Drought-afflicted Minnesota United and Kelvin Yeboah really needed that performance Saturday night at PayPal Park.
And when it rained, it poured in San Jose, Calif.
The Loons’ scuffling striker scored two goals — his first tallies across eight matches — and floundering MNUFC beat the Earthquakes 5-1 for the club’s first win in nine straight MLS games.
“It (expletive) feels great,” head coach Cameron Knowles said. “We felt like a win was a long time coming. We had some performances that the result didn’t quite match and (Saturday) the guys got their reward.”
Yeboah had dropped out of the starting lineup in the last three MLS matches and was riding a goalless lull of more than 362 minutes across eight matches in all competitions since May 16.
Searching for answers, Knowles started Marcus Caldeira and Yeboah together up top, a formation Minnesota rekindled from earlier this season.
“I thought the front two were good,” Knowles said postgame. “They both were physically imposing, the way we were able to press out of it, against the ball was good as well. They did a good job.”
The San Jose (10-8-3, 33 points) defense continues to be an Achilles heel, with 13 goals allowed in its winless lull of five matches (2.6 per match).
MNUFC (7-7-7, 28 points) had an especially hard week, with a loss to last-place Atlanta United in its 10-year anniversary match on Wednesday and then Chief Soccer Officer Khaled El-Ahmad left for Austin FC in news that broke Thursday.
It looked to be compounding early in California on Saturday. The Loons conceded a penalty to Timo Werner after Jefferson Diaz’s hand ball led to a PK in the third minute.
But MNUFC scored four unanswered goals to cruise to victory.
In the 10th minute, Pereyra tied the game with a Rabona goal, where one leg goes behind the other and and strikes the ball. Yeboah’s goals were stacked together in the 40th and 44th minutes; Caldeira the scored his first MLS goal in the 65th; and Mauricio Gonzalez added another in the 86th minute.