Analysis: Minnesota United plays it blasé, but there’s no diminishing a win over Lionel Messi and Inter Miami

“I mean, it’s just a MLS regular-season game,” said Robin Lod.

“At least top 100, maybe top 50,” said Michael Boxall, asked to rank this win in Minnesota United history.

Postgame, the Loons were pretty quick to play off Saturday’s 4-1 victory over Inter Miami, over Lionel Messi and Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba, over the league’s marquee team, the side that leads every MLS broadcast.

For once, Loons fans should ignore what the team captain and the team’s 2024 All-Star have to say, because for fans it likely meant a whole lot more than that.

Longtime Minnesota soccer fans know there haven’t always been days like Saturday in Minnesota soccer. There haven’t always been visits to Minnesota from world-class players, there haven’t always been top performances from the Loons at home. There haven’t always been mid-May, midafternoon occasions for fan celebrations.

Heck, this was just the 14th time in the team’s MLS history they even ended the game with a “4” or better on the scoreboard.

Plenty of Minnesotans can now say they saw Messi score in person. Loons fans will remember that. But they’ll also remember that Bongokuhle Hlongwane and Anthony Markanich and Robin Lod scored against Inter Miami, and that’ll be the memory that lasts far longer.

Fans know that 20 years ago the Loons were mired in the second division and MLS was barely scraping by. Fifteen years ago, the club nearly quit existing. Ten years ago, it was an open question whether Minnesota would even end up in MLS. Five years ago, the club had very few MLS nights with any sort of good memories at all.

So to see Minnesota beating up on Inter Miami, hosting one of the greatest soccer players ever and taking him mostly out of the game — despite his goal — no, this is not just another regular-season win.

“We’re what, 12 games in now, and we just got to keep building on that,” said Boxall.

That’s only partially right. It was the team’s 100th regular-season home game at Allianz Field, and for fans perhaps the most memorable.

But Boxall was right in the second part: This is something for Minnesota United, for the club as a whole, to build on.

It’d be a little hard to imagine the Loons could have scripted this win any better, at least in terms of the way they want to play.

The first goal: The Loons won a long ball into midfield, then held the ball up enough that reinforcements — especially right wingback Hlongwane — could arrive and create an attack. It meant that Hlongwane was effectively in a center-forward spot when Joaquín Pereyra evaded four Miami defenders and passed to defensive midfielder Carlos Harvey, who had time and space to find Hlongwane for the first goal.

“When we’re a team at our best, I want us to be controlled enough in possession that we can get Bongi on the last line, or the wingbacks on the last line, and we can look far more of an attacking threat in general play than we sometimes do — and I felt like that was a really good example of that today,” said Ramsay.

The second goal: an attacking throw-in from Boxall, a move the Loons do more — and better — than any other team in MLS. And even within that, the goal happened just how Minnesota tries to draw those plays up: Boxall landed his throw right on the edge of the 6-yard box, Nicolás Romero flicked the ball on, and Markanich was alone at the back post to head the ball home.

“Being persistent has paid off, and we’ve got big targets who love to get their heads on the ball,” said Boxall. “We got pretty lucky with that one.”