T&T in­ter­na­tion­al Kevin Moli­no scored a brace and Cana­da-born T&T goal­keep­er Dayne St Clair kept a clean sheet as Min­neso­ta Unit­ed FC se­cured their first Au­di MLS Cup Play­offs win in club his­to­ry, con­vinc­ing­ly knock­ing off the vis­it­ing Col­orado Rapids 3-0 Sun­day night in Round One to book a spot in the West­ern Con­fer­ence Semi­fi­nals.

The 30-year-old Care­nage-born Moli­no’s first goal came in the 22nd minute when the at­tack­ing mid­field­er sent a low, left-foot­ed shot past Rapids goal­keep­er William Yarbrough. Emanuel Reynoso was fouled in the buildup, but the ref­er­ee played the ad­van­tage and Min­neso­ta cap­i­talised for a 1-0 lead.

The Loons then made it 2-0 in the 54th minute through Robin Lod, who col­lect­ed a Reynoso through ball and curled a left-foot­er per­fect­ly in­to the far cor­ner. Lod pa­tient­ly set up Col­orado’s Dan­ny Wil­son atop the 18-yard box, then made no mis­take with the del­i­cate fin­ish.

Moli­no got his brace in the 79th minute, his 11th goal of the sea­son, col­lect­ing a de­fence-split­ting pass from Jan Gre­gus be­fore dink­ing his fin­ish over Yarbrough to put the game out of reach at 3-0.

Col­orado gen­er­at­ed sev­er­al qual­i­ty chances, but couldn’t get one past Min­neso­ta goal­keep­er St Clair in their first play­off ap­pear­ance since 2016. Loons’ cen­tre back Bakaye Dibassy blocked a Cole Bas­sett ef­fort from close range in the 48th minute and Gre­gus de­nied Nico­las Benezet a tap-in at the 52-minute mark with a last-ditch, goal-line tack­le.

The score­line could’ve been more lop­sided, though Reynoso hit the post in the 31st minute, the Ar­gen­tine gath­ered Lod’s lay­off, then couldn’t fin­ish in­to the open net.

Tonight (No­vem­ber 24), Moli­no's close friend and fel­low Care­nage-res­i­dent, Jo­evin Jones and de­fend­ing cham­pi­ons Seat­tle Sounders will start their ti­tle de­fence with a block­buster Round One show­down with LAFC at Lu­men Field, a year af­ter both teams met in the West­ern Con­fer­ence Fi­nal.

The two MLS heavy­weights have met three times in the reg­u­lar sea­son in 2020, with Seat­tle win­ning both match­es at home and LAFC tak­ing the lone matchup at the Banc of Cal­i­for­nia Sta­di­um.

The teams al­so met in the Round of 16 at the MLS is Back Tour­na­ment when LAFC were the em­phat­ic 4-1 vic­tor.

Last year, the Sounders booked a tick­et to MLS Cup for the third time in four years with a 3-1 win in the West­ern Con­fer­ence Fi­nal at Banc of Cal­i­for­nia Sta­di­um.