Sporting Kansas City’s 16-game home unbeaten streak came to an emphatic end on Wednesday with a 5-0 loss to the San Jose Earthquakes at Sporting Park in Kansas City, Kan.
Cordell Cato and Chris Wondolowski each scored twice for the visitors, who won in Kansas City for the first time since 2004 to snap a 10-game road losing streak in the series.
San Jose scored five goals on the road for only the third time in team history – and first time since 2001 – with the onslaught starting in the third minute.
Shea Salinas earned his first of two assists on the night by cutting the ball back from the endline for Cato to strike first-time into the back of the net.
The Earthquakes’ lead doubled in the 17th minute when Chance Myers was whistled for a foul on Quincy Amarikwa inside the penalty area.
Wondolowski stepped up to the spot and converted his fourth penalty kick of 2015, making him the first player in MLS history to score 10 goals for the sixth straight regular season.
By the 27th minute, San Jose had matched its highest-scoring game of the year with newcomer Anibal Godoy’s first MLS goal. It marked Sporting Kansas City’s first time trailing by three goals at home in nearly a year (Aug. 23, 2014 vs D.C. United).
Sporting Kansas City would be held without a shot on goal in the first half and manager Peter Vermes made two changes at the break, inserting Mikey Lopez for his first minutes of 2015 while also putting on Marcel de Jong as the team played their fourth of five games in a 15-day span.
Though Sporting Kansas City had produced a historic comeback three days earlier to turn a 2-0 halftime deficit into a 4-3 victory, there would be no such rally to preserve the longest home unbeaten run in club history.
San Jose added a fourth goal in the 58th minute and did so in nearly identical fashion to the game’s opening goal. Salinas and Cato again combined inside the 18-yard box for Cato’s first career multi-goal game.
Wondolowski, who had missed a sitter in the 52nd minute, then scored the game’s best goal in the 61st minute to close out the scoring. Rookie Fatai Alashe sent in an early cross that Wondolowski met with a diving header from 15 yards out for his 104th career MLS goal, tying Dwayne De Rosario for sixth most in MLS history and extending his lead among active players.
After allowing only seven goals in the team’s first 11 regular season home games, Sporting Kansas City has now conceded eight goals in their past two. Wednesday’s loss marked only the fourth time in club history to concede five goals in a regular season home match and the first such occasion since 2001.
Sporting Kansas City’s best scoring opportunity of the night came in the 59th minute from the foot of Krisztian Nemeth, who led all players with four shots in the game. Nemeth let loose a right-footed shot from 25 yards out that crashed off the far post and rebounded safely into the arms of David Bingham.
Tim Melia made five saves in the lopsided loss, pushing away Clarence Goodson’s shot in the eighth minute and diving low to his left to smother an attempt from Cato in the 14th minute. He sprung into action to keep out Alashe’s volley in the 67th minute and held onto Godoy’s free kick three minutes later. His final save of the night was arguably his most impressive, getting a fingertip on Adam Jahn’s dipping strike in the 81st minute to push it into the crossbar.
Sporting KC’s setback will travel to Columbus on Thursday, beginning a four-game road trip against the Crew at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday with a chance to move into first place in the West with a win.
Sporting KC will be without playmaker Benny Feilhaber, who was shown a straight red card in the 71st minute by referee Jair Marrufo and will serve a mandatory one-game suspension as a result.
Saturday’s match will air live locally on 38 the Spot and across the Midwest on SKCTV.
– Story from Sporting KC
