Takeaways: Minnesota United lose at Seattle 4-2, will play decisive game Saturday at home to decide playoff series

SEATTLE – It was almost impossible to find a player, coach, or staff member from Minnesota United that had anything positive to say about the best-of-three format of the first round of the MLS playoffs.

After the Loons dropped Game 2 to the Seattle Sounders 4-2 on Monday night at Lumen Field, though, the entire club might be a little more positive about having a Game 3 still to play.

Seattle built a 3-0 lead and seemed to be strolling comfortably into a rematch in the Twin Cities next weekend, but two goals in first-half stoppage time for the Loons turned what appeared to be a breeze into a nervous second half for the Sounders.

“We obviously wanted to survive the anticipated difficult opening stages, and didn’t,” Loons coach Eric Ramsay said. “But I think the big thing for us is that we showed real fighting character to get back in the game. And I think whilst that didn’t mean anything tonight, ultimately it does mean a lot going into the next game.”

Only a late second-half goal clinched things for Seattle, and pushed the two teams into a deciding Game 3 Saturday at Allianz Field.

Playing from behind is rarely easy in soccer. Doing so in Seattle, where the Sounders have the second-best home record of any MLS team in history, is even more difficult. Doing so from 3-0 down for Minnesota, which up until June had never won a game in the Emerald City in franchise history, must have felt like climbing Mount Rainier. But the Loons, not exactly seasoned mountaineers, almost pulled it off.

For almost the entire first half, the game was all one-way traffic in favor of Seattle. Barely seven minutes into the game, the Loons — so prolific from set pieces this season — were the victims of a Seattle set piece off a corner kick. The Loons won the initial header, but the ball fell to Obed Vargas at the top of the penalty area, and his screened shot beat Dayne St. Clair for the game’s first goal.

When Danny Muskovski scored a third goal for Seattle, again open on the doorstep, in the 41st minute, it felt like the final nail in the coffin, like the Loons were fated to scramble the rest of the night to try to keep the game semi-respectable.

“It’s something we planned for, and I think we kind of like over-corrected,” defender Michael Boxall said. “Like we just dropped and gave them too much space, and then obviously they kind of had one or two free runners and we weren’t able to really cope with the numbers that they put in those areas.”

Said Ramsay: “I think it’s a hard enough place to come without giving them a three-goal advantage. They started the game like a team playing at home with a real point to prove, attacking their supporters section, and we just plain and simple didn’t handle it well enough.”

When eight minutes of first-half stoppage time were announced, most would have assumed it would favor the Sounders, as the Loons seemed to be hanging on for dear life. As it turned out, it was just time for Nectar Triantis to shine.

First, Triantis broke up a Sounders counterattack in midfield, then fed the ball to Robin Lod and strode forward. Lod drew defenders, then passed back to an onrushing Triantis, who split two defenders and found the bottom corner of the next to turn the tables.

“That was how we would love those situations to look more often,” Ramsay said of his team’s two goals. “So there is certainly something to take forward there.”

A much more even second half meant the game hung in the balance until five minutes before the end of the match, when the 20-year-old Vargas found the deciding moment for the home team. Once again, he picked up a loose ball at the top of the penalty area. This time, his shot hit a Loons defender and looped crazily inside the post, beating St. Clair and calming the nerves of the Lumen Field crowd.

BOXSCORE: Seattle 4, Minnesota United 2

As much as everyone involved seems to dislike playing a best-of-three series, splitting the first two games does set up a highly intriguing winner-take-all battle in Game 3 — one that the Loons get to play at home.

“There [were] some good things [about the comeback],” Lod said, “and the good thing is that we get to play in our stadium with our own fans that help us really much, so I’m really looking forward to that.”

Game 3 of the series is set for 3:15 p.m. Saturday at Allianz Field. The winner will meet the winner of San Diego and Portland, who play Sunday, in a single-game Western Conference semifinal the week of Nov. 23.