Minnesota United spent the entire season up against it in one way or another. Be it their best player doing a runner, their new coach not arriving until a few games were in the books, half the team missing during the summer, or… well, you get the idea.
It’s all been made and unmade and made again over the past 14 months.
In we go:
It signaled a massive change last autumn when the club parted ways with Adrian Heath, the only manager they’d ever had during their MLS era and the man who’d been both shopping for the groceries and doing the cooking since 2018. Nobody really knew what to expect.
And what we got was a slow unfolding of the new brain trust. First on board was CSO/sporting director Khaled El-Ahmad, who’d had some playing experience in the US collegiate ranks and some front-office experience in England (among other stops). Then, eventually, came young Eric Ramsay as the new head coach, the 32-year-old fresh off a stint with Manchester United in a player development/assistant coach role.
While those guys were coming in, the club was parting ways with guys who’d been around forever (Bakaye Dibassy, Brent Kallman). And most importantly, Emanuel Reynoso was… doing whatever it is Emanuel Reynoso does when he’s in Argentina during the offseason.
The Reynoso situation quickly became untenable, and he was sold to Club Tijuana for a bag of balls in late May. Meanwhile, another DP who’d been a cornerstone down the stretch in 2023 – forward Teemu Pukki – was losing his job.
So yeah, total overhaul.
Reynoso’s departure opened the door for Robin Lod – or, as we’ve started calling him on Extratime, “Lodaldinho” – to freaking cook as the team’s primary playmaker. And Pukki was straight-up beaten for playing time by Tani Oluwaseyi, who’d torn it up last year while on loan at USL Championship side San Antonio.
Those were the stories of the first half of the season. By the second half of the year, the story was about DP No. 9 Kelvin Yeboah coming in and looking like one of the very best at that spot in the league, Bongi Hlongwane looking like a natural as an attacking right wingback, Joseph Rosales looking even better at left wingback, and new arrival Joaquín Pereyra giving fans hope that the next Reynoso is already in town.
Ramsay mixed it all together and got himself a stew going down the stretch, as they went 6W-1L-1D from August 31 onwards. Then, they outlasted Real Salt Lake in Round One of the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs.
No matter what happened from then on out, it was officially a successful season.
Of course, what happened from then on out was 90 minutes of the belt.
The Loons, who’d been so good and compact defensively for more than two months, and who’d gotten such encouraging performances from left center back Jefferson Díaz and right center back Carlos Harvey in Ramsay’s 3-4-2-1, got a painful lesson about the gap between themselves and the league’s best in their 6-2 loss at the LA Galaxy in Sunday's Western Conference Semifinal.
The gap was… “wide” doesn’t quite do it justice. Hell, “gap” doesn’t do it justice. How about “chasm?”
Bottom line: This team was good in plenty of unexpected ways this year, both at the start of the season and during the stretch run (they were both bad and boring through the middle third of the season, but let’s move past that). That is fun.
But if they're going to become the type of team that actually lifts trophies, they need another transfer window as good as their last one. And they need it now.
- Kelvin Yeboah (FW): Dude is electric in the open field, and unselfish in the box. Looks like an A+ scouting job, and a steal at a reported $3.2 million transfer fee.
- Robin Lod (AM): He’s in his 30s now, but that didn’t stop him from having his best year in MLS. Fantastic two-way attacker who takes nothing off the table.
- Joseph Rosales (LWB): Can’t get over how good this guy was both in terms of ball progression and chance creation.
- Bongi Hlongwane (RWB): Showed a willingness to be a two-way player, and leaving him 1v1 off-ball on the back post against most fullbacks is just unfair.
- Joaquín Pereyra (AM): Clearly had some trouble adjusting to MLS, though I think he’s a solid Gass Theorem guy for next year.
Díaz got battered by a guy who might get sold for $25 million, but he’s an easy mention here as well. So is Hassani Dotson, and ditto for Dayne St. Clair.
Here’s the real talk: if Minnesota buy out the final six months of Pukki’s contract (which they should), they’ll have an open DP slot. And if they’re serious about winning, they will use that open DP slot on a high-level d-mid who can walk right into this XI and be among the best in the league. I’m talking about what Obinna Nwobodo did for FC Cincinnati two years back, or how César Araújo solidified things for Orlando City when he got here.
That’s job No. 1. Job No. 2 is to address central defense. I’m a big Michael Boxall fan – I think he’s got a role – and Harvey proved his value as a utility guy over the second half of the season. But man, did they get brutalized by that Galaxy attack.
The good news is Minnesota’s cap is relatively clean, which means they should be able to make some TAM signings. They can also open up that DP slot if they come to a parting of the ways with Pukki, and they have an open U22 Initiative slot to use. Plus, if they put Oluwaseyi in the shop window, how much could they get for him from a club like Toronto FC?
Here's the point: this front office has the flexibility to do real work this winter. I expect the gears are already turning.
