Kelvin Yeboah converted from the spot twice in the final 15 minutes, lifting visiting Minnesota United to a 2-1 win over St. Louis City SC on Saturday night.
The game-winner occurred after a video review detected a hand ball in the penalty area against St. Louis City’s Jaziel Orozco. Yeboah stutter-stepped to the spot and finished clinically into the upper-right corner for his ninth goal of the year.
Yeboah equalized the score in the 75th minute via a strong move into the penalty area, forcing Chris Durkin to grab him from behind. Referee Victor Rivas pointed to the spot and showed Durkin the red card. Yeboah finished with a right-footed shot into the left corner as goalkeeper Roman Burki was frozen to his spot at the middle of the goal line.
The goals allowed Minnesota (12-5-8, 44 points) to earn three points after trailing in a game for just the third time this season and jumped the club over Vancouver for second in the West standings, pending the outcome of the Whitecaps’ match Saturday night with Sporting Kansas City.
It was a bitter outcome for St. Louis (4-14-6, 18 points), which controlled play for most of the game but still couldn’t finalize a result. It created its ninth corner of the night in the eighth minute of second-half stoppage time, even bringing Burki up on the set piece. But Cedric Teuchert’s well-struck shot from outside the box was covered by goalie Dayne St. Clair for his third save of the night.
St. Louis created excellent chances throughout a first half that saw it outshoot Minnesota 9-1. Jeong Sang-Bin, acquired earlier this week from Minnesota, nearly scored in the 17th minute after a great long ball from Eduard Lowen but just slid his shot left of frame.
The home side finally got on the board in the 36th minute. Tomas Ostrak was contacted in the box by Michael Boxall and tumbled to the turf. Referee Rivas pointed to the spot and Lowen cashed in for the first goal.
St. Louis ended the match with a 15-8 advantage in shots and 5-4 edge in shots on goal.
–Field Level Media
