Sporting Kansas City nets rare home win against Minnesota United

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