Minnesota United knew full well Christian Benteke was the most dangerous man for D.C. United on Wednesday.

But the Loons couldn’t even slow down the 6-foot-3 striker who contributed to all three of his team’s goals in the Loons’ 3-2 loss at Allianz Field.

MNUFC took a 2-1 lead in the 80th minute, but Benteke assisted on Aaron Herrera’s equalizer in the 90th minute and scored the game-winner in the 91st minute.

Benteke, who had 14 goals coming into Wednesday, scored the first goal in the 15th minute.

Until stoppage time, the story was about how Tani Oluwaseyi returned from duty with the Canadian men’s national team to score an equalizing goal in the 32nd minute. And Teemu Pukki gave the Loons a 2-1 lead in the 80hh minute.

Oluwaseyi proclaimed he returned to Minnesota United “a better player” after debuting with the Canadian men’s national team and playing 136 minutes in the Copa America tournament over the past six weeks.

But that blossoming had come at the expense of MNUFC (8-10-6, 30 points), which wilted in an eight-game winless streak without internationals such as Oluwaseyi, their leading scorer in MLS play.

The Loons’ losing streak, which started June 1, reached nine matches, while D.C. (6-11-8, 25 points) won consecutive games for the first time since April 2023.

The Loons gave D.C. a 1-0 lead in the 15th minute. Caden Clark had a brutal giveaway pass in the attacking third, allowing D.C. to spring a counterattack. Hassani Dotson and Bongi Hlongwane couldn’t intervene, and Benteke scored.

The Loons welcomed back Oluwaseyi and goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair after they played for Canada in Copa America’s third-place game Saturday, and head coach Eric Ramsay inserted them into the starting lineup Wednesday. The two key players missed all eight games of the winless skid.

Briefly

Loons captain center back Michael Boxall received a yellow card in the second half of Wednesday’s match and will be suspended for Saturday’s match against San Jose in St. Paul due to yellow-card accumulation. … The Loons granted a Make-A-Wish to 7-year-old Carter Lucero on Wednesday. The kid from Tucson, Ariz., was an honorary starter and scored the opening goal.

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