In front of a sold-out crowd at Allianz Field on Saturday night, both of Minnesota United's goals in a physical match against San Jose came from bench players. In a 2-2 draw with the Earthquakes, substitutes Brent Kallman and Ramon Abila found the net to extend the Loons' unbeaten streak to seven games despite a slow offensive start.
Loons coach Adrian Heath called it a "frustrating evening."
"We put ourselves in the hole that we were in," Heath said. "We've had to use too much energy from the crowd to get ourselves back in it, to get to 2-1. And then in the end, we ran out of that emotion."
San Jose (3-7-2) got on the board first when Cristian Espinoza took the ball off Loons defender Bakaye Dibassy and found 17-year-old Cade Cowell across the box. Cowell delivered a strike to put the Quakes up 1-0 in the 15th minute.
Kallman's goal came in stoppage time at the end of the first half. He came in at center back after Loons captain Michael Boxall left in the 29th minute with an apparent groin injury. Heath said Boxall will have an MRI Sunday to determine the severity.
Franco Fragapane attempted a bicycle kick off a corner from Emanuel Reynoso, but the ball bounced off Kallman, whose tight shot found the back right corner of the net for the tying goal. It was Kallman's first goal of the year.
"I wasn't really expecting it to come right at me, and I took a horrible touch," Kallman said. "I just wrapped my hips as much as I could to try to get it on the target and it went in. It was a strange goal."
Minnesota (4-4-3) got off to a better attacking start in the second half, finding three opportunities in the opening minutes, but all ended in near-misses.