Tag: Sporting KC

Winners of three straight matches and a point out of first place in the Western Conference, Sporting Kansas City (9-5-2, 29 points) will ride a wave of momentum in Wednesday’s showdown with fellow MLS originals FC Dallas (5-4-6, 21 points) at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas.

Sunday’s 2-1 defeat of Nashville SC at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kansas, gave Sporting three regular season wins in a nine-day period for the seventh time in club history and only the second time since 2005.

The hot stretch began with an Alan Pulido-inspired 2-1 road win over the Houston Dynamo on Oct. 3 and continued with a 1-0 home defeat of Chicago Fire FC on Oct. 7 in which penalty-saving goalkeeper Tim Melia and goal-scoring center back Winston Reid were the difference makers.

The acclaimed hero on Sunday was Erik Hurtado, who bagged one of Sporting’s all-time greatest goals with a sumptuous volley in the 79th minute on an assist from Amadou Dia. The goal completed a spirited fightback that saw Sporting fall behind to Walker Zimmerman’s first-half header before Johnny Russell assisted Gerso Fernandes’ 53rd-minute equalizer.

Wednesday will now give Sporting a shot at its first four-game regular season winning streak since August 2018.

Thanks to their recent spurt, Sporting sits one point behind Western Conference co-leaders Seattle and Portland and eight points ahead of sixth-place FC Dallas.

Both teams are well-positioned to reach the MLS Cup Playoffs, as the top eight finishers in the West will punch a postseason ticket.

Aside from finishing above the playoff line, a thoroughly compelling race is developing at the top. The team that sits atop the table at the conclusion of the regular season will have homefield advantage in the playoffs through the conference final.

Sporting and Dallas have met twice previously this season at Children’s Mercy Park. The visitors emerged with four points in those two encounters, including a 1-1 stalemate on Sept. 2 and a simmering 3-2 result on Sept. 19 that produced a total of eight yellow cards and a red card to Dallas midfielder Bryan Acosta.

First-year striker Franco Jara has made a decisive mark in the series, scoring for Dallas in the 1-1 draw and notching a brace in his team’s victory last month. Sporting are 0-3-1 versus Dallas in the last four meetings dating back to 2019.

Dallas will enter the contest on a full week of rest after their weekend fixture versus Minnesota United FC was postponed due to COVID-19 concerns.

Veteran center back Matt Hedges has played in all but one of Dallas’ 15 games this season, but he sustained a muscle injury in a 2-0 loss at Houston on Oct. 7 and will be sidelined on Wednesday.

Second-year head coach Luchi Gonzalez has a strong cast of defenders to call upon, however, as Dallas’ 17 goals allowed are tied for the fewest in the Western Conference. Hedges’ most likely replacement is Bressan, a 27-year-old Brazilian with four starts under his belt this season.

Sporting will also be forced to cope with the absence of a key defender, as right back Graham Zusi will miss his second straight game with a foot injury. Twenty-year-old Sporting KC Academy product Jaylin Lindsey filled in for Zusi on Sunday and has started six of seven MLS appearances this year, racking up a career-high 609 minutes.

Manager Peter Vermes’ men face a quick turnaround following Wednesday’s match, as they will travel to face Chicago on Saturday afternoon at Soldier Field. This week will cap a busy period of the schedule that requires Sporting to play five times in 15 days.

• Story from Sporting KC

by Brian Turrel

Sporting Kansas City welcomed league newcomer Nashville Soccer Club with a 2-1 defeat at Children’s Mercy Park on Sunday evening. Sporting’s Erik Hurtado scored the game winner with an amazing long-range volley in the 80th minute.

Kansas City had trouble finding scoring chances in the first half, taking only a single shot through the first 20 minutes. Nashville had the initiative and scored first off a corner kick in the 15th minute. Defender Walker Zimmerman rose above the scrum near the back post to nod in the ball.

Kansas City’s offensive pace picked up at the end of the first half, but they were unable to break through, leaving Nashville a 1-0 halftime advantage.

Sporting seized and held the offensive initiative throughout the second half, possessing the ball nearly 70 percent of the period. They found the equalizer in the 53rd minute. Johnny Russell pulled two defenders deep into the corner before breaking toward the middle and crossing the ball. Gerso Fernandes was waiting at the far post and needed merely a tap-in to tally the goal.

Moments after play restarted, Gianluca Busio created another scoring chance, but he was taken down just outside the penalty area by Nashville defender Alistair Johnston. The foul earned Johnston his second yellow card of the match, and he was sent off, leaving Nashville down a man.

Despite the advantage, Sporting was unable to convert another chance until the 79th minute. Erik Hurtado, brought in just after halftime as an injury substitution, took aim at a cross from Amadou Dia and curled a soaring volley into the upper left corner of the Nashville net.

After the match, manager Peter Vermes pulled out the stops in his praise of Hurtado’s goal, calling it “world-class,” “unbelievable,” and “magnificent.” Johnny Russell laid on the praise as well, saying, “I told [Hurtado] it was one of the most outrageous finishes I’ve seen live in a game.”

The win, Kansas City’s third in nine days, pulls them within single point of the conference-leading Seattle Sounders, which dropped its match 3-1 on the road against Los Angeles FC. Kansas City will play road matches at Dallas, Chicago, and Colorado and then return home to face Colorado on Oct. 24.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Major League Soccer’s pivotal month of October will resume Sunday when Sporting Kansas City (8-5-2, 26 points) puts a two-game winning streak on the line against Nashville SC (4-5-6, 18 points), an expansion club looking to extend its four-game unbeaten run.

Kickoff at Children’s Mercy Park is slated for 6 p.m. with tickets available at SeatGeek.com and stadium capacity reduced to 18%.

Sunday’s inter-conference clash will be shown live on FOX Sports Kansas City, FOX Sports Midwest and FOX Sports GO, with 30-minute pregame and postgame shows. Listeners can also catch the action locally on ESPN 94.5 FM and La Grande 1340 AM
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A competitive Western Conference race currently sees Sporting saddled in third place, a point behind the Portland Timbers and four behind Seattle Sounders FC. Manager Peter Vermes’ side went 1-4-2 from Aug. 25 to Sept. 23 but has since responded with consecutive victories to regain momentum.

Last Saturday’s 2-1 road triumph over the Houston Dynamo was followed by a 1-0 defeat of Chicago Fire FC on Wednesday at Children’s Mercy Park, which featured major contributions from goalkeeper Tim Melia and center back Winston Reid.

Melia, who saved a second-minute penalty kick, has now stopped four of the last five penalties he has faced in the regular season and boasts a 0.56 goals conceded percentage on PK attempts, the lowest in MLS history. Reid, meanwhile, nodded home the decisive goal in the 67th minute off a Johnny Russell corner kick and became the second Sporting player since the dawn of the MLS Opta era in 2010 to record seven interceptions and a game-winning goal in a shutout victory.

Sporting have scored in each of their first 15 MLS matches this season — a regular season club record — and remain the only team in the league yet to be shut out. Russell and striker Alan Pulido — who will miss Sunday’s game while on international duty with Mexico — have led the way with six and five goals, respectively, while Gadi Kinda and Khiry Shelton have added four apiece.

Scoring could be hard to come by Sunday, however, as Nashville SC boasts one of the better defensive records in MLS. Led by English head coach Gary Smith, the Tennessee outfit has conceded just 14 goals in 15 games this season. Experienced veterans such as Walker Zimmerman, Dax McCarty, Daniel Lovitz and Anibal Godoy have given the first-year club a formidable spine, even if the team has yet to catch fire offensively.

Nashville’s 11 goals are the second-fewest in MLS, and the team has taken part in a league-high four goalless draws this year — including each of their last two outings against the New England Revolution and Minnesota United FC. Zimmerman, fellow center back Dave Romney and goalkeeper Joe Willis have played every minute of the 2020 campaign thus far and helped Nashville to an impressive seven clean sheets, tied for the second-most in MLS.

The inaugural meeting between Sporting and Nashville will see the visitors aim to improve upon a dismal road scoring rate. Nashville has managed just two goals in eight away matches this season, a dry spell that includes a 345-minute road goalless drought dating back to Aug. 26. Sporting, meanwhile, is 9-3-4 in their inaugural regular season meetings with expansion clubs since 2005.

Both teams will be playing their third game in nine days on Sunday. The upcoming match schedule is particularly congested for a Sporting side that is scheduled to play nine regular season fixtures in a 30-day period from Oct. 3 to Nov. 1 — the busiest month in club history.

A frantic finish to the campaign will then conclude with MLS Decision Day 2020 on Nov. 8 as all clubs round out their 23-game regular season slates ahead of the MLS Cup Playoffs beginning in mid-November. The expanded 18-team playoff field will consist of eight Western Conference clubs and 10 Eastern Conference clubs in a single-elimination format through MLS Cup on Dec. 12.

• Story from Sporting KC