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MLS Sporting Kansas City

Second-Place Sporting Falls 3-1 at Austin

November 4, 2021 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Sporting Kansas City News Release


Sporting Kansas City (17-9-7, 58 points) suffered a setback in their Western Conference regular season title push, losing their inaugural match in the Texas capital to Austin FC (9-20-4, 31 points) by a 3-1 scoreline at Q2 Stadium.

Johnny Russell stretched his club-record streak to 10 straight matches with a goal or assist and Gadi Kinda tallied his eighth assist of the season, but Sporting KC could not overcome Austin FC's early goals.

The attention now turns to MLS Decision Day as Sporting welcomes rivals Real Salt Lake at Children's Mercy Park. The 2021 MLS regular season finale will take place Sunday at 5:25 p.m. CT as the MLS postseason picture solidifies, with Sporting set to finish anywhere between first and third in the West. Fans can catch the action live regionally on Bally Sports Kansas City, Bally Sports Midwest and the Bally Sports app.

Manager Peter Vermes' starting XI for the midweek matchup had two personnel changes and two positional changes with Nicolas Isimat-Mirin starting at center-back and Daniel Salloi making his first start since Oct. 17. These moves allowed Ilie Sanchez and Gadi Kinda to rejoin the midfield after both players stepped into different roles due to injuries.

Not even a minute into the match, Austin grabbed a one-goal advantage off the head of Sebastian Driussi after Jared Stroud sent a cross from inside the box across the face of goal. Graham Zusi fired Sporting's first attempt just high in the ninth before Stroud nearly doubled Austin's lead, pinging a shot off the right post from just inside the box.

Sporting had a chance to level the match in the 20th minute after Graham Zusi won them a corner. The ball was played short back to Zusi whose floated ball to the back post drifted just out of reach of the Sporting runners.

In the 21st minute, Isimat-Mirin was shown the match's first yellow card for a foul along the left sideline. Austin took advantage as Zan Kolmanic's set-piece service connected with Julio Cascante and thudded off the turf and into the net.

Now in a two-goal hole, Sporting looked to claw their way back in. The first opportunity came when Kinda's diagonal ball nearly got to Russell but was intercepted by a dashing Brad Stuver. Ilie then joined the attack and cleverly slotted Salloi in for a shot. The Hungarian international's turf burner bounced inches wide of the mark into the side netting. Kinda then put Sporting's first shot on goal right at Stuver who made the save.

Russell and Sporting KC continued to fight. The in-form forward skipped a shot from close range over the bar, trying to bounce it past Stuver. He followed that sequence up by showing incredible resilience by winning the ball back, slipping and then regained his feet and sent a shot just off the thigh of Stuver.

Austin was not satisfied with two first-half goals as they continued to attack the Sporting KC goal. Driussi, looking for his second goal of the contest, opted for a side swiped volley off a corner but Tim Melia was there to deny Driussi. Kinda immediately followed that play up with a shot on target, and a cross off a short corner, both ending in the arms of Stuver.

Right on the cusp of halftime Melia made an incredible save, sprinting and then sliding back into position to deny Diego Fagundez on the back door, despite the offsides flag being up. Austin took the two-goal advantage into halftime.

The second half got out to a quick start with Jon Gallagher picking up a yellow card for a hard foul on Khiry Shelton. On the other end of the pitch Fagundez found space for a shot but had it deflected by a late arriving defender into the hands of Melia.

The Sporting KC attack led by Russell continued to push against the Austin backline with an advance into the box. The final ball nicked off Russell's back foot and was cleared away out of the Kansas City attacking third. Ilie then struck an ambitious half volley in the 58th minute that curled just off frame.

Austin struck for a third time in the 60th minute on the counter attack. Fagundez found Stroud on the backside and the midfielder slid the ball past a charging Melia for his first goal of the season.

Remi Walter saw a shot go just wide before Russell finally buried the ball in the back of the net in the 65th minute. Kinda found Luis Martins who crossed the ball into the middle of the area where Russell sprinted in front of the defender and thundered home a header with authority.

Sporting KC Academy product Cam Duke was the first off the Sporting KC bench replacing Kinda in the 68th minute. Grayson Barber then took off the goal scoring Russell in the 78th minute. A minute later Salloi was whistled for a foul after Stuver dashed off his line and came close to colliding with the Sporting KC forward.

Sporting had a few chances to pull another one back with just under 10 minutes left but left empty handed after sustained pressure. Walter had another shot blocked before nearly combining with Shelton on the back post. Barber and Duke each offered up good opportunities but the Austin FC defense did not yield.

Sporting earned a set-piece in the 88th minute in a dangerous spot 35 yards out but the wall did its job for Austin FC. Quickly after Austin launched a counterattack that amounted to nothing with Fagundez doinking a shot into the Austin supporter's section.

Sporting KC's final attack of the night saw Shelton's headed ball across the face of goal cleared, and then Martins' half volley get stopped in traffic.

Sporting KC leaves Austin tied for second place with Colorado Rapids and just one point back of leaders Seattle Sounders FC. Final positioning between the three clubs will be decided on Sunday when they kick off simultaneously in three different MLS fixtures as part of Decision Day.

QUOTES

Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes

Thoughts on the match...

Unfortunately, we put ourselves in a hole and we couldn't get out of it. Austin FC came to play, for sure. As I told the guys, all these games down the stretch - no matter who you are playing - they're going to be tough games. This was, for sure.

On the takeaways leading into Decision Day...

You can't start the game the way we did. We've done that quite a few times this season. It's not the time to do it now.

On the second half substitutions...

I don't know if we really made a lot of tactical decisions. We were just changing some guys off the field to get them off and give them a rest and get ready for the next game.

On what went wrong...

It was a bad start, a poor start. You can't give up the ball like we did off the kickoff and then receive a goal. They come right down the middle of the field and they wind up scoring. You bring them into the game. The crowd gets into it. They're into it. And then we give up a silly set piece goal and then we're chasing the game. We're chasing the game from the opening minute of the game. That's what went wrong.

On whether the team had tired legs...

It's not tired legs. They're professional athletes. The weather is beautiful. To play a game like this after you played and you play again this weekend, big deal. It's not tired legs. It's not tired legs at all. That's an excuse. What do you think the other teams have to do in this league? What do you think they do, change the whole entire team every game? No. Guys have to play in this kind of environment.

On what he says to the team for the next match...

The players are professionals and they have to find a way to start the game better. It's simple as can be. There are times when you can have external motivation. There are other times when you can have internal motivation. Normally, it's internal. As a pro athlete, it's internal motivation. It was a mistake on the team's part and now they've got to fight for the next game. That's the way it goes. That's the way this business is.

On if he's worried about the team's performances...

I never like to lose a game. Whenever I lose a game, I'm not happy.

Sporting Kansas City captain Johnny Russell

On the team's mistakes...

Just look at the goals. They're not goals that we usually concede. For whatever reason, we've done it the last two games in two really important games for us. You can't give away the goal the way we did in the first minute of the game, especially in a game that we were really fired up for and especially after the last result. The warmup was one of the best that we've had and then we come out and let them score in a minute. There's not really any excuse for that. You make it extremely difficult for yourself. And then they get a second and you're making it near on impossible for yourself. Obviously, a disappointing night like it was the other day but we've still got a game left. We need to win that. We knew we had to win it anyway. And we need Vancouver to give us a bit of a hand when it should have been in our hands. Now we're looking for another team to help us out which is pretty disappointing from the position that we were in.

On chasing the game...

It's difficult against any team you play in this league. Austin possess a lot of quality and they showed that tonight. If you give teams a head start, you're not always going to come back. We've shown it time and time again this year that that is possible and we can do it, but you're not going to do it every time. Coming into this last week of the season and you're playing for top, to give a team a goal in the first minute and give them a head start - it's not good enough. We all know it's not good enough. There's no excuse for that. It's just us switching off as a team and sloppiness as a team.

Sporting Kansas City defender Graham Zusi

Thoughts on the match...

It was a slow start. The early goal I think got under our skin a little bit. They got a second as well and then we were pushing from behind the rest of the game. When you do that to yourself, it's just very difficult to come back from. We've got to start better and minimize some of those mistakes. The goal off the set piece is something we can avoid. A poor start from us in the beginning and then we're chasing the game for the rest of the time. They put all their numbers behind the ball at that point so they were difficult to break down. We never could catch up.

On looking ahead to Decision Day...

There should be no lack of motivation for that game. We're in front of our fans with it all to play for. Definitely a better start, looking for that. Defending our home, we've been good about doing that all season.

On the early two goals conceded...

A little bit of a breakdown from the group and they got a little counterattack, cross came back across and they tapped it in. Just something that we could have avoided further up the field and not put ourselves in that position. It's being aware from the start of the game and not being surprised that they're going to push from the start. There's no one but ourselves to blame for that.

2021 MLS Regular Season | Match 33

Q2 Stadium | Austin, Texas

Attendance: 20,738

Weather: 51 degrees and cloudy

Score 1 2 F

Sporting Kansas City (17-9-7, 58 points) 0 1 1

Austin FC (9-20-4, 31 points) 2 1 3

Sporting Kansas City: Tim Melia; Graham Zusi, Nicolas Isimat-Mirin, Andreu Fontas, Luis Martins; Ilie Sanchez, Gadi Kinda (Cam Duke 68'), Remi Walter; Johnny Russell (C) (Grayson Barber 78'), Khiry Shelton, Daniel Salloi

Subs Not Used: John Pulskamp, Roberto Puncec, Kaveh Rad, Jake Davis, Roger Espinoza, Jose Mauri, Wilson Harris

Austin FC: Brad Stuver; Julio Cascante, Zan Kolmanic, Nick Lima, Tomas Pochettino; Alex Ring (C), Daniel Pereira, Sebastian Driussi (Owen Wolff 90+3'); Diego Fagundez (Freddy Kleemann 90+2'), Jared Stroud (Cecilio Dominguez 76'), Moussa Djitte (Orrin McKinze Gaines II 61')

Subs Not Used: Aedan Stanley, Sebastian Berhalter, Jon Gallagher, Kekuta Manneh, Andrew Tarbell

Scoring Summary:

ATX -- Sebastian Driussi 5 (Jared Stroud 4) 1'

ATX -- Juio Cascante 2 (Zan Kolmancic 4) 22'

ATX -- Jared Stroud 1 (Diego Fagundez 4) 60'

SKC -- Johnny Russell 15 (Luis Martins 4, Gadi Kinda 8) 65'

Misconduct Summary:

SKC -- Nicolas Isimat-Mirin (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 21'

ATX -- Jon Gallagher (yellow card, unsporting behavior) 50'

Stat SKC ATX

Shots 13 13

Shots on Goal 4 5

Saves 2 3

Fouls 4 12

Offsides 0 6

Corner Kicks 5 4

Referee: Nima Saghafi

Assistant Referee: Chantal Boudreau

Assistant Referee: Diego Blas

Fourth Official: Allen Chapman

VAR: Daniel Radford

AVAR: Jonathan Johnson

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