Substitute Emiro Garces scored his first professional league goal in the 90th minute and the visiting LA Galaxy twice rallied from a goal down to earn a 2-2 draw against Minnesota United on Saturday.
Garces’ goal came only three minutes after Kelvin Yeboah scored from the penalty spot for his fourth of the season and second of the afternoon for Minnesota (2-1-2, 8 points).
Christian Ramirez also scored against his former team for the MLS Cup defending champion Galaxy (0-3-2, 2 points), who earned a second consecutive away draw following three consecutive losses to open their regular season.
Yeboah’s brace came while Minnesota United were missing Tani Oluwaseyi to international duty.
Oluwaseyi scored twice last weekend in last weekend’s 3-3 draw at Sporting Kansas City, in which Minnesota gave back a 3-0 second-half lead.
This contest looked destined for far fewer goals until the sequence that led to Minnesota’s go-ahead penalty.
Joseph Rosales’ shot from near the right corner of the penalty area looked to be well off target, but it struck the raised arm of defender Maya Yoshida, immediately prompting appeals from Minnesota players.
Referee Chris Penso awarded a penalty following a video review. Yeboah drilled his finish into the bottom right corner for his 11th goal in 14 appearances since joining the club during the MLS secondary transfer window.
But Garces leveled with his first tally in six pro seasons across MLS and Colombia. After Minnesota failed to clear a corner kick, Miguel Berry poked the ball back toward the penalty area, where Garces met it with a low finish through traffic past goalkeeper Alec Smir.
Yeboah opened the scoring in the 19th minute when he popped up to send in a rebound following a handling mistake from goalkeeper John McCarthy.
Ramirez, who was one of the players on Minnesota’s first MLS roster in 2017, leveled seven minutes later on a tally set up by Gabriel Pec and Miki Yamane.
-Field Level Media
