Category: Sporting KC

The race for first place will resume Wednesday night when Western Conference leaders Sporting Kansas City (11-4-4, 37 points) look to continue their winning ways against the Portland Timbers (7-9-2, 23 points) in a showdown at Children’s Mercy Park.

Wednesday’s contest is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. and tickets are available at SeatGeek.com, with the first 5,000 fans through the stadium gates receiving a free felt pennant. Bally Sports Kansas City Plus, Bally Sports Midwest Plus, BallySports.com and the Bally Sports app will provide three hours of live coverage beginning at 7 p.m., while listeners can follow the action locally on Sports Radio 810 WHB (English) and La Grande 1340 AM (Spanish).

Under the guidance of 13th-year manager Peter Vermes, Sporting is in hot pursuit of its third first-place finish in the West since 2018.

Saturday’s 2-0 win at FC Dallas vaulted Sporting to the top of the division — one point ahead of Seattle Sounders FC and two ahead of the LA Galaxy — as forwards Alan Pulido and Daniel Salloi scored on either side of halftime. Sporting boasts an impressive 4-0-1 record in its last five away fixtures, with each of their last four league victories since the start of July coming on the road.

Pulido and Salloi dazzled over the weekend, showcasing their quality with a goal and an assist each.

Since joining the club at the start of 2020, Pulido’s 0.97 goals and assists per 90 minutes are the most in MLS among players with at least 1,000 minutes. The 30-year-old Mexican has eight goals and two assists in 10 starts this year and Sporting is 11-1-0 over the last two seasons when he scores.

Salloi has built a legitimate MLS MVP case with a league-leading 17 combined goals (11) and assists (six). The 25-year-old Sporting KC Academy product sits atop the MLS charts with five game-winning goals and is tied for second with three game-winning assists.

He has also become just the second player in club history, alongside Sporting Legend Preki, to record 11 goals and six assists in two regular seasons after finishing with that exact total in 2018.

Sporting’s potent attack has garnered headlines throughout the year — and fairly so, as the team ranks second in MLS with 35 goals — but a steadily improving defense has tightened its grip in recent weeks.

Spanish center back Andreu Fontas was named to the MLS Team of the Week on Monday for his role in the shutout win over Dallas, while goalkeeper Tim Melia has collected two straight clean sheets and places third in MLS with a 0.93 goals against average.

Left back Luis Martins has showcased consistency by appearing in all 19 league matches this season, while right back Graham Zusi — who will celebrate his 35th birthday on Wednesday — has tallied four assists in the last five games.

Zusi’s birthday could coincide with a major milestone for the World Cup veteran and former U.S. international. On Wednesday, he will likely become the all-time leader in regular season appearances among one-club players in MLS history. His 306 games with Sporting are currently tied with LA Galaxy legend Cobi Jones, who plied his trade for the club from 1996-2007.

On the opposite side, fourth-year head coach Giovanni Savarese will be tasked with rallying a Portland outfit that suffered a brutal 6-2 home loss to archrival Seattle on Sunday night. Sebastian Blanco and midfielder George Fochive scored first-half goals and the match was tied 2-2 at halftime, but the Sounders exploded for four unanswered goals in the final 45 minutes to hand Portland their third loss in five games.

Sunday’s result was emblematic of Portland’s defensive frailties in 2021. The club has conceded 35 goals, surpassed only by Toronto FC’s 40, and their three shutouts are third fewest in the league. The Timbers have allowed 15 goals in their last five matches, during which time they have taken only four points.

Despite the recent blip, Portland wields a wealth of MLS experience and undeniable attacking prowess. Blanco and Diego Valeri, who put Sporting to the sword in the 2018 Western Conference Championship, remain a formidable playmaking duo and forward Felipe Mora has quietly chipped in 13 goals and five assists with starts in 22 of 33 appearances since the start of 2020. Brothers Diego and Yimmi Chara add bite to the midfield and Dairon Asprilla is second on the team with four goals.

Sporting and Portland will meet for the second time this season after the Timbers emerged with a 2-1 home win on June 19. Asprilla and Marvin Loria scored for the hosts, overcoming a first-half strike from Sporting’s Jaylin Lindsey.

Vermes’ men lead the all-time regular season series with a 7-5-5 record and a 3-1-3 mark at Children’s Mercy Park, where Portland’s lone victory came in April 2013. In 10 regular season appearances against Portland, Melia has five shutouts, a 5-2-3 record and a goals against average of 0.7.

Hamstring ailments will sideline Sporting defenders Lindsey and Nicolas Isimat-Mirin on Wednesday. Forward Khiry Shelton is day-to-day as he recovers from an abdomen issue and midfielder Felipe Hernandez remains out for personal reasons.

Portland has two important players listed as questionable. U.S. international midfielder Eryk Williamson is observing health and safety protocols and Polish forward Jaroslaw Niezgoda made his 2021 debut with a late substitute appearance on Sunday after recovering from ACL surgery. Niezgoda bagged seven goals in just 600 minutes for Portland in 2020.

• Story from Sporting KC

Forwards Alan Pulido and Daniel Salloi struck on both sides of halftime and goalkeeper Tim Melia claimed his second straight shutout as first-place Sporting Kansas City (11-4-4, 37 points) handed FC Dallas (5-8-6, 21 points) its first home loss in 12 months with a 2-0 victory on Saturday night at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas.

Dallas entered the evening with an 18-game home undefeated streak and a six-game unbeaten run against Sporting, but manager Peter Vermes’ men delivered a spirited performance to keep their two-point lead atop the Western Conference table and improve to 4-0-1 in their last five road matches since the start of July.

Sporting will continue its daunting stretch of seven competitive matches in 22 days when it returns to Children’s Mercy Park on Wednesday for a showdown against the sixth-place Portland Timbers (7-8-2, 23 points).

Kickoff is slated for 7:30 p.m. with tickets available on SeatGeek.com and live coverage on Bally Sports Midwest Plus, Bally Sports Kansas City Plus, BallySports.com and the Bally Sports app.

Vermes fielded a formidable Sporting Kansas City lineup on Saturday as seven players who were rested in a Leagues Cup quarterfinal loss to Club Leon at midweek — namely Pulido, goalkeeper Tim Melia, midfielder Roger Espinoza, captain Johnny Russell and defenders Andreu Fontas, Luis Martins and Graham Zusi — earned starts in Frisco, Texas.

The hosts threatened inside two minutes, pressing high to create a turnover in Sporting’s defensive third, but a lunging effort from Hungarian winger Szabolcs Schon off Jesus Ferreira’s diagonal pass was smothered by Melia.

Sporting responded with a close scoring chance of its own in the seventh minute, as Pulido’s free kick near the left edge of the penalty area curled past Dallas goalkeeper Jimmy Maurer and skimmed the post before fizzing out of play.

Pulido would not be denied a second time, however, as the Mexican fired Sporting ahead in the 12th minute.

Salloi created a pocket of space by turning away from a defender and feeding Gadi Kinda, who accelerated goalward and slipped a through ball in the path of Pulido. The 30-year-old made no mistake from 12 yards, finishing low across Maurer at a tight angle for his third goal in as many starts and his eighth of the MLS campaign. Kinda tallied his third assist on the play, while Salloi now has assists in three straight MLS appearances and a team-leading six helpers for the season.

Dallas looked for a quick reply as outside back Ryan Hollingshead settled a pass on the left side of the box, cut onto his left foot and hammered his shot inches wide into the side netting in the 20th minute.

Another Dallas defender saw his bid at an equalizer narrowly miss the mark on 35 minutes when captain Matt Hedges rose to nod Ferreira’s free kick a yard beyond Melia’s left-hand post.

Sporting breathed a massive sigh of relief eight minutes after the restart. Schon embarked on a solo run into the penalty box, and although he was crowded out by a host of Sporting defenders, 18-year-old striker Ricardo Pepi scooped up the loose ball amid traffic and rifled a shot off the woodwork from 10 yards. Shortly thereafter, Facundo Quignon dragged his attempt marginally wide as the visitors survived unscathed.

Head coach Luchi Gonzalez’s men continued to pressure near the hour mark and Schon almost drew Dallas level when his close-range blast caromed off the underside of the crossbar and came within an inch of crossing the goalline. Not long later, the right-hand post thwarted substitute Jader Obrian, who had beaten Melia with a shot on the right side of the box.

Salloi made Dallas pay for its missed chances with a predatory strike in the 63rd minute.

Russell was afforded time to curl a low cross into the mixer, where Salloi outmaneuvered his marker and sent a right-footed piledriver into the roof of the net to double his team’s advantage. The clinical finish gave Salloi his 11th goal of the season, one behind New England’s Gustavo Bou in the MLS Golden Boot race, and his 17 combined goals (11) and assists (six) are tied for the league lead. Russell, meanwhile, has scored or assisted in four of his last five appearances.

Having regained momentum, Sporting pushed forward once more in the 74th minute when Pulido forced a reflex save from Maurer. It proved to be the final major scoring opportunity for either team, even with referee Armando Villarreal allowing 10 minutes of stoppage time.

• Story from Sporting KC