The weight is off Jesus Ferreira’s shoulders.

Ferreira scored his first goal as the member of the Seattle Sounders (7-4-5, 26 points) in a 1-0 midweek victory over San Diego FC and will look for more when they play host to Minnesota United (7-3-6, 27 points) on Sunday in an MLS match.

“I hope this goal starts him off in a good way,” Sounders coach Brian Schmetzer said. “We needed him to score, he needed to score to get some of the fans off his back. He’s done a lot of good things and scoring the winning goal, I told him afterward, it’s the first of many more goals for the Sounders.”

Ferreira, a U.S. international acquired in an offseason trade with FC Dallas, had five assists through his first 14 games but hadn’t found the back of the net until converting Wednesday.

“It was a lot of emotion, a lot of happiness, something left my body,” Ferreira said. “What I’m very happy about is the support that I’ve gotten from the team and from the coaches even when I was going through the spell of no goals.”

Albert Rusnak leads the Sounders with seven goals. Seattle is 6-1-2 over its past nine matches and unbeaten at home this season (5-0-2). The Sounders are 13-1-2 all-time against Minnesota.

The Loons are coming off a scoreless draw Wednesday at Western Conference-leading Vancouver and are unbeaten in four straight (2-0-2).

“I have said to the players at the end that if you’re coming to a place like (Vancouver) at the moment and you’re not going to win, don’t lose and don’t concede,” Minnesota coach Eric Ramsay said. “The way in which we saw the game out, the willingness, the discipline, energy, fight, all the words that characterize this team, you saw that.”

Tani Oluwaseyi leads the Loons with six goals to go along with five assists. Joaquin Pereyra is tied for second in the MLS with seven assists and has scored twice.

–Field Level Media