Dejan Joveljic and Manu Garcia scored goals as host Sporting Kansas City won just its second home match of the season, 2-1 over Minnesota United on Wednesday night in Kansas City, Kan.
Stefan Cleveland made nine saves for Kansas City (4-10-2, 14 points), which snapped a five-match winless streak (0-4-1) against the Loons.
Devin Padelford scored for Minnesota United (6-6-4, 22 points), who saw their winless streak extended to five matches (0-3-2). Drake Callender finished with five saves for the Loons.
Minnesota had a trio of good scoring chances in the first 15 minutes but came up empty-handed. Forward Kelvin Yeboah had two of them, a header in the center of the box that Cleveland saved, and then a right-footed shot from the middle of the box that caromed off the far-left post. Cleveland also made a diving save on a Morris Duggan left-footed blast from outside the box by the bottom right post.
Joveljic then gave SKC a 1-0 lead in the 28th minute with a right-footed shot from the top of the 6-yard box off a Capita pass from the bottom right side of the box for his eighth goal.
Garcia made it 2-0 in the 54th minute with his second goal, a right-footed shot from the top of the box that curled inside the near right post off a Jake Davis tap-back pass.
An unmarked Padelford cut the lead to 2-1 in the 75th minute when he headed in a Joaquin Pereyra corner kick inside the far back post for his first goal.
The Loons nearly tied it in the 90th minute when defender Anthony Markanich attempted a spinning left-footed shot from the top center of the box that sailed just wide of the left post.
Minnesota United, who have scored just 19 goals in 16 matches, finished with a 66-34 edge in time of possession and had 500 accurate passes compared to 235 for SKC.
–Field Level Media
