Minnesota United humiliates San Jose Earthquakes with 5-1 rout in MLS

The penalty Timo Werner converted in the 3rd minute lasted exactly six minutes as a lead. What looked like a quiet afternoon for the San Jose Earthquakes at PayPal Park ended up as a rout in reverse: Minnesota United FC won 5-1, with four of its goals arriving between first-half stoppage time and the second half, a dismantling nobody saw coming to this extent.

The match, part of MLS play, kicked off with Jefferson Diaz committing a handball penalty inside the box just two minutes in. Werner made no mistake from the spot to make it 1-0. But Minnesota answered almost immediately: in the 9th minute, Joaquin Pereyra leveled things after an assist from Anthony Markanich, and that's when the party got started for the visiting side, one that only kept growing.

Yeboah's one two punch and the knockout blow

San Jose's first half fell apart in the closing stretch. In the 39th minute, Kelvin Yeboah pounced on a counterattack set up by Kyle Duncan to make it 1-2, and four minutes later, in the 43rd, Yeboah struck again, this time assisted by Owen Gene, for the 1-3 scoreline at halftime. Two goals in four minutes that completely flipped the complexion of the match.

In the second half, San Jose tried to respond (Ousseni Bouda had a couple of chances, and Timo Werner had to be subbed off with an injury in the 56th minute) but Minnesota kept striking. Marcus Caldeira, once again set up by Kyle Duncan, made it 1-4 in the 64th minute, and late on, in the 85th, Mauricio Gonzalez headed home off a corner kick, crossed in by Pereyra, for the final 1-5.

The numbers behind the result

Possession and passing clearly favored the San Jose Earthquakes, who controlled the ball without turning it into goals. Minnesota, on the other hand, was far more clinical in the areas that matter most.

That gap in big chances, one for the home side against five for the visitors, goes a long way toward explaining why the scoreline ended up so lopsided despite the even shot count. Our estimate of xG generated in the match (calculated after the fact based on shot location) puts the figure at 1.896 for San Jose and 2.227 for Minnesota, a gap that falls well short of the visitors' five actual goals, a sign that Minnesota was especially clinical in front of goal.

What the preview said

The projection published before kickoff gave the San Jose Earthquakes a 44% chance of winning, against 29% for Minnesota United and 27% for a draw, with expected goals of 1.69 for the home side and 1.35 for the visitors. Reality turned out to be radically different: Minnesota not only won, it did so by a four-goal margin that none of the three scenarios had accounted for at that scale.

What the result means in the standings

In the Western Conference, San Jose Earthquakes came into the match in fourth place with 33 points from 21 games (10 wins, 3 draws and 8 losses), while Minnesota United sat in tenth with 28 points also from 21 games (7 wins, 7 draws and 7 losses), a 5-point gap between the two sides heading into the match. The rout doesn't change the overall picture in the standings all that much, but for Minnesota it's a jolt of confidence that stands in sharp contrast to an otherwise modest season so far, while for San Jose it goes down as an afternoon to forget on home turf, a dream start that slipped through its fingers in barely 45 minutes.