by Brian Turrel
Sporting Kansas City welcomed league newcomer Nashville Soccer Club with a 2-1 defeat at Children’s Mercy Park on Sunday evening. Sporting’s Erik Hurtado scored the game winner with an amazing long-range volley in the 80th minute.
Kansas City had trouble finding scoring chances in the first half, taking only a single shot through the first 20 minutes. Nashville had the initiative and scored first off a corner kick in the 15th minute. Defender Walker Zimmerman rose above the scrum near the back post to nod in the ball.
Kansas City’s offensive pace picked up at the end of the first half, but they were unable to break through, leaving Nashville a 1-0 halftime advantage.
Sporting seized and held the offensive initiative throughout the second half, possessing the ball nearly 70 percent of the period. They found the equalizer in the 53rd minute. Johnny Russell pulled two defenders deep into the corner before breaking toward the middle and crossing the ball. Gerso Fernandes was waiting at the far post and needed merely a tap-in to tally the goal.
Moments after play restarted, Gianluca Busio created another scoring chance, but he was taken down just outside the penalty area by Nashville defender Alistair Johnston. The foul earned Johnston his second yellow card of the match, and he was sent off, leaving Nashville down a man.
Despite the advantage, Sporting was unable to convert another chance until the 79th minute. Erik Hurtado, brought in just after halftime as an injury substitution, took aim at a cross from Amadou Dia and curled a soaring volley into the upper left corner of the Nashville net.
After the match, manager Peter Vermes pulled out the stops in his praise of Hurtado’s goal, calling it “world-class,” “unbelievable,” and “magnificent.” Johnny Russell laid on the praise as well, saying, “I told [Hurtado] it was one of the most outrageous finishes I’ve seen live in a game.”
The win, Kansas City’s third in nine days, pulls them within single point of the conference-leading Seattle Sounders, which dropped its match 3-1 on the road against Los Angeles FC. Kansas City will play road matches at Dallas, Chicago, and Colorado and then return home to face Colorado on Oct. 24.
