Minnesota United opens season with 4-0 loss at Seattle

Minnesota United went to Seattle on Friday night for its season opener looking for redemption in the very place where last season ended in such disbelief.

Instead, the Loons left Lumen Field 4-0 shutout losers four months after they came within a minute there of reaching the MLS Cup final.

The Sounders scored twice in four minutes stretching into stoppage time that December night in the Western Conference final.

On Friday, they scored all four goals after halftime, three of them in 19 minutes, including two by midfielder Raul Ruidiaz with three minutes. The Sounders did so on a night newly signed Loons striker Ramon Abila made his MLS debut as a second-half sub.

The Loons still haven't beaten Seattle in their first five MLS seasons. They're now 0-7-1 in all competitions and have been outscored 20-6.

They opened their fifth MLS season in the second game of a Friday night doubleheader and the only one of the two games – San Jose at Houston was the other – that was nationally televisee on FS1.

The Loons now are 2-3 in season openers after having won their last two on the road.

The Sounders welcomed back Its all-time leading scorer, Fredy Montero, after nine seasons away, but played without game-changer Jordan Morris and injured star midfielder Nicolas Lodeiro.

Montero scored his team's final goal in the 85th minute. Morris is both loaned out to Swansea City in England's second division and sidelined by a season-ending knee injury sustained in February.

Seattle's Brazilian midfielder Joao Paulo scored the game's first goal, in the 49th minute after the Loons failed to clear the ball from their goal. He corralled it with one touch 30 yards away and struck an absolute banger into the upper, left corner past starting goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair's outstretched arms.

Loons coach Adrian Heath rotated goalkeepers St. Clair and Tyler Miler in four preseason games and said Wednesday he knew who'd start Friday but wouldn't say.

The starter for last season's final three months after Miller had hip surgeries, St. Clair was Friday's starter and his stop – diving right, saving with his left hand — of the Sounders' Raul Ruidíaz's penalty kick in the 29th minute.

Ruidiaz was awarded it after Loons newcomer Wil Trapp was called for a hand ball at the edge of the 18-yard penalty box.

The top was St. Clair's second career penalty-kick save and he's now 3-0 on penalty kicks when you count saves and misses.

As he did with St. Clair, Heath started winger Robin Lod up top as a "false" striker as Heath had done so successfully late last season. Lod had two fine chances, one in each half, but one hit the post and the other was wide.

Players from both teams linked arms in a circle before the opening kick and the Loons wore a black arm band and a jersey patch that included the words "Equality, Acceptance, Diversity."

The words were a response to Sunday's killing of 20-year-old black man Daunte Wright by a Brooklyn Center police officer while former Minneapolis police officer Derrick Chauvin is being tried for killing George Floyd last May. Wright and Floyd were black, the two officers are white.

"It's hard to put into words, just how that happens so close to home again and again and nothing's done about it still," Loons veteran defender and New Zealander Michael Boxall said Wednesday in a video call with reporters. "No real change has been made. Obviously, this is well above my head, but it's so awful to see families and people going through this."

The Star Tribune did not travel for this game. This article was written using the television broadcast and video interviews before and/or after the game.