Minnesota United coach Eric Ramsay knows his team has had good performances this season that weren’t rewarded with a victory. So he was not going to complain after a victory where he didn’t think the Loons performed particularly well.
Kelvin Yeboah scored on a pair of second-half penalty kicks and Minnesota United defeated St. Louis for the third time in as many meetings this season, coming from behind for a 2-1 victory on Saturday night at Energizer Park.
“There’s a real sense of satisfaction and happiness with the three points, because we’ve been in positions like that playing far better and not gotten over the line, and I can tell you, that is really not a nice feeling,” Ramsay said in his postgame news conference. “So to have not played well at all and come away in fairly difficult circumstances ... to come away with a win and three points, I’m very pleased.
“But I’ve said to the players, the performance is so far below the level that is acceptable, or that has come to be acceptable, that we’ll also go home with a sense of bitterness around that, for sure. We’ve got some real work to do.”
The Loons (12-5-8) ended a two-match winless streak with their road victory over St. Louis (4-14-6), 14th in the 15-team Western Conference.
Facing a St. Louis starting lineup that included the team debuts of recently traded Loons forward Sang Bin Jeong and on-loan-from-Minnesota Devin Padelford, the Loons fell behind in the first half after Michael Boxall — who earlier kept João Klauss from scoring thanks to a goal-line clearance — was called for taking down Tomas Ostrak in the box. Eduard Löwen converted the penalty in the 36th minute, beating Dayne St. Clair.
Jeong and Padelford were subbed out in the second half, and Chris Durkin, one of St. Louis’ replacements, was soon given a red card for pulling down Yeboah in the box after Yeboah had spun to get free following a pass from Anthony Markanich. Yeboah’s penalty kick in the 75th minute was true, tying the score at 1-1.
The Loons were awarded a second penalty kick in the 90th minute thanks to VAR, which determined that St. Louis defender Jaziel Orozco had used his left hand to deflect a cross from Bongokuhle Hlongwane. Again, Yeboah converted, and after 10 minutes of stoppage time, the Loons held on for the victory.
