by Brian Turrel
For the second time in as many meetings, Real Salt Lake delivered a loss to Sporting Kansas City with a goal in stoppage time. The stakes were bigger the second time around, and the loss ended Kansas City’s season on Sunday in front of 21,650 fans at standing-room-only Children’s Mercy Park.
Kansas City held a 1-0 halftime lead thanks to a Johnny Russell penalty kick in the 21st minute. Gadi Kinda earned the penalty when he was hit with a late challenge by Aaron Herrera just inside the Salt Lake 18-yard box.
Kansas City had a chance to double the lead in the 45th minute when Remi Walter won a challenge in the Salt Lake end and fired a long-range blast up the middle, but Walter’s shot was just wide to the right.
Salt Lake upped its offensive intensity in the second half. Though the visitors didn’t record a shot in the first 20 minutes after the break, they then created 5 shots in quick succession, including the equalizer in the 73rd minute. Andrew Brody crossed the ball from the left wing for Anderson Julio to nod in.
After conceding the goal, Kansas City was on the back foot for the remainder of the match though the team held off Salt Lake’s pressure through regulation.
As the clock hit 90 minutes, overtime looked certain, but Salt Lake got four players out on a fast break in the first minute of stoppage time. The Kansas City defense was slow to recover, and Justin Meram played a cross from the left side to Bobby Wood who redirected it to the far corner of the goal.
A shocked silence settled across the stadium, and Sporting’s late, frantic efforts went for naught.
After the match, head coach Peter Vermes questioned his team’s engagement in the game.
“We just weren’t out putting pressure on them,” Vermes said. “We gave them too much time and space on the ball. If you just look at their two goals, we have chances to win the ball, chase the guy down, and we just weren’t there. We weren’t there. We weren’t in the game as we normally are for some reason.”
Team captain Russell agreed with the coach about the lack of pressure.
“We sat back too much,” the Scottish forward said. “[We] gave them way too much respect, gave way too much of the ball and when you camp that far in your half, they’re going to create chances. Unfortunately for us, they took them.”
Salt Lake advances to the conference final where it will face the Portland Timbers, who won their semi-final Thursday against Seattle.
The MLS season will start earlier than usual next year, due to the 2022 World Cup. Kansas City’s first match will be at Atlanta on Feb. 27, with the home opener March 5.
