Minnesota United comes alive late for 3-1 victory at San Diego that puts top of Western Conference within reach

Minnesota United and San Diego FC definitely have contrasting soccer styles, but Saturday night’s game took it to extremes. For 70 minutes at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego, the home team totally controlled the match, trapping the Loons inside their own half of the field for minutes at a time, and preventing them from even completing passes in the San Diego end of the field ... never mind getting shots on target.

But at the end of that period, the game was still scoreless, and the Loons then came to life.

Anthony Markanich and Carlos Harvey scored three minutes apart, Nectarios Triantis — making his Loons debut — added a goal from inside the center circle in the closing moments, and Minnesota ran out with a 3-1 victory, having stolen all three points from the top team in the Western Conference.

Dayne St. Clair made 12 saves, helping his team close the gap between first-place San Diego (54 points) and the second-place Loons (52) at the top of the conference to only two points with four games to play for both teams. It also put Minnesota within touching distance, three points, of league-leading Philadelphia. The Loons have set a new single-season points record for the club.

With a U.S. Open Cup semifinal this week, three trophies — the U.S. Open Cup, the Supporters’ Shield, and MLS Cup — are still very much in play for the Loons.

When Joaquín Pereyra lined up a free kick for Minnesota United with 20 minutes to go Saturday, the numbers were looking pretty bad for the Loons.

At that point, the shots were 22-1 in favor of San Diego. The Loons hadn’t even bothered SDFC goalkeeper CJ dos Santos with a shot on target.

The goal seemed to break San Diego’s spirit. Three minutes later, another counterattack put the ball on Harvey’s foot, and the center back cut inside to beat a defender, then slammed a left-footed shot into the corner of the net.

And so at that point, shots were 22-4 in favor of San Diego. But the scoreboard had the Loons winning 2-0.

“We could have handled the opening stages better,” Loons coach Eric Ramsay said. “But I felt like the second half was a really accomplished performance, and I was immensely proud with the level of effort, the level of discipline, the cohesion, the selflessness, because that is what’s required to win games on the road in MLS.”

Triantis only arrived in the middle of the week, but the Loons coaching staff saw enough to give him his first appearance as a substitute. The midfielder didn’t disappoint, scoring one of the most remarkable goals the Loons have seen.

With the clock ticking down, dos Santos came flying out of the San Diego net to stop a potential attack from the Loons. Triantis, picking up the ensuing loose ball, saw dos Santos still running backwards — and lofted a shot from inside the center circle, just behind the halfway line, that beat the keeper back to the goal put his team ahead 3-0.

MLS standings

With the Loons’ defensive focus, St. Clair’s shot-stopping in goal isn’t on full display as often these days. Unlike the past, he is rarely facing barrages of shots like the fusillade he faced against San Diego. Minnesota surrendered 27 shots, 17 from inside the penalty area, but St. Clair made 12 saves, and only lost the clean sheet in the final seconds of the match on a goal by Jeppe Tverskov.