Stuck on three: Minnesota United's Luis Amarilla looks to get scoring again

Three is a long way from 25, unless you're Minnesota United coach Adrian Heath doing the counting and the analyzing.

That 25 is the number of goals striker Luis Amarilla promised his new coach he would score this season when he arrived in Minnesota in February after leading the Ecuadorian league in goals last season.

A four-month pandemic pause and a bothersome injury last month have disrupted Amarilla's season, in which he has scored three goals in nine MLS league and tournament games. Two of them came in the regular season's first two games in March.

He walked off the field just before his team's MLS is Back Tournament opener on July 12 after he "tweaked" his hip abductor muscle in pregame warmups, Heath said. He was a late scratch from the lineup that night. Five days later, he was a second-half substitute in the 65th minute in the Loons' second game in Orlando.

Amarilla's only goal since then came in a 4-1 tournament quarterfinal. He made a 40-yard run with the ball down the left wing before he flicked a left-footed shot from just outside the 6-yard box past the San Jose goalkeeper in the 56th minute that regained a two-goal lead.

Heath said he didn't "want to make too much of a thing of it" when asked if that injury has put Amarilla back these past six weeks.

"It's not like he's struggling,'' Heath said Thursday in a video conference call with reporters. "We know we've got a goal scorer on our hands."

Amarilla said his injury left him less than fully healthy in the ensuing games after he missed the game against Sporting Kansas City. But he said he has trained and played his way through it.

"You work constantly because things can change as time goes," Amarilla said in a translated interview conducted by a team employee and provided to media. "I know that it can take some time to get going again. I had an injury and hadn't been playing at 100 percent."

Heath noted that his team needs to get Amarilla more involved in the run of play and create more space for him to work. Perhaps adding another creative, gifted South American player will help.

Attacking midfielder Emanuel Reynoso has been training alone while he quarantines after he arrived in Minnesota from Argentina last Saturday.

Amarilla turned 25 on Tuesday and is from Paraguay. Reynoso turned 24 in November and is from Argentina.

Reynoso, who has not been officially introduced by the team, could play as soon as Wednesday's game at Houston. That will be back in Texas after the Loons play at Dallas on Saturday in their second regular-season game back from that four-month season suspension.

The Loons lost 2-1 to Sporting Kansas City at Allianz Field in their first game back last Friday.

"I don't think he had an incredible amount of good service," Heath said of Amarilla in that loss, only his team's second regular-season loss at Allianz Field. "We needed to get people closer to him. We've got to get more bodies in and around him. We need more people in their half of the field and give him more space to work in and not leave him isolated."

Meanwhile, Amarilla trains and waits for that next goal, No. 4 on toward 25.

"Work to always improve," Amarilla said. "Looking for that goal to kick things off because that's the most important piece."

Heath calls Amarilla a goal scorer, and you know what those guys do.

"I know if we can continue to make entries in the [field's] final third and put the ball in good spots, he's going to score goals," Heath said.