Minnesota United's attack has struggled for much of the 2026 season. Heading into last weeks match at San Jose the Loons had only scored 22 goals on the season, a lower output than 2025. However in the past two weeks the scoring has come to life and the Loons are now looking like a threatening team on the attack. One week ago on matchday twenty-one MNUFC put up five goals against San Jose. They continued that streak with a three goal match against an Orlando City side that has struggled with their defensive effort this season.
"I think especially in these last two games. There are a lot of positives. The amount of chances we create and now we are actually able to reward ourselves and put it into goals, said Morris Duggan. "It is the right time for that kind of release. Our guys are up there really confident right now. So we just have to do the job in the back and combine those two things and I think we can beat anyone in the league.”
Prior to last weekend in San Jose the Loons had only scored 22 matches on the season, but have since had a massive jump in scoring output. Even with the jump in scoring they are still set to come in lower than their total in 2025. Currently the Loons are on a trajectory for appx. 46 goals on the season, 15 lower than last season. The decline it mostly due to finishing issues MNUFC has had as the club ranked 8th (of 30) in expected goals and 10th in shots on target.
Another change is the fact only two players this season have more than three goals, whereas last season Minnesota finished with seven above that line. One thing that hasn't changed is set piece goals. 39.3% (24/61) of goals in 2025 were scored via set pieces compared to 36.7% (11/30) goals scored in 2026 via set pieces. Minnesota's biggest change is the loss of scoring from Tani Oluwaseyi late last year. But in the past few weeks Cameron Knowles have made a slight change to strategy, prioritising the attack more.
“We talked to the guys early on before the game, fast start, we wanted a fast start. And then to keep going. And certainly that’s where they got," said MNUFC manager Cameron Knowles. "10 shots, I think, to them one in the first half, and then another 10-11 shots again in the second half. Number of those inside the box, another game where we have a lot of high, high quality chances.”
Minnesota's change in style has benefited the team massively on the attack. Partially helped with the coming out party that Marcus Caldeira has had in the past few weeks. Caldeira has scored one goal in each of the previous two matches, adding to the assist he earned previously in MLS play. But the key players have been Joaquín Pereyra and Kelvin Yeboah. Pereyra has notched eight assists this season while Yeboah, who was on a scoring slump for a while, now is within distance of MNUFC's single season scoring record. Though Yeboah has downplayed that and how many goals the team has scored recently.
“For us, the most important thing, more than goals, is we want to win games. Whether it is 1-0 or 3-0, it doesn’t really matter," forward Kelvin Yeboah told the media. "For us at the moment we need to get those points to get to the playoffs and proceed in that sense. That’s the most important.”
One thing that will need to remain consistent is the Loons defence. If MNUFC starts scoring, but begins to struggle defensively, they very well could find themselves in the same position they are now. A great case of that is Orlando City, who's scoring is respectable, but porous defence has kept them down towards the bottom of the Eastern Conference playoff scene.
