by Brian Turrel
When defender Seth Sinovic was called for a questionable hand ball in the penalty area in the second half of Sunday afternoon’s game against Los Angeles FC, Sporting Kansas City’s plan to win first place in the Western Conference took a left turn.
The foul gave LAFC a game-tying penalty kick, Sinovic was sent off with a red card, and Sporting faced the rest of the game with only 10 on the field.
Sporting came back with a late short-handed goal by Daniel Salloi to earn the 2-1 win and the conference championship.
Kansas City could have chosen to pack the defensive end and play for the tie, which would have been enough to secure the conference lead, but head coach Peter Vermes saw it differently.
“I don’t think you can,” he said. “Mentality is a really interesting thing. It’s not like you just flip a switch and you just change mentality. It’s not that way.”
Salloi agreed. “I think it’s very important to play for a win all the time, even if a tie works for you, especially at home. I want to thank the fans because they did an amazing job.”
Khiry Shelton got the assist on the goal. As Salloi described it, “I played the ball out wide to Khiry and then he saw me running up the box. He played me a perfect ball. I took a quick touch and finished to the first post.”
As conference champions, Sporting KC will have a bye in the first round of the playoffs. They’ll face the winner of the “Knockout Round” game between LAFC and Real Salt Lake. The second game of the two-legged playoff will be at Children’s Mercy Park on Nov. 11.
