Minnesota United are hoping to throw a Pukki Party on Saturday night when they host defending MLS Cup champion Los Angeles FC in Saint Paul, Minn.
Striker Teemu Pukki, who starred in the English Premier League and EFL Championship for Norwich City, is expected to make his first home start for the Loons (7-8-6, 27 points) who are one point below the playoff line in the Western Conference.
Pukki made his Allianz Field debut a week ago as a substitute after just one day of practice and played 34 minutes in a 4-1 loss to Austin FC. The Finnish national made his first start and scored his first MLS goal for Minnesota on Wednesday night in a 3-0 victory at Houston.
Pukki scored on a breakaway in the 20th minute thanks to a nice through pass between two defenders by midfielder Emanuel Reynoso.
“Good players like playing with good players,” Loons coach Adrian Heath said of the hookup between Pukki and 2022 All-Star Reynoso. “(Pukki’s) made a career of this and now he’s playing with somebody who’s arguably as good as anybody with the final ball.”
Dayne St. Clair, back from international Gold Cup duty with Canada, finished with six saves to garner his sixth clean sheet. Houston finished with a 24-8 advantage in shot attempts.
“We didn’t beat ourselves,” St. Clair said. “We didn’t really give them any opportunities from our giveaways or things like that (which) have kind of hurt us in the past.”
Los Angeles FC (10-6-6, 36 points) are also coming in off a 3-0 victory on Wednesday. Behind a goal and an assist from Carlos Vela, LAFC ended a 0-3-1 run with a shutout of Western Conference-leading St. Louis City.
LAFC, who didn’t have a shot on goal in the first 70 minutes, closed to within two points of first place with the victory.
Vela, the 2019 MLS MVP and Golden Boot winner who has seven goals and six assists this season, opened the scoring in the 72nd minute. Stipe Biuk made it 2-0 in the 82nd minute and Jose Cifuentes added a third goal in stoppage time.
“We’re coming. We’re LAFC,” midfielder Kellyn Acosta said. “This game, it took a lot of hard work. We see the scoreline say 3-0, and it’s a sexy scoreline, but it took a lot of work to get to that point.”
–Field Level Media