Analysis: Despite ‘sour taste’ from season-ending loss, coach Eric Ramsay and Minnesota United accomplished much in first year together

Minnesota United set out to be the best version of itself in its MLS conference semifinal with the LA Galaxy. The Loons wanted to be defensively compact, limit the space in which Riqui Puig and company had to operate, and frustrate the Galaxy’s offensive weapons — leading, they hoped, to a few chances to hold the ball themselves.

After conceding six goals of every variety, the only possible question to ask: What the heck went wrong?

The Galaxy scored only 28 seconds in — a far cry from the first time these teams played this season, when Minnesota held LA without so much as a shot attempt for an entire half.

“That set the tone for a very chaotic feel to the game, which is absolutely the opposite of how we envisioned that game being played, if it was going to be one that we were going to win,” Eric Ramsay said after his first season as Loons coach ended with a 6-2 loss in Los Angeles on Sunday.

What went wrong on that first goal was a microcosm for the game as a whole. Right center back Carlos Harvey stepped up into midfield, and tried to roll a pass to right winger Bongokuhle Hlongwane. The pass, though, was picked off, and the Galaxy went straight to Puig — who, with Harvey on the wrong side of him, had what he needed: time and space to dribble.

Harvey ended up futilely trying to grab Puig’s jersey, like a defensive back attempting to commit a last-ditch pass interference penalty. Puig took two high-speed touches, then bent a gorgeous pass behind the Loons defense, using the outside of his right boot.

Seconds later, Gabriel Pec had the ball in the back of the net.

“We’ve had a lot of success over the course of the last three months or so by committing extra bodies to the attack, being more dynamic by creating 3-v-2s and 2-v-1s in wide areas through the outside center back or one of the 6s [central midfielders], particularly Hassani [Dotson],” Ramsay said. “We didn’t want lose that element from our game, but we did want to be more conservative than we would be normally, and I just felt like we didn’t strike that balance well where we needed to be really detailed behind the ball as we attacked.”

In the best-of-three first round of the playoffs against Real Salt Lake, the Loons often looked like they had an extra player or two on the field, defensively speaking. The Galaxy reversed that, usually making them look as if they had two too few.

“You concede as early as you do, you really start on the back foot,” center back Michael Boxall said. “Things we emphasized throughout the season, we didn’t do well enough on. There were things we were watching all week for, and happened how we planned for, but we just didn’t execute as well as we should have.”

There will be plenty of time to look back on the season, but Ramsay has always maintained it’s been a really successful year, regardless of the beating in the conference semifinals.

And so despite what he said was a “sour taste” of the final score, he was positive about the year as a whole.

“I feel like once we have some time to breathe and we look back over the work that was done, the strides that everyone’s taken, the strides that the club has taken as a whole, I think it’s a really good season, it’s a really impressive season,” he said. “I’ve said to the players, I’ve loved it from the perspective of the work day to day, the environment that’s created, my development as a coach, the group’s development. I’ve loved it. I look back with a lot of satisfaction from day one to now, and everything that went in between and all the difficulty.

“I particularly enjoyed these last three months where we’ve been able to get to such a good place so quickly. So I know when the dust settles, we’ll look back with a real sense of satisfaction.”

That the Loons played all the way into late November does mean one thing — it won’t be long until 2025 preseason training starts. Despite an ugly loss to close 2024, Ramsay did sound excited to bring his team back again next year, and to take another step forward.