Ethan Finlay provided an unintentional favor to one of his former MLS clubs on Saturday night.
The Austin FC winger scored his first goal of the season in the 91st minute; it drew Austin level at 2-2 with Colorado Rapids before his teammate Brendan Hines-Ike scored the game winner in the 93rd minute at Q2 Stadium.
Austin’s wild 3-2 win dragged Colorado (50 points) down to the seventh seed in the Western Conference and gave Minnesota United (52) the sixth spot for the MLS Cup Playoffs. The Loons needed the boost despite its 4-1 win over St. Louis at Allianz Field.
With the help, the Loons will now play third-seed Real Salt Lake in the first round. While Colorado is forced to play second-seeded L.A. Galaxy — which has the most lethal offense in the West with 69 goals scored this season. Galaxy boasts four players with 10 or more goals — Gabriel Pec (16), Dejan Joveljic (15), Riqui Puig (13) and Joseph Painstil (10).
RSL, meanwhile, isn’t as threatening without Andres Gomez (13 goals) after he was sold to Rennes in France’s Ligue 1 this summer. Salt Lake still has Chicho Arango, who was sixth in the league with 17 goals this season, and others.
At one point late Saturday night, the Loons were up to fifth place in the West with Galaxy’s Pec equalizing at 1-1 in Houston in the 96th minute, but Dynamo’s Daniel Steres produced the winner in the 11th minute of stoppage to put MNUFC in sixth.
There were plenty of twists and turns in where the Loons would end up, but Loons head coach Eric Ramsay was not riding the rollercoaster on the sideline.
“I think that was healthy for us and the players. We didn’t talk about it at halftime,” Ramsay said postgame. “I don’t know whether they had an inkling or not, but I just felt like we had to do what we’ve done for the last 10 games, which is concentrate on us, be a good version of ourselves and I was fairly adamant that if we did that, we would get what we wanted for sure. It panned out pretty favorably. Of course, we could have got up to fifth. From what I gather, we were up there at one point. But to have climbed the place it feels better for sure and we are good value for that position, if not slightly higher, I would say.”
If the Loons would have finished fifth, it would have set up a matchup with four seed Seattle Sounders. That would have come with existential dread — at least from supporters — given the nemesis status the Sounders have held over the Loons in Seattle the MLS regular season and in the big comeback in the 2020 Western Conference final.
The favorable landing spot Ramsay referred to came with Finlay’s favor. While his playing time has been cut roughly in half this season, he has always been willing to put in the work. He subbed in during the 62nd minute Saturday, and in stoppage time, made a run to the front of goal. He got his head on a looping cross to help playoff-eliminated Austin spoil Colorado’s regular-season finale.
The Duluth-born and Wisconsin-raised product scored 10 total goals and added eight total assists across his first two seasons in Austin in 2022-23. It earned him a new contract last fall: a one-year deal for 2024, with a club option for 2025.
But with head coach Josh Wolff fired this fall and Finlay now 34, he doesn’t know what the future holds. Saturday’s goal might have come in his last game for the Verde.
“I think you’re always preparing for what’s next,” Finlay told the Austin American-Statesman in early October. “I’m always trying to network, whether that’s here or with people that I’ve come across (in playing stints) in Minnesota or Columbus. … I spent most of my career, even before I was 30, just talking to people to understand what they do. I’m a very curious person and can get into a conversation with someone who sells energy and be locked in for two hours with them.”
Finlay, a union leader for the MLS Players’ Association, added up 19 goals and nine assists across his five MLS seasons in Minnesota from 2017-2021 before he headed to Texas as a free agent. His goal Saturday was among his biggest for MNUFC, and it came out of nowhere.
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