Minnesota United head coach Eric Ramsay lamented tired legs from international players as part of the reason for the 2-0 road loss to Philadelphia Union last weekend.

Those players were in Minnesota all this week and could build up to Saturday’s match against Real Salt Lake at Allianz Field.

The Loons trailed 1-0 after the 24th minute but kept pushing until Robin Lod’s dribble created an opening for Tani Oluwaseyi to tap in for a 1-1 draw.

MNUFC (3-2-1, 11 points) bounces back from the Union loss, while RSL (3-2-2, 11 points) has a two-game winning spurt end.

Oluwaseyi has been a big bright spot for the Loons so far this season with an equalizing goal in the 1-1 draw with Columbus Crew on March 2 and two assissts vs. Austin and Orlando.

Salt Lake continually attacked the inexperienced left side of the Loons’ defense. Left back Joseph Rosales thwarted a few chances from winger Andres Gomes in the opening 24 minutes.

But Gomes, who was once a Minnesota transfer target, got a cross past Rosales and Chicho Arango headed it down and into the back of the net in the 25th minute.

Arango, who had a hat trick in a win over St. Louis last week, moved into a tie for the MLS lead with six goals this season.

RSL went back to that tactic to start the second half, but they weren’t clinical enough to double the lead.

The Loons’ attack struggled to string together attacks for most of the opening half hour, but started to find openings. Sang Bin Jeong had the Loons’ best chance of the first half in the 37th minute, but his hard shot went straight to goalkeeper Zac MacMath.

A bit of controversy came in the 67th minute when Jeong might have been pushed by RSL defender Brayan Vera inside the 18-yard box, but referee Mark Allatin didn’t blow his whistle for a penalty.

Fans at Allianz Field booed their disagreement.

The fans booed later when Joseph Rosales was booked for a second yellow card in the 89th minute and was sent off with a red card. The Honduran will miss next week’s game vs. Houston Dynamo.

Briefly

Starting central midfielder Hassani Dotson exited at halftime with hamstring tightness, with Alejandro Bran stepping in. A club spokesman said Dotson’s exit was precautionary. … The Loons’ Under-15 team went 0-3-0 in the GA (Generation Adidas) Cup in Bradenton, Fla., since March 30, but then went 3-0 in the consolation group with wins over Portland Timbers 2-0 and victories in penalty kicks over Manchester United and CF Montreal. … MNUFC’s U17 team went 1-1-1 in the GA Cup group stage and then lost 1-0 to LAFC in the Premier Playoff on Thursday. … Wil Trapp made his 300th MLS appearance Saturday, including 94 with MNUFC, 185 with Columbus Crew and 21 with Inter Miami. … Zarek Valentin was a special guest analyst on the KSTP-1500 AM radio broadcast while he works back from a leg injury. Valentin also multi-tasked, heading down to the locker room at halftime to help translate the coaching points for the Loons’ Spanish-speaking players.

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The Wild are running out of battery. And time.

Down to seven regular-season games remaining, and without two key forwards and a defenseman, Minnesota didn’t have enough juice to beat playoff-bound Winnipeg on Saturday, and the Wild’s 4-2 loss left them at the precipice of elimination in the Western Conference wild-card race.

Winnipeg got goals from four different players as the Jets swept the four-game season series between Central Division rivals to pull within five points of first-place Dallas. Kirill Kaprizov scored two game-tying goals for Minnesota, but the Wild could never manage a lead on the Jets.

Kaprizov’s goals were his 38th and 39th of the season, leaving the winger one shy of becoming the first player in franchise history with three consecutive 40-goal seasons.

Vladislav Namestikov, Kyle Connor, Brenden Dillion and Morgan Barron scored goals, and Connor Hellebuyck made 23 saves for the Jets. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 21 of 25 shots for the Wild.

Minnesota this week officially lost veteran wing Marcus Foligno to season-ending surgery to repair core muscles, and forward Ryan Hartman on Saturday was serving the third game of a three-game suspension he received Monday for throwing his stick on the ice after a 2-1 overtime loss to Vegas.

Defenseman Zach Bogosian missed his second game because of an undisclosed injury to his midsection.

Now with six regular-season games remaining, the next five of which will be played on the road starting Sunday in Chicago, the Wild are hanging by a thread in the race for the West’s two wild-card playoff spots.

Minnesota’s maximum possible point total is 93; seventh-place Vegas already has 92, and eighth-place Los Angeles already has 91 pending a late game Sunday against Vancouver.

The Wild had a Grade-A chance to tie the game in the second period when Matt Boldy had the puck on his stick between the circles, with an almost empty net in front of him. With Hellebuyck pulled to Boldy’s right, the Wild winger poked it wide right.

Minnesota coach John Hynes pulled Fleury with more than five minutes remaining, but Kaprizov was hit with a holding penalty at 14:56 to kill that plan and put the Wild’s penalty kill back on the ice.

Jets defenseman Dylan DeMelo was penalized for high sticking with 2:46 remaining, giving the Wild a 5-on-4. But the Wild couldn’t find the net, and Fleury was pulled again with 56 seconds left.

Marco Rossi had a strong shot on net from the right circle, but the Wild’s best chance to cut into the lead was blocked by Hellebuyck.

The Wild have lost two in a row and finished 2-2-2 on their longest homestand of the season, although they forfeited a point in loss to Vegas on March 30 after pulling the goaltender in overtime.

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When the Twins kicked off spring training, they expected the bullpen to be a major strength of their team. By the time they left Florida, however, their bullpen ranks had been decimated by injury.

Caleb Thielbar had suffered a hamstring strain that kept him off the mound all spring. Justin Topa was dealing with a knee issue that had plagued him for the past couple of years.  And perhaps most seriously, closer Jhoan Duran suffered an oblique strain while throwing warm-up pitches in Fort Myers, Fla.

But even without these relievers, all of whom the Twins were relying upon to be to be late-inning contributors, the bullpen has been an early-season strength. The group, which added three more scoreless innings on Saturday, boasted an MLB-best 0.98 earned-run average across 27 2/3 innings as of Saturday afternoon.

“Our bullpen has done a really nice job. I have to be very pleased with that,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “And it’s really everyone. A bunch of the guys have had two-inning appearances. The late-inning guys have done their jobs well. We’ll take it. I’ve been very pleased with that group, and we’re going to keep challenging them.”

That group could be getting reinforcements soon. Thielbar, who is eligible to come of the injured list next week, threw about 20 pitches in live batting practice to Austin Martin and Manuel Margotat Target Field before Saturday’s game.

His velocity was maybe a slight tick down — it was 10 a.m., he pointed out — but the movement was there, and his hamstring issue is no longer a concern.

“l’ve been good for a while now. Just need to get some work in, because I missed the whole spring,” Thielbar said. “I probably could have pitched on Opening Day. I wouldn’t have done that without throwing in a game at all. It’s just a matter of getting some work in.”

The likely next step for him is a trip to St. Paul, where he is expected to rehab next week as he gets ready to return.

Duran and Topa are further behind, though both have started playing catch and have been feeling good. The former said he has been playing catch from 105 feet, and the pain in his oblique that he felt has been gone for “a lot of days.” The latter said he began playing catch on Friday and his knee has responded well as he has been increasing his workload.

Topa said he first started battling knee pain a couple years ago, and while he said it was around much of last season, it was manageable and he never had to shut things down. While his knee felt good coming into camp, the patellar tendinitis started flaring up more and eventually, after plating his knee in a game, it “definitely got more cranky.”

“This is a little more than what I’m used to,” he said. “I took the initiative to get it looked at and … kind of get it out of the way now, and hopefully it doesn’t cause an issue down the stretch.”

Topa said he’d been throwing with plyoballs to keep his arm moving and he hoped to sit down in the next couple of days to get some more clarity on what his timeline might look like.

And while they’re all eager to return, the trio has seen their bullpen mates step up.

“It’s awesome. We’ve got a great group of guys,” Thielbar said. “(I’m) looking forward go getting back and helping out.”

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