New Minnesota United forward Kelvin Yeboah and head coach Eric Ramsay shared dinner at Bar la Grassa one night earlier this summer. Over Italian dishes at the popular Minneapolis restaurant, a first glimpse was revealed into what the Loons have in Yeboah.

“I want to do a lot of extra shootings” in training sessions, Yeboah joked in his recollection on Tuesday. While the 24-year-old Italian/Ghanian wouldn’t mind those drills to wrap up practices, there was a deeper element to the conversation.

“You felt like this is a guy that trains with real conviction and is probably going to be quite willing to upset the apple cart,” Ramsay said.

While Yeboah talked, his brother gave signs of affirmation from across the table. Ramsay picked up on that, too.

Meanwhile, Loons assistant coach and fellow dinner companion Dennis Lawrence saw a “very focused” newcomer, including Yeboah’s meticulousness on what entree to order. “Somebody with a really competitive spirit who wants to win,” Lawrence said.  “And I think if you look at his performances, that’s the way he plays.”

Lawrence pointed to Yeboah’s stint in Italy’s Serie A for a high level of competitiveness he’s already experienced. His returns have been immediate in MLS.

Yeboah has scored three goals — two on penalty kicks — and one of his passes Saturday into the 6-yard box contributed to a St. Louis own goal across his 256 minutes played in three matches. It has helped the Loons win two straight games for the first time since May. The Loons look to make it three in a row Wednesday versus FC Cincinnati at Allianz Field.

After bouncing around Europe as a loaned player in recent years, Yeboah has a 3 1/2-year contract with Minnesota through the 2027 season and a club option for 2028. With more investment made in him, he is looking to leave a stamp on MNUFC.

Before he signed his contract in July and had the nice dinner out, Ramsay and Yeboah talked over the phone. Yeboah expressed a desire for Ramsay to push him on his weakness and areas for him to develop as a player.

“He wants it to operate in a certain way,” Ramsay said. “To be honest, we haven’t had a lot of that over the course of this season, someone who is very willing to push and upset and to speak up. He’s prompted some really good discussions.

“Not everyone is going to always see things in the way he sees things, but in that sense he’s a very sort of typical No. 9 (center forward) with a big sense of self-importance, very comfortable taking center stage as you’ve seen in each of the games he’s played so far. I think that also applies to how he trains.”

Ramsay called it a “desperation” for Yeboah to win practice drills and small-sided games. He also received some words of encouragement from vice captain Wil Trapp when players were called to sprint and the repetitions became dogged during a training session last week.

“I think I got the impression from both him and his brother, he’s probably found himself in a few scrapes and whatnot in his past at various clubs,” Ramsay said. “And we’ve seen the real plus side of that so far.”

Yeboah has focused on finding a partnership with Bongi Hlongwane, who has scored three goals in the last two games, and Yeboah was speaking what he called a mangled combination of Italian and Spanish with Argentine midfielder Joaquin Pereyra after training Tuesday.

When Yeboah has scored for the Loons, his celebration has been to mimic drinking out of a cup. It started when one of Yeboah’s friends wasn’t able to come to a match due to a loss in his family.

“He loves espresso macchiato,” Yeboah explained. “He also grew up playing in Italy. So we always had the conversation about espresso macchiato, so I dedicated the celebration to him. Then everybody started loving it, so I made it mine.”

Twice Yeboah has been able to bust it out due, in part, to a penalty kick run-up that includes a hesitation before the goalkeeper commits to a side and Yeboah strikes the ball.

“It’s a rhythm,” Yeboah described. “It’s like a beat, you know? So for the goalkeeper, once you switch up the beat, it’s something very difficult for them to read on that. Where if you go straight away and shoot, it’s a 50-50, while I think I have the edge when I do that, because it gives me that 1 percent where I can see the goalkeeper more (while) he thinks (of what) he might do. I might switch it up, since I told you this.”

His competitive side rears again.

By COLLEEN SLEVIN

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — The father of a mentally ill man who killed 10 people at a Colorado supermarket testified Tuesday at his murder trial that he thought his son may have been possessed by an evil spirit before the attack.

Sometime before the attack in Boulder in 2021, Moustafa Alissa recalled waking up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and his son, Ahmad Alissa, telling him to go talk to a man who was in his room. Moustafa Alissa said they walked together to his son’s room and there was no one there.

Moustafa Alissa also said his son would sometimes talk to himself and broke a car key fob he feared was being used to track him, echoing testimony on Monday from his wife. He said he didn’t know exactly what was wrong with his son but that in his native Syria people say someone acting that way is believed to be possessed by an evil spirit, or djin.

“We thought he probably was just possessed by a spirit or something,” Moustafa Alissa said through an Arabic interpreter in court.

Ahmad Alissa was diagnosed after the shooting with a severe case of schizophrenia and only was deemed mentally competent to stand trial last year after a doctor put him on the strongest antipsychotic medication available. No one disputes he was the gunman at the supermarket but he has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

The defense says he should be found not guilty because he was legally insane and not able to tell the difference between right and wrong at the time of the shooting.

Prosecutors and forensic psychologists who evaluated him for the court say that, despite his mental illness, he did not experience delusions and knew what he was doing when he launched the attack. They point to the planning and research he did to prepare for it and his fear that he could end up in jail afterward to show that Alissa knew what he was doing was wrong. However, the psychologists said they thought the voices played some role in the attack and don’t believe the attack would have happened if he had not been mentally ill.

When District Attorney Michael Dougherty asked why Moustafa Alissa did not seek out treatment for his son, he said it would be very hard for his family to have a reputation for having a “crazy son.”

“It’s shameful in our culture,” he said.

During questioning, Moustafa Alissa, whose family owns several restaurants in the Denver area, also acknowledged that Ahmad Alissa had promised to return a gun he had that had jammed a few days before the shooting and that he went to the shooting range at least once with his brothers. Despite his concerns about his son’s mental state, he said he did not do anything to try take guns away from him.

Given that, Dougherty suggested that his son’s condition may not have been as bad as his family is now portraying it.

“He was not normal but we did not expect him to do what he did,” Moustafa Alissa said.

Experiential marketing agency NPARALLEL announced Tuesday its acquisition of Atomic Props and Effects, an Oakdale-based prop and structure fabrication business.

Even if you’ve never heard of the company now known as Atomic Props, you’ve probably seen their work in places like the Minnesota State Fair, U.S. Bank Stadium and Times Square in New York City.

Founded in Minneapolis in 1980, Atomic Props is known for its innovative advertising displays, like a 16-foot-tall sculpture of Titan from the video game Final Fantasy XV, and massive  interactive billboards, like one for Sierra Mist in 2010 that featured live ivy growing around the 3-D can.

The creator behind the signs adorning Sweet Martha’s at the Minnesota State Fair? Atomic Props. Remember the ad for the Netflix show “Narcos” where 2 million (fake) dollars were put behind a plexiglass wall of a bus station? Atomic Props had a hand in that as well.

Through the new partnership, NPARALLEL + Atomic Props can offer clients “comprehensive solutions that span strategy, design, fabrication and execution across experiential marketing, trade shows, brand activations, immersive experiences and events,” according to a news release from the company.

“We are thrilled about our future with Atomic Props,” said Megan Diamond, CEO and president of NPARALLEL + Atomic Props, in the release. “This robust combination of our unique talents gives our clients a powerhouse of resources to help them disrupt and transform the future of their experiences.”

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As soon as the Vikings drafted rookie kicker Will Reichard, rookie edge rusher Dallas Turner knew he had to get the word out. They were college teammates at Alabama, so Turner took it upon himself to make sure everybody knew that Reichard was the real deal.

“He was like, ‘Listen, I trust him with my life,’ ” fellow Vikings edge rusher Jonathan Greenard recalled. “That’s all it took for us.”

The results have spoken for themselves. After a near flawless effort throughout training camp, Reichard has carried his consistency into the early stages of this season. He was 4 for 4 on extra-point attempts in Week 1 against the New York Giants, and 3 for 3 on field-goal attempts in Week 2 against the San Francisco 49ers.

“It’s beautiful,” safety Josh Metellus said. “He has that poise. Whenever he goes out there, we don’t even have to look up, we just know the points are coming. I’m excited for him to keep building.”

Though the field-goal attempts haven’t exactly tested Reichard’s leg strength —- he converted from 22 yards, 39 yards and 27 yards on Sunday — special-teams coordinator Matt Daniels noted that it was good for him to simply see the ball go through the uprights.

“I’m happy with where he’s at,” Daniels said. “He goes into it every day with the same mindset.”

As important as his consistency has been in helping Reichard win over the locker room, Daniels noted how his personality shining through has been even more impactful. Never mind that Reichard is rather unassuming standing there in his 6-foot-1, 185-pound frame.

“You see this guy and then he starts talking and it’s like, ‘This dude’s got a little swag to him,’ ” Daniels said. “He’s got good aura to him. I can’t really explain it. He connects with everybody in there.”

The rise of Pat Jones II

The player with the most sacks for the Vikings this season might surprise people.

It isn’t Greenard, who the Vikings signed to a 4-year, $76 million contract in the spring. It isn’t Turner, who the Vikings liked so much that they traded up to daft him in the first round. It isn’t edge rusher Andrew Van Ginkel, who the Vikings have used in almost every situation on defense.

As menacing as those players have been, edge rusher Pat Jones II is currently the leader in the clubhouse. He already has racked up 4.0 sacks, and he doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon.

As impressed as defensive coordinator Brian Flores has been with the sacks, he’s been even more impressed with how physical Jones has been at the point of attack. There was a particular play against the 49ers, for example, that Jones outclassed star left tackle Trent Williams with a power move.

“He played lights out,” Flores said. “He did a lot of really good things.”

A pass from  Ty Chandler?

As the Vikings tried to put the finishing touches on the win over the 49ers, they dialed up a trick play for running back Ty Chandler. In theory, Chandler was supposed to catch a toss from quarterback Sam Darnold, then throw the ball to tight end Johnny Mundt in the end zone.

The directive was very clear to Chandler before the snap. He wasn’t supposed to let go of the ball unless it was wide open. To his credit, as soon as he recognized that it was covered, he tucked it and ran for a minimal loss.

Asked about the trick play, offensive coordinator Wes Phillips praised Chandler, noting that it only works if the Vikings can trust him to do the right thing in the heat of the battle.

“We trusted him enough to actually call the play,” Phillips said. “He rewarded us by making a really good decision there.”

Briefly

With preparation for the Houston Texans, Sunday’s foe, about to begin, the Vikings signed offensive tackle Marcellus Johnson to their practice squad. In a corresponding move, the Vikings released offensive tackle Ricky Lee III from their practice squad.

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