Minnesota United can’t claim MLS pundits are disrespecting the club going into the 2025 season.

Seven of the nine predictions from commentators on MLS Season Pass have the Loons finishing within the Top 5 in the Western Conference. Dax McCarty, Bradley Wright-Phillips, Sacha Kljestan, Matt Doyle, Michele Giannone, Miguel Gallardo and Kaylyn Kyle made up a bullish majority on MNUFC’s prospects.

In 2024, United finished sixth in the West and advanced to the conference semifinals.

In the minority was former Loon midfielder Ozzie Alonso, in his first year in the league’s commentary stable, who put his former club in ninth. Spanish-language host Antonella Gonzalez was the complete outlier, predicting MNUFC would finish 13th in the now 15-team conference.

The pundits will start to be proven right or wrong when the Loons open their season Saturday at Los Angeles FC, which also had its season end in the West semis. Start time is set for 3:30 p.m.

MNUFC concluded preseason with one win and two defeats, the last a 1-0 loss to New York City in the Coachella Valley Invitational on Saturday. NYC scored in the 78th minute.

The Loons started their first official preseason game hot, with a 6-0 win over Sporting Kansas City’s backups on Feb. 1. But they scored only one goal in the final two tune-ups. It came off a corner kick in 2-1 loss to L.A. Galaxy last Wednesday.

After nearly six weeks of preseason preparations, Loons head coach Eric Ramsay reminded his players in Blaine on Tuesday it “becomes very real” this weekend. But he hasn’t necessarily addressed a set of season goals with his team.

“It would be the sensible thing to say we want to build upon what we did last year,” Ramsay said. “I felt like … we were pretty pleased when we look back, (and) I was really satisfied with what everyone did.”

Ramsay will want to avoid one major issue from last summer: MNUFC had a nine-game winless streak from early June to mid-July, when many key players away on international duty.

“There is going to be some messiness again, but we do want to make sure we have enough depth and we are really purposeful with how we address this summer,” Ramsay said. “I think if we do that, then every realistic expectation would be that we hopefully surpass what we did last year. But I’m not getting ahead of myself.”

Veteran midfielder Wil Trapp said the team’s goal is to maximize its ability.

“It’s making the playoffs, looking at winning as many games at home as we possibly can; last year we didn’t do that particularly well,” he said. “We want to win a trophy, right? Whether that is Leagues Cup, (U.S.) Open Cup or MLS Cup.”

Cold opener

The Loons’ home opener is less than two weeks away, which is hard to believe with the snow cover and below-zero temperatures blanketing the Twin Cities this week.

The 10-day forecast calls for a high of 24 degrees when CF Montreal comes to Allianz Field for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff on March 1.

MNUFC hopes to have one outdoor training session at its St. Paul stadium next week, when the weather is forecast to be in the low 40s.

Briefly

The Loons don’t anticipate any maneuvering before the MLS roster compliance deadline Friday. All eight international spots are accounted for: Kelvin Yeboah, Joaquin Pereyra, Jefferson Diaz, Sang Bin Jeong, Nicholas Romero, Hoyeon Jung, Owen Gene and Morris Duggan. Jeong is furthest along in the South Korean’s U.S. green card process, which would clear an international roster spot.

Romero has arrived in Minnesota with his work visa, had his medical exams and will travel with the first team to L.A. on Wednesday.

Gene, the Frenchman, is in Canada attending to his work visa.

Defender Kip Keller (hamstring) was the only player rehabbing on the side Tuesday.