Takeaways: Loons rally to tie Colorado 1-1 and extend road unbeaten streak

For all of 2025, there’s been one sure-fire cure for whatever ails Minnesota United: a couple of hours on an airplane.

The Loons have lost just twice away from home all season, and they extended their road unbeaten streak to nine MLS games with a 1-1 draw at Colorado on Saturday night.

A second-half strike from midfielder Nectarios Triantis canceled out a first-half Rafael Santos free kick that had given the Rapids the lead, earning Minnesota a road point in the thin air in Commerce City, Colo.

“The fact that it allows us to preserve that record of not having lost back-to-back league games with only two remaining is no small achievement in any way, and that’s what I want to leave here with, that sense of pride in the group’s reaction,” Loons coach Eric Ramsay told reporters via videoconference after the game.

BOXSCORE: Loons 1, Colorado 1

If there’s a fact that defines the Loons this season, it’s that they have yet to lose consecutive MLS games.

The injury to striker Kelvin Yeboah, combined with the team granting Tani Oluwaseyi a dream move to Europe, meant that the Loons are facing their stretch run without a proven striker. On Saturday, that meant that Bongokuhle Hlongwane — who has mostly been a right wingback for the last year and has virtually never played as a center-forward since — spent the night in an unfamiliar position as the focal point of the Loons offense.

“The squad does look very different to how it looked when we were at our very competitive best and threatening to really make a push for the Supporters’ Shield and everything that went with that,” Ramsay said. “We don’t now have two powerful, athletic, aggressive number nines at the top of the pitch, so that is going to require us to look slightly different in certain moments of the game.”

Ramsay added: “If you look at us over the course of maybe the first 28, 29 games, we were elite at doing what we were doing, and that got us into the position that we’re in. Are we elite at the moment at building up and playing through the opposition’s pressure? More often than not, probably not. So, we are going to have to really work at that, but we’re also going to have to make sure that we don’t lose, or we try our very best not to lose, a lot of what made us such a competitive team over the course of most of this season.”

While Loons fans got a lot of scouting reports about summer signing Triantis, none of them mentioned that the Greek-Australian defensive midfielder seems to have a talent for long-range goals.

Triantis made his debut against San Diego by chipping the goalkeeper from inside his own center circle, and while his goal in Colorado wasn’t quite from the same distance, it might have been just as surprising. A full 30 yards from goal, Triantis picked up what looked like a tame setup and blasted a rocket of a shot into the top corner, shocking everyone — and leveling the scores.

The Loons mostly held Colorado at bay in the first half, forcing the Rapids into repeated aimless possessions in their own half of the field. But moments before halftime, Colorado won a free kick just outside the Minnesota penalty area — and finally made the Loons pay.

It was basically the last action of the first half, turning a 0-0 game into a halftime advantage for the home team.

Hassani Dotson played only about eight minutes, but his efforts to get back on the field for the Loons this season should be noted. Even after he tore his meniscus, and even after the club put him on the season-ending injury list, he kept working hard enough that the team appealed his roster status, giving him a chance to play again for the Loons.