Officially, Minnesota United FC lost its first decision as a Major League Soccer franchise on Sunday. But the club still felt as though it came away with a win.

The event: the MLS Priority Draft in New York. The competition: Atlanta United FC, the other club entering soccer’s top domestic league next March. The stakes: slotting within six roster-building categories in which actual player picks will be made later.

Atlanta won the opening coin toss, and club president Darren Eales chose to make the first selection in the December expansion draft, in which certain players on existing clubs are made available to the two expansion teams. Minnesota will pick second in that draft.

That gave the Loons the next choice, and they opted for the first pick in the MLS SuperDraft, a selection process in January for players coming out of colleges. Atlanta will pick second there.

United sporting director Manny Lagos appeared let down on the YouTube stream when the Loons’ logo on the commemorative coin didn’t land up. “You are disappointed because you want to win because you control your own destiny,” he said.

But although Minnesota lost the coin toss, “I think we as a club ended up getting the thing that we wanted most,” Lagos said of the top pick in the SuperDraft.

With the third pick, Atlanta took allocation ranking. The final first priorities: Minnesota took NASL/USL player priority ranking; Atlanta took waiver draft/re-entry draft ranking; and Minnesota was given discovery player ranking.

Ives Galarcep, senior writer for the soccer website goal.com, told the Pioneer Press that Minnesota edged Atlanta with its picks. “I think that works well for what they know,” Galarcep said.

Galarcep said the MLS SuperDraft has four top prospects:

— Bloomington native Jackson Yueill, a dynamic winger/forward who netted seven goals and distributed six assists with UCLA in 2015.

— Jeremy Ebobisse, a striker from Bethesda, Md., who had seven goals and four assists with Duke last season.

— Abu Danladi, a forward from Takoradi, Ghana, who posted six goals and a team-high 10 assists at UCLA in 2015.

— Miles Robinson, a center back from Arlington, Mass., who helped Syracuse to nine shutouts a year ago.

“With Yueill being the hometown kid, there might be some pressure there to take him,” Galarcep said. “I know Atlanta likes him. I don’t know if they can necessarily trade down to get him.”

Although Galarcep said he would “love” to be the team with the top pick, he doesn’t see any of the player options to be a lock like Cyle Larin was for expansion franchise Orlando City when they picked him first in the 2015 MLS SuperDraft. Larin set an MLS rookie record with 17 goals in 2015.

“It was pretty obvious he was the best talent in that draft,” Galarcep said.

Lagos said Minnesota United has been working on college scouting for a while and called the top SuperDraft pick “a huge asset.” He declined to comment on particular players or whether he would use the pick to make a trade.

The 2016 first pick in the SuperDraft, Jack Harrison, was traded from Chicago to New York City for the fourth pick and general allocation money.

“We know in the past that it’s added great value to clubs and the future of their franchises, so we’re excited,” Lagos said.

While the SuperDraft resembles collegiate drafts in other sports leagues, MLS has many mechanisms to build a roster. MLS is the most international of any U.S. sport, and youth players can come up through a club academy without going to college. Every club has the opportunity to sign up to three “designated players,” and that is often the designation for the high-salary stars.

United, which is a playoff race in the second-tier North American Soccer League this season, is expected to sign a few of its current players to MLS contracts.

The expansion draft had diminished returns when Orlando City and New York City participated with 10 picks apiece in 2015. In September, a total of five picks were still on their respective rosters, with only two playing significant minutes.

So MLS decided on Dec. 13 to slice the expansion draft in half for Atlanta and Minnesota. Lagos said he was involved in the decision-making process.

In the new format, the 20 current MLS clubs will be able to protect 11 players each, with other players made available to Minnesota and Atlanta. No MLS clubs will lose more than one player.

Former Orlando City manager Adrian Health said Sunday’s event is the first day supporters “get really excited” about building a club.

Lagos agreed. “It’s something that all fans of Minnesota should be proud of,” he said. “We are excited that that is part of our kickoff to the MLS transition.”