Loons looking to replicate last performance in Seattle in Game 2 of MLS playoff series

If Minnesota United wants to visualize their ideal performance for Game 2 of their playoff series with the Seattle Sounders at 9:45 p.m. Monday, they won’t even need to close their eyes.

All they’ll have to do is queue up the tape of their last game in Seattle, a 3-2 victory on June 1.

An own goal made the final score closer than it needed to be, but make no mistake: It was one of Minnesota’s best performances of the year. The Loons led 2-0 and 3-1, including two goals from open play and a penalty kick in a seven-minute span in the second half.

Maybe more importantly, while the Sounders held 65% of possession, Minnesota pushed them wide, time and again. Seattle ended up crossing the ball almost 40 times, but completed just four. And when the dust settled, the only Sounders shot on target was their goal. While the Loons were protecting their one-goal lead, they held Seattle without so much as a single shot attempt.

“We were a really good version of ourselves on that day, and that is what is required when we go there,” coach Eric Ramsay said. “It’s a very tough matchup, in a very tough place to go.”

While the Loons won Game 1 last week in a penalty shootout, their defensive performance wasn’t without issues. The key area of improvement, for Ramsay, was in one-to-one battles around the top of the Loons’ penalty area.

“If you were to watch the last 20, 25 minutes back, there were some big moments we missed,” he said. “Fifty-fifty battles that are so crucial, and that’s not like us.”

And the Sounders’ best chance, a flying stoppage-time header from Musovski, flew over the bar.

“It’s positioning, and then it’s timing, and it’s reading passes well, and then it’s just conviction,” Ramsay said. “I think we lacked a little bit of conviction, particularly on our left-hand side, as the game went on. … It was uncharacteristic. And I don’t think we’re going to stray too far to get that right.”

After Game 1, Sounders coach Brian Schmetzer was left ruing the fact that his team had created good chances, but had mostly missed the target — and that the Loons had once again kept Seattle off the scoresheet.

“We played well in many aspects of the game, but we didn’t win,” he said. “It’s frustrating to play against a team that sits back and doesn’t want to take risks and, you know, will take 45 seconds on goal kicks. That’s all part of who they are.”

That, of course, is Minnesota’s calculation. The Loons’ success is built on making life difficult for the opposition.

For Ramsay, the game plan is not about frustration, but control of the game.

“I get slightly frustrated, I think, when the games get painted as so one-sided,“ he said. “I feel like we’ve had really good control of those three games [against Seattle this season] for large portions of them, in the way that we try and control games … whilst everything that’s been talked about so far has been that dynamic, them unlocking a frustrating team to play against, I think there’s a lot for them to worry about in terms of the ways in which we can create chances.”

That dynamic will be at play again in Game 2, as the Loons know that Seattle is not only playing at home, it’s also playing with the possible end of its season on the line.

Loons defender Carlos Harvey, who’s been sidelined since Sept. 13 with a meniscus injury, is set to make a surprisingly quick return to the Loons squad on Monday night. Harvey began last week still training on his own, but according to Ramsay, trained in full with the team in Seattle and is fit enough to be part of the 20-man roster.

Ramsay said that it’s worth taking the risk with Harvey because he can not only help defend a lead at the end of the game, but he’s also capable of helping chase the game if the Loons are behind.

Striker Kelvin Yeboah has been a late sub in the past two matches for the Loons, and Ramsay said that the team has yet to make a decision about what his level of involvement will be.