Minnesota MADNESS! Loons outlast Seattle in "insane" Game 3 | OneFootball

By Ben Wright

Cue "Wonderwall!"

Minnesota United FC are headed to the Western Conference Semifinals after one of the gutsiest, dramatic, nail-biting wins in Audi MLS Cup Playoffs history, taking down Seattle Sounders FC 7-6 in a 10-round penalty-kick shootout after rallying for a thrilling 3-3 regulation-time draw in Game 3 of their Round One Best-of-3 Series.

Comeback for the ages

Things looked bad for Minnesota when they conceded two goals in the opening 10 minutes at Allianz Field. After pulling a goal back, things looked even worse when Joseph Rosales was sent off with a red card just before halftime.

That didn't stop the shorthanded Loons, who mounted an incredible comeback to take a 3-2 lead, held on after a late Jordan Morris equalizer, then pulled off an unforgettable 7-6 win in the ensuing shootout, with goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair scoring the decisive kick.

"For us to ultimately come out on top of the game like that is insane," said Minnesota head coach Eric Ramsay after the match. "The players, first and foremost, showed just an unbelievable level of togetherness and spirit and will to stay in the game, to get ahead in the game and then to overcome what is a really tough blow to concede a goal like that at the end and then the repeated ups and downs and the penalty shootout."

Added St. Clair: "I don't think any one of us would have drew it up the way that it happened.

"But I think we responded well in the tough moments and found a way to get over the line... What I said before the game was find a way to get the result. At this point in the season, it's the results that matter."

WATCH: Dayne St. Clair plays HERO in must-see shootout! 

Digging deep

Going into the match, Minnesota knew they had to have their game plan on point.

Brian Schmetzer's Seattle side had the momentum after a 4-2 win at Lumen Field in Game 2, and they knew it would take their best to get past one of the more dangerous sides in MLS. That all went out the window early.

"[Seattle] are a team that plays at a really high level. You've seen that in the Club World Cup with the way they competed with some of the best teams in the world," said Ramsay. "I feel like they're real chess games there, I think some of the highest-level tactical games you'll see in MLS.

"And to an extent, tactics go out of the window, certainly in terms of how you plan when you're down to 10 men. We had to show one side of our game really, really well, and I felt we showed that."

Minnesota were on the brink of booking their ticket in regulation, ahead 3-2 with the final whistle in sight.

They didn’t lose heart after Morris’s 88th-minute leveler, going blow for blow in a lengthy shootout that came down to the goalkeepers. St. Clair calmly dispatched his shot. Andrew Thomas, subbed on specifically for the shootout in place of starting Sounders 'keeper Stefan Frei, rocketed his off the crossbar.

“I don't normally stutter, but I think he probably wasn't expecting me to do that,” laughed St. Clair, who says the last time he took a spot kick was as a 12 or 13-year-old, back when he still played as a center back.

“Obviously [Thomas] made a few good saves as well, so credit to him, but you just don't want to allow that early jump. I think that little stutter for me, for any goalie, it forces you to freeze, or you go early and the person passes to the other side. That's kind of how I assessed it.”

MLS Cup dream alive

The road to MLS Cup presented by Audi through the Western Conference is still a gauntlet, with giants like LAFC and Vancouver Whitecaps still looming large on the other side of the bracket.

But after taking down Seattle, Minnesota won’t back down from anyone. They'll face San Diego FC or the Portland Timbers in the Conference Semifinals, where they crashed out last season in a tough 6-2 loss to eventual champions LA Galaxy.

That’s something they haven’t forgotten.

“I'm so pleased that we're in this situation and I think it will mean the world moving into the next game. It has to mean something for us,” said Ramsay. “It has to amount to a team in the next round that is so conscious of how it started the last two games and so conscious of where it's been over the course of this series.

"To arrive at this point now with everything to play for in a really good shape, then we've got to capitalize on that. We have to make sure that what happened in the semifinal last year doesn't happen again.”

WATCH: Instant classic! Minnesota United STUN Seattle in PKs