by Brian Turrel
Sporting Kansas City gave up two second-half goals to Nashville FC in a 2-1 loss Saturday evening at Children’s Mercy Park.
Kansas City’s defensive lapses on Nashville set pieces allowed the visitors to overcome an excellent first-half score from Remi Walter and a penalty kick save from Tim Melia.
Kansas City had the best early opportunities, taking advantage of wide open real estate down the right side. Johnny Russell hit a scorcher in the fourth minute, but it was just wide of the far post.
Nashville pushed back and put together a string of opportunities. After a save from Tim Melia in the seventh minute, a potential Nashville goal by Alex Muyl was waved off for offsides in the twelfth.
Hardly a minute later, Melia was forced to defend a penalty kick earned by Nashville on a soft foul by Nicolas Isimat-Mirin. The career leader in penalty save percentage knocked away Hany Mukhtar’s attempt and snapped up the rebound.
Kansas City got on the board in the 25th minute on a well executed build-up. Daniel Salloi played the ball to overlapping Ben Sweat on the left. Sweat beat his defender to the end line and then crossed the ball back to the middle into the path of charging Remi Walter who knocked the ball in from near the penalty spot.
Nashville equalized the score not long after halftime. The team played a free kick short and got a cross into the box that Dave Romney headed in from close range, unmarked as he crashed in toward the back post.
In the 68th minute, Nashville took the lead off a long throw-in deep in the Kansas City end. The throw found the corner of the 6-yard box, and a ricochet found C.J. Sapong eight yards out with a clear view of the goal.
Kansas City got some late offensive energy from substitutes Marinos Tzionis and Nikola Vujnovic, and Russell, Salloi, and Graham Zusi all had shots in the last 20 minutes that narrowly missed or were parried by Nashville goalkeeper Joe Willis.
Kansas City has yet to score more than one goal in a match this season, but it was the defense that head coach Peter Vermes called out in his post-game press conference.
“Terrible mentality,” the head coach said, not sparing his words. “Terrible defending mentality. Just terrible. Horrendous. At the end of the day, we should never have given those situations away in the game.”
Though this was Kansas City’s first home loss of the season, its overall record stands at an unpromising 2 wins and 5 losses, and Vermes hinted at changes to come.
“If other guys go out, don’t want to play, don’t want to fight for it,” Vermes warned, “we’ve got other guys that have to step up and give them a chance.”
Kansas City will play next in an Easter game at Los Angeles FC, and the next home match at Children’s Mercy Park is April 23, starting at 7:30 p.m.
