Analysis: Minnesota United striker Kelvin Yeboah scores goals, brings needed edge

Minnesota United striker Kelvin Yeboah has brought a lot to the team in the five games since his arrival. Goals, absolutely; the Italian already has scored five. Energy, definitely; Yeboah has started every game, played 90 minutes in four of them, and manager Eric Ramsay has lauded him even more for his defensive effort than for his scoring.

But there’s something else that Yeboah brings, and will have a chance to display again on Saturday, when the Loons host the Colorado Rapids. In hockey, we’d probably call it “sandpaper.” In baseball, maybe just the term “grit” would suffice.

For Minnesotans? Well, we’d probably just call it “interesting.”

“We felt like this is a guy that trains with real conviction. He’s probably going to be quite willing to upset the apple cart, and we’ve felt that ever since he’s been here,” said Ramsay, referring to his impressions from a dinner he had with Yeboah, before the 24-year-old’s official arrival. “He’s a guy that wants to come here and wants to get better, and he wants the group to operate in a certain way — and I think we, to be honest, haven’t had a lot of that over the course of this season.”

It’s unclear whether Ramsay, who of course is still in his first few months in Minnesota as well, understood how this sort of statement might land with the famously conflict-averse, passive-aggressive people of the Upper Midwest. Upsetting the apple cart? Speaking up, perhaps even (gasp) out of turn?

It’s not the Minnesota way, but it’s something the Loons might need.

“He’s prompted some really good discussion,” said Ramsay. “Obviously not everyone is going to always see things in the way that he sees things. But I think in that sense he’s a very typical number nine [striker] with a big sense of self, a big sense of self-importance, very comfortable taking center stage.

“It’s not in a really abrasive, disruptive way, but it’s a healthy challenge, and I think we’ve needed that as a group.”

In terms of leadership, it’s a different style — and not just different in the Minnesotan “well, that’s sure different” way, either. The Loons have indeed been a little short on big voices in the team.

Everyone at the club looks up to captain Michael Boxall, but he’s invariably described as a leader by example. Wil Trapp, the captain for most of 2022 and 2023, is a servant leader — the guy who helps new guys get settled, who brings the team together. You can imagine him keeping a calendar to remind everyone to get the oil changed and their tires rotated on their cars.

In terms of vocal leadership, though, even Boxall has referred to the group as a “quiet” group. Yeboah, on the other hand, isn’t shy. It’s not every player who would have come into a new team and, 24 minutes into his very first game, grabbed the ball and demanded to take a penalty kick when the Loons were awarded one. But Yeboah did, and he has continued to put himself in the spotlight, converting three out of three penalty chances so far.

Yeboah admits that he hates to lose — on Saturday evenings, sure, but even in training. “As a football player, you must have that edge of competitiveness because that’s what helps for growth and to get better — and whatever you practice is how you play,” said Yeboah. “I think even now we are [much, much] more competitive as more players come in … so everybody is not, let’s say, so safe and so relaxed in their position.”

Internally, the club has believed all season that they are good enough to compete with the best in MLS. On the field, though, it hasn’t always worked out; Minnesota is 6-0-0 against the bottom three teams in the Western Conference, but 3-9-5 against the other 10.

Maybe what they needed all along is that vocal boost, and someone to lead from the front of the attack, both on offense and defense. With four more games against the West, and only one more against that bottom three, Yeboah’s voice — and goals — may be big keys to the Loons playoff push.