Dayne St. Clair made two saves during a shootout that Minnesota United won 3-1, and the Loons advanced to their first Western Conference semifinal since 2020 following a 1-1 draw with Real Salt Lake on Saturday night in Saint Paul, Minn.
Sixth-seeded Minnesota swept the first-round series against third-seeded Salt Lake despite playing to draws in both matches of the three-game set.
The Loons will visit the second-seeded LA Galaxy in a one-game semifinal.
Minnesota’s Joseph Rosales and Salt Lake’s Emeka Eneli scored second-half goals, and RSL also had two apparent second-half tallies correctly disallowed for offsides.
Then in penalties, St. Clair dove to his right to deny Diogo Goncalves on RSL’s second kick of the shootout, then lunged to his left to push Diego Luna’s try onto the goalpost on Salt Lake’s fourth attempt.
Sang Bin Jeong then coolly converted his PK to seal Minnesota’s win.
After Minnesota United dominated the first half without breaking through, Brayan Vera thought he had given Salt Lake a shock lead in the 47th minute when his half volley from beyond the penalty area beat St. Clair to the bottom right corner.
But the referee was summoned to the video monitor, and after reviewing a replay, judged that Matt Crooks had been in an offside position and obstructing St. Clair’s view.
Six minutes later, the Loons got their goal on a wonderful sequence that began from a throw-in at midfield.
Robin Lod ran onto a clever flick-on to break down the right side, withstood a physical challenge from a defender to keep his balance and found Kelvin Yeboah near the penalty arc.
Yeboah kept the ball moving to the opposite flank, finding the overlapping run of Rosales, who struck a first-time, left-footed shot past Zac MacMath.
It was a similarly crisp sequence that pulled Real Salt Lake level in the 75th minute.
Eneli pushed the ball toward the edge of the box for Crooks, who eventually put the ball into Eneli’s vertical run.
Eneli got a fortunate bounce off his leg to beat the challenge of a Minnesota defender, then drove a low finish through St. Clair from close range.
–Field Level Media
