Minnesota United waited almost eight years to get a regular-season win at Sporting Kansas City.

What’s another couple of hours to wait?

The Loons had to sit through a near-two-hour weather delay due to thunderstorms that hit Children’s Mercy Park at halftime. They had to survive Sporting Kansas City thundering a penalty off the crossbar in the final minute of the game. But when the sky cleared, they’d done something the franchise had never done before: take all three points in Kansas City.

A second-half goal from Kelvin Yeboah, plus an insurance goal in stoppage time from Bongokuhle Hlongwane, gave the Loons a 2-0 win.

“We weren’t in any way dominant in the game,” said manager Eric Ramsay. “But what you saw at the end was a group of players that are desperate to put the points on the board that are required to do what we want to do this year. And I think it’s another big step forward — albeit in a different way to the way in which I would have liked it to be a step forward.”

Minnesota came into the game with an 0-9-0 record in Kansas during the regular season, though MNUFC did win a playoff game in 2020, a memorable 3-0 victory.

Minnesota knocked SKC out of the playoff race.

Against Sporting KC, St. Louis City, and San Jose, the bottom three teams in the Western Conference, the Loons are a perfect 6-0-0 this year; against the other ten teams in the West, Minnesota is 3-9-5.

The win gave Minnesota a seventh road victory this season, a club record, and a third win in four. It also helped them keep pace in the Western Conference playoff race; the Loons are five points ahead of FC Dallas for the final playoff spot, with four games to play, and trail the Portland Timbers for eighth place — and the right to host the wild-card game — by only two points.