Minnesota United vs. Seattle Sounders

What: MLS Cup Playoffs, Game 3
When: 3:14 p.m. Saturday
Where: Allianz Field
Stream: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV+
Radio: KSTP-AM, 1500
Weather: 35 degrees, mostly cloudy, 9 mph south wind
Betting line: MNUFC plus-185; draw plus-260; Seattle plus-130

Format: The best-of-three series is knotted at 1-1. Fourth-seeded Minnesota maintained home-field advantage, winning Game 1 in penalty kicks after a scoreless 90 minutes on Oct. 27. Fifth-seeded Seattle stormed out to a 3-0 lead after 40 minutes in a 4-2 win at Lumen Field on Monday.

Look-ahead: The series winner will play either top-seeded San Diego or eighth-seeded Portland in the conference semifinals on Nov. 22 or 23. Game 3 in that series is Sunday.

Absences: Loons are not expected to list any players as unavailable for Saturday. Defender Jefferson Diaz limped off the in Game 2, but trained in full Friday. Striker Kelvin Yeboah (hamstring) has been improving and should play more than his 19 minutes in Game 1 and 25 in Game 2.

Scouting report: MNUFC head coach Eric Ramsay pointed out that “we lacked a little bit of conviction, particularly on our left-hand side as (Game 1) went on.”

For Game 2, Ramsay said they anticipated more attacks from the Sounders down the Loons’ left flank, and Seattle’s second and third goals came via that route.

“We talked a lot about how we would deal with some of those problems, and ultimately we weren’t able to do so,” he said Monday. “… If you watch the goals back, there aren’t glaring individual errors, Seattle moved the ball really well on that side. … They showed some real high-level work on that side, quick combinations, real athleticism, real pace in behind.”

It will be another emphasis going into Game 3, with lineup changes possible. “A baseline level of competitiveness, athleticism, organization, the distances being right; I think that gives you a good chance,” Ramsay said.

Note: Cal Williams and Kyndra de St. Aubin will commentate Game 3 on Apple TV+; it will be the first Loons match for the broadcast pair since they called nearly every game for the club since it joined MLS in 2017 and through 2022.

Update: MNUFC spent a $2 million transfer fee and earmarked a substantial $853,000 salary to bring in attacking midfielder Dominik Fitz from Austria during the summer transfer window.  But when the Loons needed to unlock an equalizing goal Monday, five players subbed in and Fitz remained on the bench. He also didn’t play in Game 1.

“He’s still well and truly in that adaptation period,” Ramsay said. “I think it has been probably tougher than he anticipated and tougher than we anticipated. … The minutes that he has had on the pitch so far haven’t … been all that convincing in terms of showing that ability to cope at the moment with the physical demands of MLS.”

Ramsay said Fitz, 26, could still play a role in Game 3.

Stats: In Game 2, Seattle continued to dominate possession (59-41%) and expected goals (1.9-0.8), but those margins were smaller than in Game 1.

Prediction: The Sounders are the favorite and have been more convincing in the series — outside off a lull before halftime in Game 2 — and they will keep Minnesota from reaching the Western Conference semifinals for a second straight season. Sounders, 2-1.

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The St. Paul Downtown Development Corporation has purchased the condemned Capital City Plaza parking ramp from Madison Equities with the goal of having it fully reopened by late 2026.

The ramp is located at 50 Fourth St. near the Alliance Bank Center, which the nonprofit corporation took full ownership over and site control of in October. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed, but a spokesperson for the nonprofit said the purchase was fully funded by private investment “and will prevent the city from spending public funds to secure the property.”

The ramp, situated near the Green Line’s Central Station, was condemned by the city in April 2025. The corporation “will immediately begin evaluating the work necessary to correct safety violations, with the goal of reopening it as a public parking ramp by the end of 2026,” reads a prepared statement from the corporation.

Dave Higgins, president of the corporation, said in the statement that “reviving this property fits our mission to take on catalytic projects that strengthen the downtown core and support future investments.”

Both the ramp and the Alliance Bank Center will remain closed to the public for the “foreseeable future,” according to the corporation. Skyway connections to Osborn370 and Treasure Island Center remain open.

The nonprofit, which formed a year ago under the auspices of the Downtown Alliance, plans a public engagement process to examine key wants and needs downtown and inform a long-term improvement strategy.

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James D. Watson, whose co-discovery of the twisted-ladder structure of DNA in 1953 helped light the long fuse on a revolution in medicine, crimefighting, genealogy and ethics, has died, according to his former research lab. He was 97.

The breakthrough — made when the brash, Chicago-born Watson was just 24 — turned him into a hallowed figure in the world of science for decades. But near the end of his life, he faced condemnation and professional censure for offensive remarks, including saying Black people are less intelligent than white people.

Watson shared a 1962 Nobel Prize with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins for discovering that deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, is a double helix, consisting of two strands that coil around each other to create what resembles a long, gently twisting ladder.

That realization was a breakthrough. It instantly suggested how hereditary information is stored and how cells duplicate their DNA when they divide. The duplication begins with the two strands of DNA pulling apart like a zipper.

Even among non-scientists, the double helix would become an instantly recognized symbol of science, showing up in such places as the work of Salvador Dali and a British postage stamp.

The discovery helped open the door to more recent developments such as tinkering with the genetic makeup of living things, treating disease by inserting genes into patients, identifying human remains and criminal suspects from DNA samples and tracing family trees. But it has also raised a host of ethical questions, such as whether we should be altering the body’s blueprint for cosmetic reasons or in a way that is transmitted to a person’s offspring.

“Francis Crick and I made the discovery of the century, that was pretty clear,” Watson once said. He later wrote: “There was no way we could have foreseen the explosive impact of the double helix on science and society.”

Two men were injured in shootings reported about 15 minutes apart, in separate parts of St. Paul Friday morning.

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Preliminary information indicates the shootings are unrelated, and police are investigating the circumstances of both, said police spokeswoman Alyssa Arcand. No one was under arrest in either case as of early Friday afternoon.

Officers were called to a shooting in Payne-Phalen just before 10:45 a.m. They found a man in the 800 block of Forest Street who’d been shot in the leg and he was taken to the hospital.

Then, just before 11 a.m., a man arrived at Regions Hospital with a gunshot wound to his ankle. He said he’d been shot near Marion Street and Aurora Avenue in the Summit-University area.

Both men sustained non-life threatening injuries, Arcand said.