Match Preview - Minnesota United
Game Info
Kickoff: 7:39pm CT
Watch: Apple TV
Location: Q2 Stadium - Austin, TX
All-Time H2H Record
Austin FC has a 6W-1D-5L record against Minnesota United.
That includes last season’s U.S. Open Cup semifinal match, which capped a trio of matches between the two clubs in 2025. The first meeting of the season resulted in Austin FC’s worst ever home loss, a 3-0 whooping that ominously began with Brad Stuver letting a relatively harmless looking shot run through his legs for the opening goal. During the rematch three weeks later, Žan Kolmanič scored his first Austin FC goal, which helped the Verde and Black earn an important road point.
These teams will open the season against one another for the second time in three years. Last time, it was a short handed Loons side dominating Austin FC from start to finish, resulting in a massive bitch-session on Episode 120 back in February 2024.
Minnesota United Recent Form
The Loons were a unique puzzle to solve in 2025. Not because of any complicated or unique tactics, but rather because they were so damn good at doing what they wanted to do. There were three clear bullet points you could put on the whiteboard about this squad last season. Defense, counter attacks and set pieces.
Under head coach Eric Ramsay, Minnesota United finished with the lowest average possession in the league at 38.9% per game, 1.7% behind FC Dallas who ranked 29th and 6.1% behind 28th ranked DC United. This is where we bring in that first bullet point of defense. The Loons were arguably the best defensive team in the league, considering they were without the ball more than 60% of the game on average, conceding the third fewest goals in the regular season behind only Vancouver Whitecaps and the Supporter’s Shield winning Philadelphia Union.
Despite rarely possessing the ball, the Loons scored 56 goals across their 34 regular season matches, 19 more than Austin FC. The majority of those came from bullet points two and three, counter attacks and set pieces. They were led in scoring by striker Tani Oluwaseyi on 10 goals, with both fellow forward Kelvin Yeboah and fullback Anthony Markanich on his heels with nine each. Unsurprisingly given the stats we’ve discussed, Dayne St. Clair won MLS Goalkeeper of the Year for his efforts, earning 11 clean sheets.
It’s a very different Minnesota United side arriving at Q2 this Saturday. Ramsay was hired away in January to become the head coach of EFL Championship side West Brom. On top of that, Oluwaseyi was transferred to La Liga side Villareal in late August. Fullback Joseph Rosales was traded to Austin in December and the team lost midfielders Robin Lod and Hassani Dotson to free agency. They also went through a tumultuous contract negotiation with St. Clair, who ultimately departed the club to join defending champion Inter Miami.
Ramsay was replaced by first-time head coach Cameron Knowles. But Knowles is no stranger to the franchise, as he was an assistant under Ramsay during his two seasons in MLS and served as the interim head coach for the first three games of 2024 before Ramsay arrived in the states. Knowles was also the head coach of MNUFC2 in MLS Next Pro from 2022-23. It remains to be seen just how different Knowles will align his squad compared to the unique style employed when Ramsay was at the helm, but quick spin around Minnesota independent media and online forums shows a clear desire to see a more balanced style show up in 2026.
The big name addition this off season arrived just weeks ago, with Colombian national team star and former Real Madrid midfielder James Rodriguez agreeing to a half-season deal with a club option for the second half of the season back on February 6. He did not participate in any preseason matches, but did receive his work visa on Wednesday. Even with that part of the process behind him, Rodriguez reportedly did not travel with the team to Austin in the midweek. I don’t expect him to play on Saturday, but the official injury reports will be posted on Friday afternoon to clarify the situation for us.
Some of the other moves made this winter could be even more important to keeping this team in the top half of the Western Conference this year. As we discussed on Episode 284, the intra-league additions of winger Tomas Chancalay (a former DP for the New England Revolution) and midfielder Peter Stroud (yes, that’s Jared’s brother) will help replace some of the lost talent and goalkeeper Drake Callender arrives from Miami by way of Charlotte to claim the starting role vacated by St. Clair.
Here’s how they lined up in their preseason finale on Saturday at the Coachella Valley Invitational. I expect this to be very similar, if not identical, to how the Loons line up at the Q this Saturday. While the depth off the bench leaves something to be desired, that’s a solid MLS lineup as a starting XI.
Austin FC Recent Form
It was a preseason to forget for Austin FC when it came to revving up the excitement amongst the fanbase. Don’t get me wrong, people are pumped up for the start of the season, but the lack of scoring across the six preseason fixtures where ATX netted just three goals has folks rightfully skeptical of expecting noticeable improvements in that area early in the season.
For what it’s worth, Austin FC has never been a team that racks up impressive results in non-competitive matches. Across the club’s six training camps, they’ve amassed a 14W-13L-10D record. But when you filter for preseason matches against MLS opponents that record drops to 4W-13L-6D. Fans of the Verde and Black are no strangers to uninspiring results in preseason play, but it’s fair to say that the worry in 2026 is coming from the lack of threat on display across the three matches that we were able to watch over the last month.
It’s also important to note that for the first four of those six games, Austin was without all three of their designated players, along with absences from Owen Wolff and Mikkel Desler. The latter two are expected to miss the opener on Saturday and of course striker Brandon Vazquez is still in the final stages of his recovery from tearing his ACL last July.
Myrto Uzuni and Facundo Torres made their preseason debuts in the fifth game of the schedule last Wednesday against Chicago Fire. That match was not live streamed, but according to multiple sources on the ground at the Coachella Valley Invitational (including our special correspondent Jesse Porter), the team looked much more cohesive going forward against the Fire. A natural takeaway when the team scores two goals after recording just one in the four previous scrimmages.
The first half of the live streamed preseason finale against Sporting KC was also encouraging. Though ATX didn’t score a goal, there were a lot of changing diagonal balls and line breaking passes that resulted in a more exciting brand of soccer than fans were used to in 2025. Then of course the second half red cards to both Besard Sabovic and Guilherme Biro rendered the final half hour of the match utterly useless for both the team and its fans.
Similar to Minnesota, I think the preseason finale gave us a glimpse of the starting XI that head coach Nico Estévez will employ this Saturday at Q2 Stadium. Joseph Rosales at the nominal right wing doesn’t make me feel great, but I do think that this is the strongest group that ATX can put together at the moment with the expected absences in the opening match.
Ultimately, I would like to see more of what we saw in that first 45 minutes against SKC. A visible willingness to be aggressive going forward with those line breaking passes should be easy to spot for longtime fans who have been used to a more passive approach offensively. There were also multiple instances of Austin’s wide players getting to the endline before cutting the ball back towards the penalty area attempting to find runners in on net. None of those chances paid off on Saturday, but again it was clear to me that we were seeing noticeably different tactics in that short 45-minute sample size.
Injury Report
This is an estimate until the league releases official injury reports on Friday afternoon.
ATX:
Owen Wolff (Doubtful - Sports Hernia Recovery)
Mikkel Desler (Doubtful - Adductor/Abductor)
Brandon Vazquez (Out - Knee)
MIN:
Tomas Chancalay (Probable - Conditioning)
James Rodriguez (Questionable - Conditioning)
Jefferson Diaz (Doubtful - Green Card Process)
Minnesota United Players to Watch
Joaquin Pereyra - The last time we saw Pereyra he was burying a long-range free kick past Brad Stuver to equalize September’s U.S. Open Cup semifinal. The 27-year-old Argentinian gave ATX fits last season, recording a brace in the first regular season match in May. He’ll be looking to build on his first full season with the Loons where he recorded 17 goal contributions in just over 2,500 minutes. Pereyra has been re-united with his former youth Argentinian national teammate Tomas Chancalay this season in Minnesota.
Kelvin Yeboah - Still just 25-years-old, the Ghanaian striker dealt with injury issues throughout the majority of the 2025 season after exploding onto the MLS scene as a mid-season DP signing in 2024 where he recorded nine goals in just 12 appearances. With Oluwaseyi out of the picture, things are wide open up top for Yeboah to punish opposing back lines with his size/speed combination. He’ll be a handful for the Austin defense on Saturday.
Austin FC Keys to the Game
Score Early - If you scoffed a bit reading that and said to yourself, “how about score at all?”, that’s fair! I was lucky enough to run into our good buddy and Moontower Soccer host Landon Cotham at the Verde Store on Thursday afternoon and I brought up how important I think it is for Austin to ripple Drake Callender’s net early in the opener. The Verde fan base is very well tuned in to the goings on with this team and as shown last season against USL side El Paso Locomotive, will not hesitate to let the team know when they’re dissatisfied. If the halftime whistle blows with a zero still on the ATX side of the scoreboard, the anxiety of the (maybe?) 20,738 fans will be felt by all in attendance. But score early and watch the tension evaporate around the grounds and in turn, potentially relax the home team out on the pitch and push them towards multiple goals in a season opener for the first time since 2023.
Predictions
ZG - 2-1 Austin FC
E - 1-0 Austin FC
