It might just be the starkest stylistic contrast in Audi MLS Cup Playoffs history.

Monday night’s Western Conference Semifinal between Minnesota United and San Diego FC (10 pm ET | MLS Season Pass, Apple TV) pits two teams at diametrical ends of the spectrum in multiple contexts both statistical and philosophical: Possession, pass completion, lines of confrontation, risk-taking, reliance on set pieces – which in MNUFC’s case most assuredly includes throw-ins, with Michael Boxall’s slingshot tosses providing a devastating weapon in the final third – and beyond.

SDFC “really wants to dictate the play with the ball and have the ball in play,” in the words of their general manager, Tyler Heaps – and Loons boss Eric Ramsay readily admits he’s found the Chrome & Azul just as entertaining as so many other observers of the expansion side have.

“They’re a phenomenal team. I really enjoy watching them play,” the Welshman told MLSsoccer.com in a one-on-one conversation this week. “If I was to, yeah, arrive at what would be ideal for me, I think in an initial phase, it would be a lot of what they do, without losing a lot of the stuff that we do. But it's very difficult to arrive at that.

“It's interesting when I speak to journalists, because I feel like there's some lazy takes on Minnesota in the sense that everyone sort of lauds the set-play effectiveness, and it's obviously become a real edge. But certainly with what we have, we couldn't be the best set-play team in the world, and the team that dominates possession most, and the team that is the most high-pressing, without losing some coherence.”

Pushing the right buttons

As for the Loons… well, the Loons do things quite differently. Ramsay has fashioned Minnesota into one of MLS’s stoutest sides, happy to defend deep and rely on MLS Goalkeeper of the Year Dayne St. Clair, direct and devastating in transition and always, always, always dangerous on restarts, all with one of the league's lowest salary spends according to MLS Players Association documents – about $6.2 million less than San Diego's.

It’s important to understand that this isn’t some ideological exercise on Ramsay’s part. Quite the opposite.

“It's first and foremost to play a style that suits the players, allows us to be competitive,” explained Ramsay, a rising star in the coaching world who arrived in the Twin Cities from Manchester United in March 2024. “We've probably found a couple of edges in comparison to MLS teams, based upon some things that I've seen coming into the league from the Premier League, and it’s amounted to a really good couple of years.

“I've really learned as a coach in that sense, that I won't stray too far away from being very pragmatic in the real, truest sense of the word, in terms of just squeezing the most out of the capabilities of the players that you have in front of you, and being very adaptable and being very flexible.”

MNUFC’s approach is undoubtedly effective, backed up by analytics data and has earned increasing respect, even if much of it is grudgingly, as their season unfolded. The Guardian called them “the most aggressive set-piece team in the world,” and MLSsoccer.com’s own J. Sam Jones described their game model as “beautiful in a brutalist architecture kind of way.”

Maximizing potential

Love it or lump it, the Loons’ identity is crystal clear, and for their on-field leader, that’s a far sight better than getting marooned in the muddy middle.

“What I didn't want to do would be a team that tries to do everything, doesn't do anything particularly well, and then be in that tricky spot where you might not be a playoff team,” said Ramsay. “So I think in our case, what we've done is really push the buttons that we feel are going to make us most competitive, and that's come with some tradeoffs.”

It’s been labeled 'anti-football,' 'bus parking,' 'haram ball,' and the like. The reigning sensibilities about soccer aesthetics are such that Minnesota’s game model receives about as much criticism as San Diego’s does praise, perhaps even more.

That concerns Ramsay very little (though it does provide tasty posting fodder for MNUFC’s extremely online social-media team).

“No, I don't really read too much into that, in the sense that I'm the person that knows what suits our players most, and I think I'd be more concerned if it wasn't coming with results and momentum,” responded Ramsay, by some margin the youngest coach in MLS at 34.

“Even from the perspective of player development, which is sort of ultimately what brought me here, and what I think sits at the heart of what we do, really. Yes, it's about winning games of football, but it's also about putting a style of play together that revolves around the players’ qualities.”

Playing the long game

Ramsay views the day-to-day work of coaching up his players towards their maximum potential as a vital aspect of his job.

Even if it means being brutally practical, and even if it leads to irresistible offers from clubs elsewhere, as was the case with breakout star Tani Oluwaseyi, who was bought by LaLiga heavyweights Villarreal over the summer for a club-record transfer fee.

The Canadian international’s dream move dealt a major blow to the Loons’ attack, yet it’s central to MNUFC’s longer-term vision.

“We sell Tani Oluwaseyi to Villarreal for near $10 million; in that case, you're talking about a player that less than 18 months ago hadn't started an MLS game,” Ramsay noted.

“He's a college grad with not much behind him in terms of background and weight and attention, but we built a way of playing pretty much around his qualities, the qualities of Kelvin Yeboah, two really athletic forwards, and we've got a lot of power, physicality, and the way we play really suits us. I think it allows us to control a lot of things that are within our control.”

Cementing a successful style

Player development has generally not been Minnesota’s strong suit since their 2017 arrival in MLS, starting with their academy’s struggles to produce homegrowns on par with comparable clubs.

Here, Ramsay’s background – he spent a great deal of his time at Man United working with the first team’s younger players, and before that coached Chelsea’s under-23 squad, nurturing future stars like Marc Guéhi and Levi Colwill – has been hugely useful for the Loons.

“That was part of the reason that I was brought here to Minnesota. Yeah, they wanted to be competitive, but also wanted to start developing and selling players, which isn’t something that they've done previously,” he explained. “We were able to combine almost the best of being competitive, playing in a way that means we're in every game, and we've been able to have relatively deep runs in the playoffs, and also provide a platform for players like Tani to move on.

“For a club like Minnesota in the future, that should pay dividends in the sense that now they can, even if it's just wrapped around one player, demonstrate that Minnesota is on the global map when it comes to player progression. It's a far easier sell to young players from Europe on the prospect of Minnesota being a platform for them in the future.”

He’s proud of how doggedly resilient his team have become, particularly in defense, and how sharp they are in executing their counterattacking patterns. He cherishes the consistency represented in how rarely they’ve lost back-to-back matches over the past year and a half. Making the most of set pieces simply feels like a no-brainer by comparison.

“The set-play thing is obvious,” Ramsay argued. “If you look at the Premier League this year in England, there's been a real skew towards much more teams playing in this style, because I feel like from a coaching perspective, it's the obvious antidote to teams that have got a lot of success on the basis of pure possession dominance. So certainly, the game at San Diego is an interesting matchup in that sense.

“That game against San Diego, it's almost the game that brings it into most sharp focus ... It's a really interesting game from a tactical perspective, and I think for a neutral, as I described in the buildup to the last game, it's a really interesting watch.”