Saturday night in the Bay Area, Minnesota United had a flurry of goals for the first time in what feels like forever. Three first half goals and two more in the second half led the Loons to a 5–1 routing of San Jose Earthquakes. The win was Minnesota's first in the league since an early May win at Columbus Crew and exactly what the club needed as the final third of the season begins.
“It f***ing feels great. I mean, it feels really good. You know, it felt like a win was a long time coming," said manager Cameron Knowles "We had some performances that the result didn't quite match, and tonight the guys got their reward. I mean, I'm so pleased for them. They worked so hard to get back into it after going down early in another play and to just make a statement like that is remarkable.”
Goals have been hard to come by this season for the Loons, coming into Saturday nights match the club had only scored 23 goals on the season, on an expected goals (xG) of 30.8 in MLS play. Minnesota United's massive under performance in scoring has not been for the lack of chances, but rather the finishing ability and struggles from the strikers. Kelvin Yeboah had not scored since 16 May against New England and had been without a multi-goal performance since the Loons aforementioned win against Columbus Crew.
“They're really well taken. You look at all those goals, they're all really well taken," Knowles said about Yeboah's brace. "Guys in really good areas, some really good play that leads to them, but really well taken finishes and happy for all the guys who are able to contribute and the full squad to get the three points.”
Alongside Yeboah's performance Marcus Caldeira finally showed his scoring ability after getting close many times before. Caldeira has scored seemingly at will for MNUFC2 in MLS Next Pro with 10 goals in sixteen matches, but had not yet touched the back of the net in MLS play. Since debuting for the first team, the Canadian forward has garnered three assists, but Saturdays 77th minute goal was his first ever goal in MLS. Cameron Knowles spoke about Caldeira's goal and grit, saying;
“The guys are really happy for him in the locker room. He works so hard, obviously scored a lot of goals in MLS NEXT Pro and you knew it was just a matter of time with him and it was a really well taken finish.”
Minnesota's offence did a huge amount of work, but the defence did exactly what they needed to in order to win. Outside of the penalty kick goal both Timo Werner and Preston Judd, who make up a majority of the Quakes offence, were completely shut down. Werner and Judd had a few breakouts, but the Loons defence lead by Michael Boxall successfully backtracked to prevent the Earthquakes from getting a good chance at target.
“I thought it was excellent. I mean, again, made some really good saves. We still gave up a few chances in some of those bigger transition moments, but Drake [Callender] he was very, very solid for us in the saves he made," said Cameron Knowles. "The balls that come and gets off his line, the command he had of his box. So I thought he had a really good game and just the group overall, we're trying to be aggressive and that sometimes leads to moments where we are a little bit exposed in the back, but he came up big for us.”
Weirdly enough for not the first time in San Jose a baby made their way onto the pitch and into the Quakes defensive 18. One Loons supporter remarked that the "baby tracked back better than the Quakes did."
