If a Gordie Howe hat trick is a goal, an assist, and a fight, then perhaps Minnesota United center back Kervin Arriaga invented a triplet of his own this week.
Arriaga scored a goal in the Loons’ 2-1 victory at Atlanta on Saturday night. He earned a yellow card, for screaming at the referee after a foul call, deep into injury time. All this after he became a father for the second time Wednesday.
Call it the Grumpy Dad hat trick.
“He’s just trying to catch up on sleep,” defender DJ Taylor said. “We’ve been teasing [Joseph Rosales, Arriaga’s road roommate] about letting him get some sleep at the hotel, yesterday and today.”
Given what was presumably his first decent night of sleep this week, Arriaga’s dad power got the Loons on the board first in the second half. Six minutes later, Tani Oluwaseyi doubled the lead for the Loons, and Minnesota United withstood a furious late rally by Atlanta, holding on to claim the squad’s third consecutive victory, one that briefly put them on top of the Western Conference standings.
The Loons have earned 20 points through 10 games this season, the best start in club history.
Through the first 75 minutes, Minnesota ran its road-game plan to perfection: Stay compact on defense, get the ball down the field quickly on the counterattack, keep the other team off the scoreboard — and try to find a goal from a set piece or an opposition mistake.
Arriaga’s goal came from a corner kick, the third week in a row that Minnesota has scored from a corner. “There’s a reasonable level of detail to each of those goals that we’ve scored, but you can’t look past a very good delivery,” said Loons coach Eric Ramsay, giving credit to Rosales for an out-swinging ball.