After games against Minnesota United, opposing Major League Soccer coaches and their staffs slip into a room within TCF Bank Stadium and talk shop with their counterparts.

Usually, Loons coach Adrian Heath shares how the team is navigating its first MLS season, and foes praise United midfielder Ibson. “He has made a big impression this year — not just on me, but a lot of coaches around this league,” Heath said.

The Brazilian who goes by one name has made the jump with United from the lower-level North American Soccer League in 2015-16 and became an MLS leader.

As United’s main conduit, Ibson ranks third in the league in “touch percentage,” or the amount of time he makes contact with the ball compared to teammates, according to American Soccer Analysis. His 13 percent mark is behind only Toronto’s Michael Bradley, captain of the U.S. national team, and Chicago’s Bastian Schweinsteiger, a German national team member who has played for Bayern Munich and Manchester United.

Ibson also ranks sixth in MLS in passes per game (68.2), per American Soccer Analysis, and 36th in completed pass percentage (85.8), according to whoscored.com. He also is near the league lead in tackles and fouls won, according to those two advanced stat trackers.

“Definitely a surprise,” said American Soccer Analysis editor Drew Olsen.

United (8-15-5) plays host to FC Dallas (9-8-11) in the penultimate home game this season at 7 p.m. Saturday at TCF Bank Stadium.

“(I’m) happy about it,” Ibson, 33, said through a Portuguese translator. “This is just a recognition of (my) work, and it gives more motivation.”

Ibson, who has played in the EUFA Champions League with teams in Portugal and Russia, “exudes enthusiasm every single morning to want to play football,” Heath said. “He has a joy out of playing football that I think very few people do.”

Heath points to Ibson as a role model for young players. He relies on Ibson on the field because of his confidence controlling the ball. His on-the-ball skills can create plays such as his assist on Christian Ramirez’s tying goal in last week’s 3-2 win over Montreal, but he also has a propensity to try and do too much.

“The most important thing is he has curbed some of his natural instincts because of the way we try to set the team up,” Heath said. “Sometimes he will give it to people and I will go, ‘Oh, my God. Here we go.’ (More often) you think he’s going to wiggle his way out, and he’s going to draw a foul.”

After being limited to 23 of 32 games because of a knee injury last season, Ibson has been a mainstay in Heath’s lineups since late April. In Minnesota’s previous 21 games, he has played 1,860 of a possible 1,890 minutes, including all 270 minutes in three games over eight days last week.

“He’s got an extra bite in him,” Ramirez said. “He wanted to prove himself again this year because it’s the first division in the (U.S.)”