooks. Kelvin Yeboah, Hassani Dotson and Jeong Sang-Bin converted their kicks, giving the Loons a 3-1 win in the shootout.

“I feel like it was well in our favor, the combination of the atmosphere and Dayne back there,” Loons coach Eric Ramsay said.

“It’s an incredible atmosphere here. I’m really pleased that we’ve been able to finish the year with three wins here, because we have to take advantage of what is, as far as I’m concerned, one of the best football-specific atmospheres here.”

The victory sends Minnesota through to the conference semifinals, with the rest of the playoffs set to be traditional one-off playoff games. Minnesota will travel to play the Los Angeles Galaxy, but not until the weekend of Nov. 23, after the FIFA international window.

Joseph Rosales had 10 assists during the regular season but never could find the back of the net from his spot at left wingback. In the 53rd minute, though, he finally got his first goal of the season. Robin Lod fought through a challenge on the counterattack to poke the ball to Yeboah at the top of the penalty area, and Yeboah fed a pass across the left side of the 18-yard box to a wide-open Rosales, rushing towards the RSL goal. Rosales fired low and inside the far post, finally beating RSL keeper Zac MacMath to give the Loons the 1-0 lead.

Between Game 1 and Game 2 of their best-of-three playoff series, and an early October regular-season game between Minnesota and RSL, it took almost four hours of soccer for someone to score a goal. Naturally, with this series so even, when one team scored, the other team scored, too.

With 15 minutes to go, Crooks fed a pass through the Loons defense for Emeka Eneli, the first crack RSL had discovered all evening, and Eneli finished through the goalkeeper’s legs to tie the game 1-1.

Four times in the first half, the Loons came close to scoring, including twice from Yeboah after defensive mistakes. MacMath, who was the star of Game 1 for RSL, was once again outstanding — saving first with his foot, then with his fingertips to deny Yeboah.

The best chance of the whole half might have been a free header from Joaquín Pereyra, 6 yards in front of the goal and with nothing to do but hit the net, but the Argentine put his shot wide of the near post.

Two minutes into the second half, Real Salt Lake found the back of the net, Brayan Vera scoring from long range. Referee Tori Penso, though, ended up ruling out the goal after a VAR check showed that Crooks was both offside and affecting St. Clair — who hardly moved at all, as if he couldn’t see the shot behind Crooks.

Maybe Real Salt Lake should have tried that in the penalty shootout, too. It might have been the only way for them to have a real chance against St. Clair.