Category: Sporting KC

by Brian Turrel

Sporting Kansas City cut down the Portland Timbers 4-1 Sunday evening at Children’s Mercy Park, getting some measure of payback for the 7-2 paddling the Timbers administered when Kansas City visited in May.

Willy Agada scored twice, continuing the torrid offensive output he’s shown since starting with his new club in July. Fellow summer window signee Erik Thommy added another goal. Defender Andreu Fontas scored as well, surprisingly earning two goals in two games after scoring only once in 70 previous appearances with Kansas City.

Graham Zusi set up the opening score in the 31st minute, playing a cross from the right side that bounced dangerously across the front of the Portland goal. It took another high bounce to the far post, falling to Agada who whipped an unstoppable shot into the upper left corner.

In the 40th minute, Fontas doubled the lead by striking home a corner kick that fell into the scrum in front of the Portland goal.

Before the celebratory smoke had cleared from Fontas’s goal, Kansas City scored again. Agada made a run up the middle, picking up a long pass from Zusi and drawing the Portland defense. He played a touch back into the path of Thommy who had a clear lane to the goal and put all his momentum into a scoring blast from 20 yards out.

Agada scored his second of the game, and fifth of his short MLS season, in the 75th minute. Ben Sweat earned an assist with a perfectly executed cross from the left side that intersected Agada’s path just as he surged past the Portland defensive line.

Kansas City goalkeeper Jon Pulskamp deserved the clean sheet that he nearly got, putting on a show in the second half to keep Portland from mounting a comeback.

In the 47th minute, Pulskamp raced off his line to disrupt a Portland breakaway, then scrambled back to the goal line to make a leaping tip save. One minute later, he dived to his left to save a shot from Dairon Asprilla and then alertly smothered the ball that had rolled slightly behind him.

Pulskamp made two more diving stops of Asprilla shots in the 54th and 73rd minutes, but the 21-year-old keeper finally conceded an immaterial goal to Timbers forward Sebastian Blanco in the final minute of regulation.

The re-energized Kansas City offense has now scored three first-half goals in three consecutive matches, the first MLS side to ever do so.

Sporting will be back in action at Children’s Mercy Park next Saturday, facing off with the San Jose Earthquakes at 7:30 p.m.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sporting Kansas City (6-15-5, 23 points) will play host to the Portland Timbers (7-7-12, 33 points) at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kansas, as the club celebrates Retro Night with a nationally televised Western Conference clash on FS1 and FOX Deportes.

Radio coverage of Saturday’s showdown will air on SiriusXM FC as well as Sports Radio 810 WHB and La Grande 1340 AM.

Tickets for the match, presented by Children’s Mercy, are available online at SeatGeek.com.

Sporting will turn back the clock on Retro Night – highlighted by a special SportingStyle collection for fans – as the team plays its 500th home match across all competitions in club history.

Coming off a resounding 4-2 win over the LA Galaxy in the team’s last home match, Sporting now has the chance to secure a 100th regular season victory at Children’s Mercy Park on Sunday.

Midfielder Erik Thommy scored his first goal for the club in the 4-2 victory on Aug. 6, then won a free kick and a penalty kick that both led to goals in last weekend’s 4-3 loss at Austin FC.

Forward Willy Agada has also been impressive since being signed this summer as the 22-year-old Nigerian has three goals in his last two appearances.

After failing to score three goals in any of the team’s first 24 regular season games this year, Sporting has exploded for seven goals – the most of any MLS team in their two most recent matches – in the past two weeks. Nevertheless, Sporting remains last in MLS in home goals (12) and overall goals (26), however will be facing a Portland side that has conceded the most shots in MLS this season.

Timbers goalkeeper Aljaz Ivacic boasts an MLS-best 87 saves and defender Claudio Bravo leads the league with 60 tackles won, while forward Jaroslaw Niezgoda has a team-high nine goals in 2022. Portland is the only MLS club to have four different players with at least six assists: Eryk Williamson (6), Santiago Moreno (7), Sebastian Blanco (8) and Yimmi Chara (9).

Yimmi Chara’s older brother Diego Chara is in his 12th season with the Timbers and his 331 MLS appearances rank second most among one-club players in MLS history – 23 more than Sporting midfielder Roger Espinoza and six behind Sporting defender Graham Zusi. The three veterans have been key contributors for two perennial powers in the Western Conference as Sporting won MLS Cup in 2013 and claimed U.S. Open Cup titles in 2012, 2015 and 2017.

The Timbers won MLS Cup in 2015 and advanced to MLS Cup in 2018 and 2021 to go along with an MLS is Back Tournament championship in 2020. Led by head coach Gio Savarese – a teammate of Peter Vermes with the NY-NJ MetroStars during Major League Soccer’s inaugural season in 1996 — the Timbers are in a four-way tie for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference and enter Sunday’s match coming off a 3-1 loss at Toronto that snapped a 10-match unbeaten run.

Sporting narrowly leads the all-time regular season series against Portland with a 7-6-6 record, including a 3-1-4 mark at Children’s Mercy Park where Daniel Salloi has scored in three straight home match-ups with the Timbers. However, the Timbers are unbeaten in the last seven MLS meetings (4-0-3) between the two clubs since 2018 and Portland posted a 7-2 victory in the most recent encounter on May 14.

The hosts will be without four players on Sunday as goalkeeper Tim Melia (hamstring), defender Kortne Ford (suspension), midfielder Gadi Kinda (knee) and forward Alan Pulido (knee) remain sidelined. Forward Khiry Shelton (calf) is questionable on the club’s availability report after missing the last three matches.
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Following Sunday’s match, The Final Whistle postgame show will air on Sports Radio 810 WHB with hosts Chad Reynolds and Dave Borchardt. Listeners can tune in via the Sporting KC mobile app or online at 810WHB.com.

• Story from Sporting KC

Sporting Kansas City suffered a late 4-3 loss on the road at Austin FC on Saturday.

Andreu Fontas, Willy Agada and Johnny Russell each struck for Sporting KC in the first half at Q2 Stadium before the hosts rallied with three second-half goals in a comeback capped off by a 95th-minute game-winner from MLS Golden Boot leader Sebastian Driussi.

Sporting opened the scoring in the 12th minute when Erik Thommy won a free kick at the top of the penalty area and struck the ensuing set piece with too much pace for Brad Stuver to handle. The rebound fell to the foot of Fontas, who hammered home his second career MLS goal and his first since October 2020.

The goal marked the second straight match in which Sporting scored in the opening 15 minutes after the team had failed to do so in the first 24 games of the regular season campaign. Saturday also marked the earliest Sporting has struck for two goals in a game this year as Agada doubled the lead in the 23rd minute.

Graham Zusi sparked the scoring sequence with a perfectly-placed pass into the path of Roger Espinoza, who superbly settled the service and fired an attempt on frame.

Stuver kept out the attempt but couldn’t recover in time as Agada – after scoring twice in last weekend’s 4-2 win over the LA Galaxy – pounced on the loose ball and snuck a first-time shot inside the near post.

Austin FC, the top-scoring team in Major League Soccer, responded with a goal in the 27th minute to cut the deficit in half. Espinoza’s goalline clearance had momentarily kept Austin at bay; however the ball recirculated to Jon Gallagher, whose half volley from 20 yards out found the back of the net off the glove of Pulskamp.

The visitors restored the two-goal advantage in the 40th minute as Russell converted a penalty that was won by Thommy on a challenge from Ethan Finlay. Russell’s team-leading ninth goal of the season moved the Scotsman into a tie with Davy Arnaud for third in club history with 52 career goals in all competitions and marked the first time in club history in which Sporting has scored three first-half goals in back-to-back regular season matches.

Sporting Kansas City goalkeeper John Pulskamp produced four saves on the night with one of his best coming in first-half stoppage time to keep out a long-range blast from Driussi. Sporting opened the second half on the front foot with two opportunities to find a fourth goal as Daniel Salloi’s shot from the edge of the penalty area was saved by Stuver at the near post in the 53rd minute and Agada was denied by a kick save two minutes later after the Nigerian striker got behind the Austin FC backline.

Austin FC’s second-half rally began in the 63rd minute as Julio Cascante headed home a cross from Driussi – following a fortuitous deflection off Fontas — for his third goal of the year and sixth of his MLS career. Austin FC continued to apply pressure in search of an equalizer and came close in the 66th minute if not for a pair of saves from Pulskamp in short succession to thwart second-half substitutes Danny Hoesen and Washington Corozo.

Hoesen ultimately leveled the score at 3-3 in the 85th minute on an impressive over-the-shoulder volley from near the penalty spot that pinged off the post and set the stage for a dramatic finish in the Texas capital. Driussi, fresh off his appearance in the MLS All-Star Game mid-week, delivered the dagger in the 94th minute with his league-leading 17th goal of the year.

The 26-year-old Argentine has contributed to goals in eight straight games and his latest sealed all three points for an Austin FC side that has now earned an MLS-best 20 points from trailing positions this season. Conversely, Sporting KC has conceded a league-worst 13 goals in the final 15 minutes of matches in 2022 and suffered the team’s first defeat after leading by two or more goals since September 2019.

Sporting KC will return home to play the Portland Timbers at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 21, at Children’s Mercy Park as the club celebrates Retro Night with a nationally televised Western Conference clash on FS1 and FOX Deportes. Tickets for the match, presented by Children’s Mercy, are available online at SeatGeek.com.

• Story from Sporting KC