MLS Sporting Kansas City

Sporting Cruises To 3-0 Victory Over San Jose

August 26, 2023 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Sporting Kansas City News Release


Sporting Kansas City (7-11-8, 29 pts.) cruised to a 3-0 victory over the San Jose Earthquakes (9-8-8, 35 pts.) in the club's return to MLS regular-season action tonight at Children's Mercy Park. Daniel Salloi, Johnny Russell and Erik Thommy all got on the scoresheet before Tim Melia saved a San Jose penalty kick late on to preserve the shutout.

Sporting were forced to deal with a late scratch heading into the match as Gadi Kinda was ruled out with an ankle injury. In all, Peter Vermes made five changes from the club's last Leagues Cup match, as Tim Melia, Logan Ndenbe, Nemanja Radoja, Alan Pulido and Salloi all returned to the lineup.

Sporting got off to a dream start as Salloi had an early impact on his return to the lineup, getting the slightest touch on a cross from Johnny Russell to divert the ball beyond Daniel in the San Jose goal and give the hosts a third-minute lead with his sixth goal of the campaign.

The home side continued to pour forward in the early stages with Russell almost finding a way through to goal in the fourth minute before Thommy lashed an effort into the side-netting after being sent clear by Pulido three minutes later.

Sporting almost extended their lead in the 16th minute but Remi Walter was denied by a stunning stop from Earthquakes goalkeeper Daniel, who tipped his effort onto the crossbar.

San Jose responded with a flurry of chances of their own as first Cade Cowell fired wide when well positioned in the area before Jeremy Ebobisse saw a close-range effort deflected wide by a last-ditch challenge from Dany Rosero.

Sporting reasserted themselves in the closing stages of the first half as Russell dribbled through two challenges, nutmegging a San Jose defender in the process, before firing home to make the score 2-0 heading into halftime.

Russell, who was playing with a limp following an early knock, reached 100 combined goals and assists (58 goals, 42 assists) following his goal and assist in the first half of the match, becoming just the third player in club history to reach that mark.

San Jose began the second half on the front foot with Carlos Akapo bursting through on goal from the right flank but Melia stood tall to block his effort on his return to the lineup.

Sporting made the points safe in the 69th minute when a nice build-up containing 39 passes ended with Radoja freeing Thommy to drive at the 'Quakes backline and the German fired home a stunning finish into the top corner from the edge of the area.

The 39-pass sequence leading to the goal is the longest passing sequence leading to a goal since the start of the Opta era in 2010. Sporting has the top two longest sequences leading to goals across all of MLS since 2010 and four of the top six.

San Jose went in search of a consolation goal late as first substitute Jack Skahan saw his well-taken strike tipped wide by Melia before Skahan earned a penalty kick in the 90th minute of the match following a foul by Ndenbe.

Determined to keep his clean sheet, Melia proved why he's one of the best penalty stoppers in MLS history and dove to his right to save Carlos Gruezo's attempt. Melia has a .571 goals conceded percentage on penalty kicks (20 of 35) in the MLS regular season, lowest in league history among keepers with at least 20 penalties faced. Since the start of his Sporting tenure in 2015, Melia's 15 penalty saves in the regular season are the most in MLS.

Sporting had one final chance to add to their tally as substitute Marinos Tzionis cut inside from the left wing and sent a brilliant effort toward goal that beat Daniel but not the woodwork as his shot caromed off the crossbar and out as Sporting saw out the 3-0 victory.

Sporting KC is now set to host cross-state rival st. louis city sc for the first time ever at Children's Mercy Park next Saturday night. Kickoff set for 7:30 p.m. CT on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV as well as Sports Radio 810 WHB (English) and La Grande 1340 AM (Spanish) on the radio.

QUOTES

Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes

On Sporting's performance in each half...

We were very good. I hate that we gave up the two chances at the end, but great save by Tim (Melia) on the penalty kick to keep the shutout. It was important. For me, it was very important to get a shutout. I thought on both sides of the ball, we were very good. We talked about wanting to start really fast and try to get a goal early to open up the game a little bit. The guys did that, and I thought they were relentless in their attack, which I think put a lot of pressure on San Jose.

On the team play leading to Erik Thommy's goal...

Yeah, I think all three (goals) were good, but again, I don't think that's surprising. It's kind of who we are. We move the ball well and the guys are on. Like I said, we were very aggressive tonight in and around the box. Look, San Jose is a good team. They've done a good job, especially on the road. They played really well. It wasn't an easy game. There was a period in the first half where they started to get back in the game a little bit. But what we didn't do, we didn't lose ourselves in those moments. I thought we defended really well, and then we were getting out on the counter and we were very dangerous.

On goalkeeper Tim Melia's performance...

You know, we're lucky. We have a good core of three goalkeepers. Tim is incredibly experienced. He worked really hard after this injury because he had a lot of things that he just had to get himself back, and that wasn't easy. It's hard when you're in the middle of the summer. Just everything that he had to do, and I think he worked really hard to get back. I think the athletic trainers and the sports science guys, I think they did a good job in doing it patiently and not trying to hurry it up. I really think this time period in between the League's Cup gave us a chance to really build some of those guys, and he's benefited from it and now he's contributing in a really good way. I think today he was also really calm, and his experience came out in the game and that was important for us.

On Johnny Russell's mentality...

Yeah, Johnny, he's a tough guy. He's always acted that way. There's never a time when you go to him and you ask him, "Hey, you want to come out? You're tired, you don't want to play." He always wants to go, and so he proven that. Again, especially when you get late in the season like that, you need those kinds of contributions from players, and that was really important for us.

On Nemanja Radoja's performance...

I think Radoja is very good positionally, but he helps us so much coming out of the back with the ball. He's very comfortable on it, and then the other thing is that he actually wins a lot of balls, or he forces a lot of bad balls, because of his anticipation to read situations. I'm surprised he went as long as he did. I didn't think he was going to go that long, and he even told me when we had a little break, he said he could go 90, but I decided to take him out with that last time. But he still looked pretty good.

On Gadi Kina's late scratch from the match day squad...

He will be back next week.

Sporting Kansas City goalkeeper Tim Melia

On his return from injury...

It was an annoying injury because of the way I got hurt and how big it was but I couldn't be more happy to be out there and to come back. I'm thankful that the team gave me such a, we'll call it an introductory game. I didn't really have to do much and I thought the way we played the whole game is the way we've been trying to build towards all season. So I hope that this is the start and it continues in our little push here.

On the penalty stop to preserve the clean sheet...

I think that was the biggest thing. I think we need momentum defensively. We needed the win. That's the most important thing. But I think the fact that we can have the confidence of keeping a clean sheet and in a game that we truly deserved one. It would have been unfortunate to give up a goal on a penalty. Not that it wasn't a foul, but it would have been unfortunate. So I think that should just be a confidence builder and we have just got to continue to play the way we did tonight.

On the defensive performance...

A massive team performance. I think that the way that our spine played from centerbacks to midfield to attacking mid to striker. It's what we knew everyone was capable of and then you add in special goals from Johnny (Russell) and Daniel (Salloi) and just the work rate from (Erik) Thommy and his shot. It was just a collective team effort and that's what we need if we're going to make a push into the playoffs here.

On the difference in tonight's match...

We haven't really had our full deck of cards all season. That's something that we just haven't had. We've had a lot of unfortunate injuries. We're still missing Gadi (Kinda) and (Graham) Zusi and a few other guys. But I think as we get everybody healthy and we get some rhythm with everyone, we had that break and I think we used it to our advantage to reset mentally and reset physically and kind of build into this game. But now we've got to continue it. We can't be high, low, high, low, high, low. We have got to continue it from here.

On Johnny Russell's performance...

Johnny's a beast. Johnny has the worst injuries and he just plays. It's crazy. I wish I had his body type.

On the 2013 celebrations...

There are so many good players that played on this team and they won a championship together. And there's guys still here from it. They set a culture and we have got to live up to it.

Sporting Kansas City captain Johnny Russell

On his ankle injury...

It's pretty sore right now, but it's still fresh. I'll get treatment on it now to try and stop the swelling and get it under control and take it from there. We'll reassess in the next couple of days and see what the damage is.

On if Daniel Salloi got a touch on the first goal...

He says he did, so I trust him. I haven't yet seen an angle where he did, but he promises me that he did so I believe him.

On if he thought the injury was going to force him out of the match...

Initially when the pain first hits you, I thought I was going to have to come off and then it kind of went numb a little bit. I could still feel the pain, but adrenaline gets you through it. So I asked them if they could just strap it and give it a try. I managed to sort of get myself through it at halftime, but nowhere near moving the way I wanted to and then I came out in the second half and I was a man down really for the team. I don't want to be out there and try and be a hero and I cost my team something because I can't do my job, I can't track a runner or I make a mistake. So it was a smart decision to take me out of there.

On scoring his goal...

My eyes lit up a little bit there, but it was more in the moments where you're not running. You're sort of static and then you have to get going again. It completely seizes up. So it's just one of those rubbish ones where you roll your ankle and it doesn't seem to go away. I'm hoping we can try and figure it out this week and give myself every chance for the weekend.

I knew they were coming across. Defenders are hesitant to commit in the box like that, so if you can try and attract them and then they're always sort of going to go to block the shot and it usually leaves their legs open so I kind of went for that. I managed to sneak it through and just hit it low and hard across the goal. The goalkeeper took the angle away front post really well. I was initially going to go there, but from that angle I had to just go low and hard across and even if he gets a touch on it or the defender gets a touch on it, it can drop and one of your teammates can knock it in. You get in that position so many times in training. We practice it and that's always the thing that you're told even from when you're a kid. Hit it low and hard across goal.

On the team's third goal...

It was really good. For a game that we had to come out and win, I thought we were a little bit shaky to start with. They had a little bit of possession but didn't really trouble us. And then after that, I felt we controlled the game. Tim (Melia) coming up big time to keep the clean sheet. The guy is a monster for PKs. And then Daniel (Salloi) was telling me that the third goal is a crazy amount of passes before we scored. I think we're trying to get the top five to be all us. I think we've maybe got one more to go.

On if Daniel Salloi mentioned that he didn't have a touch on the third goal...

He did mention that and he says there was no need to bring that up. I kind of agree with him on that one, but he had a joke about it. But he got his goal and he played great. So it's a great team goal. We keep the ball and that's what we want to do. We want to keep the ball to create chances. The way (Erik Thommy) can hit the ball. We see it every day in training. It's a great strike and it's a great final goal.

On the clean sheet...

It's massive for the confidence. I feel like we did deserve the clean sheet. We don't know what it's going to come down to. It might come down to goal difference and if it does, that's a three-goal swing in our favor. So it's massive. And when you win a game like that, you always want to keep the clean sheet. You want to keep the clean sheet anyway. But if we would have given it up in the last minute, we would have been pretty mad about that. So the fact that we are able to keep it with Timmy coming up big time again, it's massive. It's a great confiden ceboost going into next week.

On the rematch with St. Louis next week...

That one hurt, obviously, the first one between us. We didn't do ourselves or our fans any justice in that game. We looked off it. They looked hungrier the whole game. We had to get this one out of the way. We've done that. Now the focus shifts to that and we've got a point to prove. We have to go out there and be hungry right from the very start. We have to go and win that game as well. We know what position we are in. We have to win games. And that's another one on the step to trying to get us into the playoffs.

Sporting Kansas City forward Daniel Salloi

On whether he touched the ball on his third-minute goal...

Yeah, I touched it.

On Sporting's first-half performance...

Yeah, I'm very happy that we came out flying. I think that was very important, and as Peter said, we controlled the game the whole way. I'm happy. We have to look at it one game at a time and climb back in the playoffs, and what we do next week will be very important.

On returning to play after 22 days off...

I mean, we looked fine. I think that was important for us. I think we played many games and I'm confused by the MLS schedule as to why we had so many more games than the other teams. That break was necessary for our team, and we are over that now and we are pushing for every weekend to give the same performance that we did today because we know we can do this. Now that we've had this little break, we only have to focus on the next game. Things are looking good right now, so I think we just want to roll into next weekend with the same mentality.

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