Minnesota 3, LAFC 1: Reconsidering everything
The Loons needed a win - and they so dominated LAFC that I'm wondering whether this team might be better than I thought.
As the 2026 season has worn on, one of the strongest senses I got from Minnesota United fans was a general sense of fatigue.
They were tired of the disappointing results, sure. The Loons returned from the World Cup break and immediately went five games without a win, beat San Jose, and then topped themselves by going eight games without a win. First their offense was missing and then their defense was absent, and in the middle of it all their chief soccer officer surveyed the ruins of his project and abruptly absconded for Austin. The club, as a whole, seemed prepared to start over - resigned, really, to starting over.
But there was also a different sense, the sense that fans were just tired of everything about the Loons. Tired of the echoes of the past. Ready to move onto something different.
I can't speak for the fanbase, but only myself: the Loons from last night? The team that went on the road, in a stadium that has so often been a nightmare for Minnesota, and - calmly, almost routinely - dispatched the home team, 3-1?
That's a team that I could watch more of.
