Category: Sporting KC

Sporting Kansas City (5-12-5, 20 points) will play host to MLS Supporters’ Shield leaders Los Angeles FC (13-4-3, 42 points) at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday at Children’s Mercy Park, Kansas City, Kansas.

Tickets are available online at SeatGeek.com and the first 3,500 fans in attendance will receive Sporting KC sunglasses.

In anticipation of high temperatures, all ticket holders will be permitted to bring one bottle of water into Children’s Mercy Park on Saturday. The bottle must be sealed and no larger than 20 ounces, and the bottle’s cap will be removed at the gate upon entry.

Prior to kick off, Sporting Legend Jimmy Conrad – a MLS Defender of the Year and four-time MLS Best XI selection during his 13-year MLS career – will sign autographs on the Mazuma Plaza.

The World Cup veteran will also lead the “I Believe” chant prior to kick off and will make a guest appearance on the match broadcast with Nate Bukaty and Jacob Peterson.

The Western Conference clash will be locally televised on 38 The Spot with three hours of coverage beginning at 7 p.m. The broadcast will also stream live on SportingKC.com and in the Sporting KC app for viewers in Kansas and Missouri (excluding the St. Louis area per MLS policy), as well as ESPN+ for out-of-market subscribers. In addition, the match will air live on Sports Radio 810 WHB and La Grande 1340 AM.

Saturday’s match kicks off a high-profile week of matches for Sporting KC. The top two teams in the league will be at Children’s Mercy Park on back-to-back Saturdays in addition to a mid-week trip to Sacramento for the U.S. Open Cup semifinal.

Sporting is seven points outside playoff position with 12 regular season matches remaining, eight of which will be played at Children’s Mercy Park.

Sporting has lost the team’s last three regular season home matches and will be aiming to snap the skid on Saturday to avoid the team’s first four-game regular season home losing streak in the non-shootout era of Major League Soccer (2000-present).

Manager Peter Vermes’ squad has been bolstered by the arrival of 22-year-old Nigerian striker Willy Agada and 27-year-old German attacking midfielder Erik Thommy. Both players trained with Sporting for the first time this week and could make their club debuts on Saturday.

LAFC’s roster also features new summer signings with the additions of 33-year-old Welsh winger Gareth Bale, 37-year-old Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini and 25-year-old Ecuadorian midfielder Sebastian Mendez.

Bale, who will lead Wales at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in November, is a five-time UEFA Champions League winner and arrives after a nine-year career with Real Madrid in Spain.

Chiellini, who won nine Serie A titles during a 17-year career at Juventus FC, has 117 caps for Italy — including appearances at the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cup — and captained Italy to the 2020 European Championship as the Defender of the Tournament.

The trio join an LAFC side that will send three players – Diego Palacios, Ilie Sanchez and Carlos Vela – to the 2022 MLS All-Star Game next month.

Vela, Major League Soccer’s MVP and Golden Boot winner in 2019, was named Best MLS Player at the ESPYs this week.

Ilie, who made 171 appearances for Sporting across all competitions from 2017 to 2021, leads all LAFC field players in minutes played this season.

Now led by first-year head coach Steve Cherundolo after missing the playoffs last season, LAFC leads the league in goals per game (2.00) and has the lowest goals against average in the Western Conference (1.10). Colombian forward Cristian Arango leads the team with eight goals – including goals in six of his last seven appearances – while Ecuadorian midfielder Jose Cifuentes has contributed six goals and four assists.

Saturday’s showdown will feature two of the top attacking players in Major League Soccer over the past five seasons in Vela (63 goals, 43 assists) and Johnny Russell (46 goals, 31 assists). The two club captains rank first and third, in goal contributions since arriving in Major League Soccer in 2018.

Russell leads Sporting with eight goals in all competitions this year and has become the first SKC player to score six goals in five straight regular seasons. On the opposite wing, Daniel Salloi has six goals in all competitions this year and his 45 goals for Sporting in all competitions are one shy of tying Josh Wolff for fifth most in club history.

In eight all-time meetings between Sporting KC and LAFC, no player has scored more often than Salloi with three goals in the series including the game-winning goal in a 2-1 victory the last time the teams played at Children’s Mercy Park on June 26, 2021. The series is evenly split with four wins for each side in a match-up that has produced four red cards and four penalties and nearly four goals per game (30 goals in eight encounters).

Sporting KC will be without five players on Saturday, including designated players Alan Pulido and Gadi Kinda as well as veteran midfielder Roger Espinoza. Goalkeeper Tim Melia and defender Graham Zusi are questionable to return from injury, while LAFC young designated player Brian Rodriguez is also questionable after missing the last four matches due to injury.

• Story from Sporting KC

Sporting Kansas City (5-12-5, 20 pts.) closed out a three-game road swing with a 3-0 loss against rivals Real Salt Lake (9-6-6, 33 pts.) at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah, on Sunday night.

After a scoreless first half, Sporting was reduced to 10 men in the second half following Roger Espinoza’s red card and RSL fired home three second-half goals to deal Sporting a loss on the road.

Sporting manager Peter Vermes made three changes from Wednesday’s draw in Minnesota, with defender Robert Voloder in for Andreu Fontas who was suspended through yellow card accumulation, while veterans Roger Espinoza and Johnny Russell replaced Felipe Hernandez and Cam Duke.

That meant second straight starts for 21-year-old homegrown goalkeeper John Pulskamp and U-22 initiative signing Marinos Tzionis – each of whom was impressive during Wednesday’s draw at Allianz Field.

The first action of the match saw young Pulskamp called into a pair of saves within seconds of each other in the 10th minute. First, he sprung off his line to deny Sergio Cordova who was in on goal before moments later diving to his left to palm away Jefferson Savarino’s strike from the edge of the area.

Four minutes later, Sporting showed its teeth as the team moved through the gears up the field with the ball eventually finding Kayden Pierre on the wing. Pierre’s cutback found Tzionis 12 yards from goal, but the recently turned 21-year-old scuffed his effort into the arms of Zac MacMath.

Pulskamp continued to show his quality in the 15th minute as he once again stood tall with Justin Meram through one-on-one, blocking the close-range effort with his body.

In the 26th minute, Pablo Ruiz whipped a free kick attempt on target that forced Pulskamp into another save, diving to his right to push the ball out for a corner. From the ensuing delivery, Pulskamp produced another stunning stop, denying Savarino’s volley through traffic.

In the 39th minute, it was Sporting’s turn to threaten as Russell cut inside of two RSL defenders before sending a fizzing effort wide of the post from 25 yards as the teams headed for the halftime interval with the game scoreless.

Real Salt Lake took the lead early in the second half when Cordova headed home his fourth goal of the season after being picked out by Andrew Brody’s cross from the left wing. Cordova should have added a second goal in the 56th minute when he was picked out by a tempting cross from Aaron Herrera, but he glanced his header inches wide of the post.

The pivotal moment in the match came in the 61st minute when Roger Espinoza went into a strong challenge with Jasper Loffelsend near midfield and referee Joe Dickerson showed Espinoza a straight red card, leaving Sporting to try to find a way back into the game down a man for the final 30 minutes.

Real Salt Lake took immediate advantage of its numerical superiority, with Pablo Ruiz stroking home from the edge of the area after being found by Savarino to double the host’s lead.

RSL added a third in the 71st minute when Justin Meram picked out Savarino’s run inside the area with a pinpoint cross, leaving the Venezuelan with a simple task to glance a header into the back of the net and make the final score 3-0.

Sunday’s contest closed out a three-game road swing over the last eight days and a stretch of five road games in the last six MLS matches.

Sporting will now prepare for a home-heavy portion of the schedule, with eight of the next 11 matches taking place at Children’s Mercy Park, starting with next Saturday’s clash with Supporters’ Shield leaders Los Angeles FC. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. Saturday with tickets available via SeatGeek.com.

• Story from Sporting KC

Captain Johnny Russell came off the bench to score a second-half equalizer as Sporting Kansas City (5-11-5, 20 points) earned a spirited road result for the second straight game by drawing rivals Minnesota United FC (8-8-4, 28 points) 1-1 on Wednesday night at Allianz Field in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Minnesota was fortunate to take a 1-0 halftime lead on a 43rd-minute Sporting own goal, but manager Peter Vermes’ men responded and claimed a point behind Russell’s 63rd-minute strike and his team-leading eighth goal of the year in all competitions.

On the defensive side, 21-year-old goalkeeper John Pulskamp totaled four saves—including two stunning stops in the final moments—in his first MLS appearance of the 2022 campaign.

Sporting has now taken seven points from its last four road matches and own a 4-0-1 record in midweek contests this season, including three victories in the club’s run to the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup semifinals.

Vermes fielded a history-making lineup for the Rivalry Week encounter as Sporting Kansas City started five homegrown players for the first time — Pulskamp, right back Kayden Pierre, midfielder Felipe Hernandez and attacking duo Cam Duke and Daniel Salloi. Defenders Andreu Fontas, Nicolas Isimat-Mirin and Logan Ndenbe rounded out the backline, Uri Rosell and Remi Walter joined Hernandez in the center of the pitch and Marinos Tzionis manned the left wing as one of five changes from Saturday’s 2-1 road win at CF Montreal.

Veteran goalkeeper Tim Melia was notably sidelined with a shoulder injury—missing his first MLS match since last October—and captain Russell was available off the bench as Sporting played its second of three straight road games in the space of nine days.

With an average age of 25.1, the starting XI was Kansas City’s youngest for an MLS fixture since 2015 and the third youngest lineup for an MLS match in club history.

Salloi was inches away from vaulting the visitors ahead in the seventh minute, punctuating an intricate attacking move through the central channel by settling Walter’s square pass near the top of the box and dragging a low shot marginally wide of the left post. The 25-year-old forward asked further questions of the Minnesota defense three minutes later, thieving the ball from Robin Lod and forcing Loons goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair into a diving save with a dipping, long-range sledgehammer.

Minnesota responded by carving out its first chance at the 20-minute mark, talismanic playmaker Emanuel Reynoso spreading the ball wide left to Franco Fragapane for a cross that Bongokuhle Hlongwane poked well over the woodwork from 14 yards.

Not to be outdone, Sporting showcased more sizzling movement of its own near the half-hour juncture. Tzionis patiently held the ball up on the edge of the box before feeding Salloi, who pinged a clever one-touch pass into the path of Duke on the right side of the penalty area, but St. Clair advanced off his line to cut off the angle for a feasible shot and extinguish the threat.

An entertaining battle continued to unfold in end-to-end fashion, with Lod belting a first-time strike high off Reynoso’s corner kick in the 32nd minute. Not long later on the opposite side of the pitch, Tzionis’ searching cross eluded a pair of Minnesota defenders and fell to Duke, whose lunging effort skipped wide of St. Clair’s right-hand post.

Sporting was victimized by a case of bitter misfortune two minutes before intermission, falling behind 1-0. Minnesota defender Kemar Lawrence’s sliding pullback pass skipped across the face of goal, caroming off Fontas and Pulskamp and trickling over the goal line to give the Loons a fortuitous goal and a halftime edge. The own goal was Sporting’s first since Aug. 21, 2020, when Vermes’ men emerged 2-1 victors over Minnesota at Allianz Field.

The Loons nearly doubled their cushion on another Sporting own goal seven minutes after the restart as Reynoso’s low, driven cross was poked goalward by Pierre, but Pulskamp made a crucial block and the visitors were spared their blushes. Seconds later, the ball was recycled from right to left and Loons striker Luis Amarilla snapped a header inches over the target.

Just as Russell entered the action as Sporting’s first substitute, Salloi offered a 57th-minute counterpunch by slipping past a defender and uncorking a 30-yard piledriver that screamed narrowly high. Tzionis was next to try his luck, cutting the ball onto his patented right boot and prompting St. Clair into a leaping save with a 25-yard laser.

Sporting found a deserved leveler in the 63rd minute as Minnesota went its 14th straight match without a shutout in all competitions.

Half a dozen minutes after his introduction, Russell embarked on a galloping run down the right side before combining neatly with Pierre, maneuvering past his marker and sending a side-footed shot past St. Clair for his sixth goal of the regular season. Russell now has 51 goals in his Sporting career, fourth most in club history, and his 77 combined goals (46) and assists (31) in the regular season are third most in MLS since 2018. The 19-year-old Pierre, meanwhile, recorded his first career MLS assist on the play.

The Loons thought they had recaptured their one-goal advantage in the 66th minute when Fragapane fed Amarilla for a simple finish on the doorstep, but the offside flag was raised on Fragapane in the buildup.

In a swashbuckling finale to the contest, Pulskamp produced two phenomenal saves in the space of 30 seconds. He dropped left to cast aside an Amarilla header, then reacted brilliantly by palming the ball over the ball after a near-post corner kick was glanced goalward by Lod.

Then in the 88th minute, Russell left multiple defenders in his wake by darting into the attacking third and firing low from the top of the penalty area. St. Clair was equal to the task, then gathered his footing to swat away a would-be rebound attempt from Salloi to keep the game all square at 1-1.

Sporting will look to complete an unbeaten three-game road swing on Sunday when the club visits another Western Conference rival in Real Salt Lake (8-6-6, 30 points) at Rio Tinto Stadium. Kickoff is slated for 8:30 p.m. with live coverage on 38 The Spot, the Sporting KC app and SportingKC.com.

• Story from Sporting KC