SAINT PAUL, Minn. – When Seattle Sounders beat Minnesota United in the 2020 Western Conference final, it was slow and painful death for the Loons, giving up two goals in the final minutes to lose 3-2.
In Saturday’s decisive Game 3 of their first-round series, Seattle scored two goals in the opening eight minutes and Minnesota looked dead just after arrival.
The Loons rallied from a two-goal deficit, while going down to 10 men, with three unanswered goals.
While Seattle scored a late equalizer, it was Minnesota that included the final blow after 10 rounds of penalty kicks. In the final round, Loons goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair buried his PK, while Sounders keeper Andrew Thomas puts his off the cross bar and Minnesota won 7-6 at Allianz Field.
The Loons will play the winner of the San Diego-Portland series in the Western Conference semifinals on Nov. 22 or 23.
The Loons edged Seattle 3-2 in PKs to capture Game 1 on Oct. 27, while Seattle rollicked to a 4-2 win in Game 2 on Monday.
On Saturday, Loons left wing back Anthony Markanich got his head on the end of a Joaquín Pereyra corner kick for United to take a 3-2 lead in the 71st minute. That lasted for 18 minutes until Jordan Morris scored off a Sounders corner kick in the 88th.
Down 2-0, Minnesota got a lifeline from an outstanding free kick goal from Joaquín Pereyra. The Argentine midfielder had a quiet start to the series, but provided a stunning strike from 29 yards to make it 2-1 in the 19th minute.
The uphill climb grew steeper in the 41st minute when Joseph Rosales drew a head card for contact to Jesús Ferreira . Rosales kicked out at a passing Ferreira and then got in his face, leaning out with his forehead, making contact with Ferreira, who went down to the turf.
Loons head coach Eric Ramsay screamed in reaction on the sideline as Minnesota went down to 10 men for the final 60 minutes.
Minnesota got its equalizing goal from Jefferson Díaz on a back-post header in the 62nd minute. The Colombian center back had not scored across 36 regular-season games since joining Minnesota in 2024.
Loons center backs Jefferson Diaz and Morris Duggan were woeful on the Sounders’ first-half goals. Diaz let himself get pulled wide by a Ferriera run, which opened up the space Albert Rusnak needed to score in the fifth minute.
Duggan then whiffed on a clearance attempt and it bounced right to Danny Musovski to finish in the eighth minute.
After getting beat down the left side in Games 1 and 2, Ramsay switched from Anthony Markanich at wingback and Nico Romero at center back, going with Rosales and Duggan.