Kevin Cabral scored his third career MLS goal and second in as many games to lift the Los Angeles Galaxy to a 1-0 victory over Minnesota United on Saturday at Saint Paul, Minn.
Jonathan Klinsmann made seven saves — several of them exceptional — to preserve the victory in his first start of the season for LA (11-6-2, 35 points), which moved at least momentarily into the top spot in the Western Conference with the win.
Kansas City (which plays later Saturday) and Seattle (which plays Sunday) began the day in first and second in the West.
Dejan Joveljic contributed the assist in his MLS debut for LA, which played its ninth consecutive game without Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez, the team scoring leader.
Hernandez (calf) has been upgraded to questionable on the team injury report but did not make the game-day roster.
Jan Gregus, Juan Agudelo and Emanuel Reynoso came closest to scoring for Minnesota (7-6-5, 26 points), which lost at home for the first time in eight matches, their last such defeat coming by the same score to Austin FC.
The Galaxy had the better of the opening hour and took the lead on a 43rd-minute counterattack when Joveljic took a ball near midfield, turned and threaded a pass to Cabral on the break for a simple finish past Tyler Miller.
Then shortly after the break, Cabral nearly had a second, but could not quite redirect Niko Hamalainen’s firmly struck cross on frame with an open goal in front of him.
Without that second goal, Klinsmann’s heroics took on added value as Minnesota began asserting control.
The son of former U.S. men’s national team coach Jurgen Klinsmann denied Gregus’ corner kick header in the 58th minute, pushing it onto his left post.
He pushed Agudelo’s effort from distance away from the top left corner in the 78th minute.
Then he made two more stops in second-half stoppage time, denying Reynoso’s free kick and adding an incredible reaction save of a shot that took a deflection on its way through traffic in the dying moments.
–Field Level Media