For the third time this season, Minnesota United lost a man’s advantage for a game-long stretch, and a 3-1 loss to the Colorado Rapids on Sunday felt like a strikeout for the Loons that ended November’s home playoff game. likely to host.
The Loons took a 1–0 lead when Colorado’s Danny Wilson was given a red card in the 58th minute for denying him a clear scoring opportunity. Minnesota’s 11 men will play against Colorado’s 10 for more than half an hour.
Instead of adding to the lead, Lunes goalkeeper Tyler Miller trapped Michael Barrios inside the six-yard box and Cole Bassett buried a penalty in the 74th minute to tie the game.
Then Minnesota gave Barrios the winning goal in the 84th minute. Colorado attacked on the third goal in stoppage time as the Loons were pushing everything to find an equalizer.
The Loons also found a winner with a no-man advantage in consecutive draws for San Jose and Kansas City in August.
Sunday’s defeat was detrimental to the Loons’ chances of hosting a home playoff game in November. Seventh-placed Minnesota (10-10-8) could not close an eight-point gap over fourth-placed Portland to host a game in the MLS Cup playoffs for last place.
United got the opening goal from the position they needed most. Newly named Adrian Hunou was on a scoreless drought of 213 minutes in his last five games and was an unused sub in a scoreless draw with FC Dallas last weekend.
Hunou tops the Loons in the 8th minute. It was a great start but ended in a bad ending, with some fans hitting the back of the net after Colorado’s third goal.
