Analysis: As MLS playoffs begin, Minnesota United feel Tani Oluwaseyi’s absence

Maybe there’s one number that can sum up Minnesota United as the Loons open their first-round playoff series against the Seattle Sounders.

Fourteen. As in, the jersey number of now-departed Tani Oluwaseyi.

Combine Oluwaseyi’s departure to Villarreal in Spain with an injury to his strike partner, Kelvin Yeboah, and as the regular season finished, and the Loons were left scrambling for a solution.

“I don’t want to continually dwell on it too much as a coach, but we’re a very different team when you compare a team at the beginning of the season that was playing with two number nines of that profile, to a team over the last three or four weeks that has had neither of them,” coach Eric Ramsay said.

Yeboah is still in the process of returning from the hamstring injury that caused him to miss all but the final 15 minutes of the Loons’ past four games, and the coaching staff doesn’t yet trust 21-year-old Mamadou Dieng to carry the load at striker. An analysis of the season shows just how much different the team is with or without their options at the top of the attack.

The Loons played 40 games against first-division competition this year, between MLS, Leagues Cup and the U.S. Open Cup. In the 31 games where they had a full squad, and Yeboah, Oluwaseyi, or both started the game and played at least a half, Minnesota averaged 1.9 points per game (based on three points for a victory, one for a draw and none for a loss).

In the five games at the end of the season when Yeboah was hurt and the four games in which the Loons were missing Oluwaseyi and others to international competitions, Minnesota earned only nine points total — 1.0 per game.

As difficult as Oluwaseyi’s departure made things, you probably won’t be able to find a single person with the Loons who wasn’t happy for him. Moving to Villarreal, a team in the UEFA Champions League and near the top of La Liga in Spain, would be a dream come true for any player.

“That’s an opportunity for him, and nobody wants to take the opportunity away from him,” Yeboah said. “And for him, it was an amazing move.”

It was a bit surreal to watch the highlights of Villarreal’s midweek Champions League game against Manchester City and see Oluwaseyi cannoning a late header off the post. Less than two years ago, Oluwaseyi began the season as an unproven backup, the understudy to Teemu Pukki. And there he was, leaving Gianluigi Donnarumma and the rest of the Man City defense flat-footed.

“Tani was a big contributor to our season,” Yeboah said. “Dynamic-wise, he helped us a lot. I think, especially now with me being injured, it would have been so important to have him.”

Oluwaseyi’s departure is simply one of the quirks of MLS. The Loons played 28 league games and reached the U.S. Open Cup semifinals with an important player in the fold, then ended up facing the final six games, the playoffs and the end of the team’s cup run without him.

The Sounders are the same team they always seem to be: balanced, deep and dangerous. Seattle closed the season with a three-match winning streak, something Minnesota could never pull off in MLS play all year, and already has the Leagues Cup title to its name.

Make no mistake: The Sounders might be the fifth seed and the Loons the fourth, but Seattle is the favorite to advance. But for Loons veteran midfielder Hassani Dotson, Minnesota United’s ability on defense and set pieces might be the key.

“I think that’s where we started to see the turnaround in our results, starting last September, making [defense] the focus,” he said. “We know we have enough quality players to break down the defense or score when the time comes.”

The Loons’ two victories over the Sounders bore that out this season. Minnesota had only 35% of the possession in the first game and only 30% in the second, but took advantage of its scoring opportunities to win 3-2 (including a Loons own goal) and 1-0.

Yeboah’s status for Monday is unclear, but the Loons know they will need him to step up, even if he’s coming off the bench. They are a different team when he’s on the field, even without Oluwaseyi — and for most of the season, that version of the team has been the best one.

8:00 p.m. Monday, Allianz Field

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