Minnesota United head coach Eric Ramsay could sense something special coming in the second half of the Leagues Cup match against Necaxa on Tuesday.

“I didn’t want to jinx it by thinking it too much in the second half, but the way he spoke at halftime, the level of conviction, you felt like something like that was coming and we really needed it,” Ramsay said.

The Loons were down to 10 men in a must-win game when captain Dayne St. Clair talked to the team in the dressing room. He then backed it up with a club-record 16 saves in MNUFC’s 1-0 win to stay alive in the North American tournament.

“That was one of the best individual performances I’ve seen at Allianz Field,” midfielder Robin Lod said. “That was incredible for him. He took the team on his back.”

St. Clair made a full-extension diving save and a quick-reaction denial off a deflected shot in the first half, but he said his favorite was his one-handed tap-away around his right post in the second half.

“By the time I get there, I see that I can’t really knock it straight, so I have to bring it up and bring it back into play a little bit,” St. Clair said. “So that’s probably my favorite but any save that you make that doesn’t allow the ball across the line is a good one for me.”

Not the memento

After St. Clair finished his Apple TV interview, he jogged over to the north end of Allianz Field. A kid had held up a poster asking for his jersey and gloves.

“I just gave him a pair of gloves,” St. Clair told reporters postgame. “… It was a nice thing I saw in the first half, so I told him I would be back at the end of the game.”

Those weren’t the mitts he made 16 saves with, right?

No, St. Clair will be wearing that history-making pair in the next game. “For sure,” he said.

Minnesota United goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair, left, makes a save as Necaxa midfielder Fernando Arce applies pressure in the second halfof a Leagues Cup soccer match Tuesday, July 30, 2024 in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Bruce Kluckhohn)

Classy not class

Necaxa head coach Fentanes Eduardo sought out St. Clair in the mixed zone, shook his hand and, in English, said “congratulations.”

It was a classy move in defeat. The match, however, had disrespectful moments.

Loons head coach Eric Ramsay picked his words carefully to describe his first match against a club from Mexico’s Liga MX.

“It was not easy to watch,” Ramsay said. “I don’t think that first half, in terms of how the referee was treated, how some of the instances saw a lot of players around our players on the floor getting treatment from our athletic trainers, following the goal (and) around the penalty.”

After MNUFC was awarded a penalty kick, a handful of players tried to distract PK taker Robin Lod, with Bongi Hlongwane needing to play the role of Lod’s bodyguard to keep some Necaxa players away.

“I mean the PKs are always kind of mind games, and the goalkeeper (Luis Unsain) tried to say something, but it didn’t bother too much,” said Lod, who slotted his goal into his bottom right corner.

Ramsay said those antics should be cut out of the tournament — “if it’s a competition that really wants to take itself seriously and move forward. It’s certainly not what you want to see and not something that we’re used to seeing in any way.”

Subs

The undermanned Loons dealt with Necaxa’s unrelenting pressure as the second half wore on, but Ramsay didn’t make his final two subs until the 91st minute. Why?

Ramsay said when to make the final changes was “a big topic of conversation for us on the bench,” but they didn’t do so until stoppage time because they had only one window remaining and didn’t want to risk a player getting hurt and being down to nine men.

“We knew there were a couple of players that had said it halftime that they felt as though there was (a) cramp coming based on the heat, based on the number of minutes,” Ramsay said. “… It’s a difficult situation to be in that you can feel that you want, you want to make some changes because you feel like you are under the pump with 20 minutes to go, but you make a change too early, but you make a change too early and someone gets injured suddenly you’re down to nine players. So we can look back and say we timed it OK because we ended up winning the game.”

Tani injury

Just when MNUFC was getting healthier, a key player went down injured Tuesday. Striker Tani Oluwaseyi grabbed his right leg, fell down to the grass and was subbed out in the 57th minute.

Ramsay didn’t had a prognosis just after the match, but it appeared to be a hamstring injury.

“It’s a real sour point from that game for sure, because he’s come back looking a real player, Tani, from his time with Canada,” Ramsay said. “… But he unfortunately has a history of those types of injuries and it looks like there’s perhaps another one that has occurred. We’re really hopeful it’s not as bad as it appeared but we’re conscious of the player’s history and, of course, it will leave a big hole for us.”