Minnesota vies to rid 'sickness' in encounter vs. Galaxy

Minnesota United will try to move past a deeply disappointing draw when they host a Los Angeles Galaxy team that finally earned its first point of the season last weekend.

Minnesota (2-1-1, 7 points) has emerged as a trendy Western Conference pick in the first couple weeks of the 2025 season. And that looked likely to continue for the first hour-plus of last Saturday's visit to Sporting Kansas City, when the Loons stormed to a 3-0 lead.

But Kansas City answered with a furious late rally, scoring three times in a 13-minute stretch to keep Minnesota from earning its first away win.

"I think everyone woke up with the same feeling, I would say, that sickness for how the game ended. But I think the more time's gone on and the more that feeling has disappeared, we're trying to focus on the positives from that game," Minnesota United manager Eric Ramsay said. "I still feel like it's 70 minutes of exactly what we want to see in a situation like that. And what happens after is a complete anomaly."

Ramsay will be without four players called into international duty, including Tani Oluwaseyi, who scored twice against Kansas City.

Meanwhile, the Galaxy's key absences have been injury related, with Joseph Paintsil missing the first four matches of the season with a thigh issue, and last year's team MVP Riqui Puig still recovering from a torn ACL suffered in last year's Western Conference final.

But Paintsil could return Saturday as the Galaxy (0-3-1, 1 point) try to build on their 1-1 draw at the Portland Timbers last weekend.

Christian Ramirez scored his first Galaxy goal on a play set up by Mathias Jorgensen to level in the 81st minute. And the Galaxy escaped after what seemed to be an obvious foul in the penalty area from Emil Garces was not called by referee Lukasz Szpala.

"We're working hard as a group to try to put ourselves in positions to get results right now," said Galaxy manager Greg Vanney. "And we got something out of that game. The end of the game was a little bit hairy, obviously, and nevertheless we got out of it 1-1."

--Field Level Media