Loons enjoy comfortable Leagues Cup victory over Querétaro

It was widely accepted that Querétaro was not one of Liga MX’s top teams, entering the Leagues Cup. It was still striking, though, how comfortable Minnesota United’s 4-1 win ended up being.

Los Gallos Blancos offered very little in the way of resistance in the first half, and Bongokuhle Hlongwane and Kelvin Yeboah gave the Loons a comfortable lead within the first 20 minutes.

The Loons briefly made their fans sweat in the second half, giving up a 67th-minute goal to Jhojan Julio. Anthony Markanich, though, clinched things for Minnesota with a goal 12 minutes later, finishing off an impressive Loons offensive move by powering a shot into the bottom corner – astonishingly, the defender’s ninth goal in all competitions this year.

Tani Oluwaseyi finished things off for Minnesota, rounding the goalkeeper and turning a 3-1 lead into a 4-1 victory with a stoppage-time goal.

“I think it was comfortable,” manager Eric Ramsay said. “I think we made it possibly more difficult for ourselves than we needed to, with that period of defending that led to the goal. But I think in general we played well, we did what the game required.”

Minnesota has still never lost against a Liga MX team, in this the third season of the Leagues Cup. The Loons have taken down Puebla, Necaxa, Toluca (in a penalty shootout), and now Querétaro.

Querétaro was content to sit back in the opening minutes and let Minnesota progress the ball slowly down the field — and the Loons made the visitors pay after 10 minutes. Minnesota won duel after duel, and after Robin Lod won another in midfield, he turned and found Hlongwane with a pass. Hlongwane fed Joseph Rosales, then kept running — which worked out when Rosales’s shot deflected straight into the middle of the penalty area. The South African poked the ball under the keeper, giving the Loons the early lead against a passive visiting team.

The format of the tournament is such that, while Minnesota is playing three Mexican teams, they’re competing in the standings against only MLS teams — and the way things are going, that may be the easier group with which to compete. After 11 interleague games, the Loons and Inter Miami were the only MLS teams to take all three points from their opening match — putting Minnesota in excellent early position to claim one of the top four spots out of the 18 MLS teams, which would put them in the knockout round.

“It makes for an interesting competition, but it makes it really difficult to progress and, as I say, there is absolutely no margin for error,” Ramsay said. “I can imagine that it’s very possible to win three games and still not progress, and I think tonight the fact that we were able to win very convincingly hopefully puts us in a good position.”

When Hlongwane was fouled on the edge of the penalty area less than 20 minutes into the game, it put the Loons in an unfamiliar situation. Minnesota has scored on set piece after set piece this year, but those goals came from long throws or long free kicks, and then battles for headers and loose balls. This was a different matter: who was ready to go for goal?

Maybe it’s appropriate that Kelvin Yeboah, 3-3 from the penalty spot this season, would step up — just eight or so yards further back than normal.

Yeboah’s free kick was both powerful and perfectly placed, beating the Querétaro wall and curling inside the far post for the game’s second goal.

“There’s something I have for these tournaments, I think it gives me flashbacks from 2023,” Hlongwane said.