Sporting Earns 1-1 Road Result at New York Red Bulls
September 7, 2024 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Sporting Kansas City News Release
Sporting Kansas City earned a 1-1 road result at the New York Red Bulls on Saturday as Alan Pulido struck for his sixth goal of the season in all competitions.
Missing six players - including leading scorer William Agada (suspension) and Designated Player Nemanja Radoja (injury) - Sporting Kansas City took the pitch at Red Bull Arena for the first time in more than three years for the club's last of six matches against Eastern Conference foes during the MLS regular season campaign.
A scoreless first half produced a single major moment, which came in the 33rd minute when the hosts threatened to break the deadlock. Cory Burke raced behind the Sporting backline and attempted to round Tim Melia. His heavy touch inside fell into the path of Elias Manoel however the Brazilian striker failed to hit the empty net with his first-time shot from 12 yards out.
Instead, it was Sporting Kansas City that opened the scoring 10 minutes into the second half when Pulido superbly settled the ball with his first touch and buried a shot past Ryan Meara with his second touch. The World Cup veteran now has 36 career goals for the club across all competitions - passing Benny Feilhaber and Graham Zusi for ninth most in team history - and has tallied goal contributions in three straight MLS matches.
Sporting KC Academy product Jake Davis earned the assist with a clever chip and the 22-year-old now has nine goal contributions (three goals, six assists) on the season, including five goal contributions (one goal, four assists) in Sporting's last three matches.
The Sporting Kansas City defense would hold New York without a shot on goal until a corner kick in the 70th minute when Tim Melia did well to tip Dylan Nealis' header over the bar. Melia would be called into action again following a long throw in the 84th minute with a diving save to deny Dante Vanzeir.
The Red Bulls pressure would pay off in the 89th minute as 16-year-old substitute Julian Hall struck for the equalizer to level the cross-conference clash and leave the all-time series between the MLS charter clubs level with 15 draws and 22 victories apiece in the 59 all-time regular season meetings.
The late goal was exacerbated by two late yellow cards to Davis in a five-minute span which left Sporting down a man for the final five minutes of second half stoppage time and will result in a two-match suspension for Davis, who entered the match on caution accumulation warning.
Sporting Kansas City will remain on the road next weekend as the team travels to take on the Seattle Sounders at 6:25 p.m. CT on Sunday, Sept. 15 at Lumen Field in the Pacific Northwest. The Western Conference clash will be free to watch on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV and will also be nationally televised on FS1 and FOX Deportes.
QUOTES
Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes
On the physicality of the match...
We deserved a couple of things in the game. It's for sure not a second yellow card on Jake Davis. So the fact that he now has to sit out the next game is utterly ridiculous. It's not a second yellow card. There's no way. The (opponent) is 70 yards from goal and the two guys are fighting. If you pay attention to the spirit of the game, it has physicality. That's what the game is. And this game was good. It was a good, physical game. No cheap shots by anybody, not at all. It was just physical. Jake competes for the ball, and he actually gets the inside edge on the player. If you're going to call a foul, okay-you call a foul. A player is 70 yards away from goal and our whole entire back four and one of our other midfielders is behind the ball. How is that breaking a promising play, if that's what they called it?
Second, the (foul) in the 80th minute on Khiry Shelton is a penalty kick. Meara, their goalkeeper, comes out and leaves his feet. He runs into our player, knocks him down, then grabs the ball. Anywhere on the field, if any player does anything like that, it's a foul 100%. It's a penalty kick. The fact that they don't review it-again, just sad commentary. We deserved more in the game, for sure, being able to come here and play the way we did. I'm very proud of our guys. They did a great job.
On Sporting's performance in the 1-1 draw...
I don't think they had any chances. Like I said, I think it was a good, spirited game. If anybody has to drive the game, they should. They're at home. I thought that we played well. We were very organized, very disciplined. They weren't breaking us down. They had one chance in the first half. Outside of that, I thought that we were excellent. We didn't give up any shots, really. We didn't give up anything. In the second half, the game opened up a little bit. As I said, we get into a good position, we score, and we're in a good position. We played a great game. Pulido's goal was his first league goal in a little while, and it looked like it was a direct result of some persistence and determination around the box with a loose ball. It's a good scoop from Jake (Davis).
On Alan Pulido's goal and other chances throughout the match...
We had some really good counters in the first half where we kind of missed the final pass. In the second half, we started to get behind them. Our whole idea was to try to win the ball a little bit more in the middle third of the field and then go to goal quickly because they put so many numbers forward. I thought that we created some great chances. On Erik Thommy's chance, he's just a hair offside, but it was a great action when he scored. On our goal, it was a heads-up play by Jake-a great ball over the top. For Alan to be able to settle the ball with his head and finish off the volley was excellent. If you put him anywhere around the box, he's going to score. It's a good finish. The spirit of the whole play for us to keep the ball alive in their half of the field was really good.
On conceding a late equalizer...
I think it's a bad clearance on our part. We clear the ball right into the other player. If we clear the ball up the field, obviously that situation doesn't happen. It wasn't like they made some great play. We had the first strike at the ball. We don't clear it. We hit it off the player, the player gets a second chance on the ball and then we don't go and block the shot and we're late on that part of it. You have got to finish out a game.
On limiting New York's scoring opportunities...
They love to play that direct ball to the back and play second balls. I thought we handled that part really well. We either won the ball or we picked up the second ball in our area. Normally if we didn't, I thought our two central midfielders-they were dogs today. They were excellent at getting out and putting pressure and pushing them backwards so they didn't get sustained possession within our half. (Jake Davis and Zorhan Bassong) did a yeoman's job in the middle of midfield.
Sporting Kansas City midfielder Zorhan Bassong
On his comfort level playing in midfield...
I feel better every day that I play in the midfield. I've been used lately to play over there in training a lot. I feel like me and Jake (Davis) are building a strong connection together, we know who's got to make the run to actually cover the back, for example. I think we're able to have a good balance in the team. I'm happy about the way it goes, not happy about the result. We concede, I think it's a stupid goal, at the end but I'm really happy about the connection I'm building with Jake Davis.
On the game and what the team needs to do to close out games...
I think we've been better defensively. There's been a lot of games we conceded a lot of goals, and I think lately there's been two games in a row we, we had some clean sheets. Today, we conceded one goal, unfortunately, but I think we've got to build up on that. I think we're getting better at this because when you look at the game today, they were not really, really dangerous the whole game. Maybe they had little opportunities, but most of them it's because we make some little mistakes, so I think we're going in a good way and we've got to keep building up on that and, again, I think we're in a good direction.
On the key to limiting New York's chances on the night...
I think we were really aggressive from the very beginning. We knew New York is a team that press a lot, they have a lot of energy and they're a strong team. Sometimes I think they like to bully people, you know? I think we were standing on business, in a kind of way, you know? You could see in the very beginning they came really hard on us. Robi (Voloder), Dany Rosero, even me, but I think we reacted really well, and I think we were really strong mentally today and we could see it on the field.
On picking up a point in a stadium where the Red Bulls have been dominant this season...
It's an important point. I think it's a really important one because at the end of the season those points are really important for the rankings. We're still trying to make our way to the playoffs. Of course we want to get the three points, but a point is still a good result, especially against a team like this and against this big atmosphere in this stadium. I think we're mostly satisfied. Again, we want the three points, but I think it's a good point to take and go back home with it.
Attendance: 17,708
Weather: 63 degrees and rainy
Download: Full match highlights
Download: Alan Pulido opens scoring
Download: Peter Vermes post-match
Download: Zorhan Bassong post-match
Score 1 2 F
Sporting Kansas City (7-14-7, 28 points) 0 1 1
New York Red Bulls (10-5-13, 43 points) 0 1 1
Sporting Kansas City: Tim Melia; Khiry Shelton, Dany Rosero (Robert Castellanos 45+1'), Robert Voloder, Tim Leibold; Jake Davis, Zorhan Bassong, Johnny Russell (C) (Remi Walter 83'), Erik Thommy (Memo Rodriguez 90+7'), Daniel Salloi; Alan Pulido
Subs Not Used: John Pulskamp, Andreu Fontas, Alenis Vargas
New York Red Bulls: Ryan Meara; Andres Reyes, Dylan Nealis, Sean Nealis (C), John Tolkin; Peter Stroud (Dennis Gjengaar 58'), Cameron Harper (Serge Ngoma 74'), Ronald Donkor (Felipe Carballo 46'), Daniel Edelman; Cory Burke (Dante Vanzeir 58'), Elias Manoel (Julian Hall 81')
Subs Not Used: Aidan O'Connor, Dallas Odle, Mohammed Sofo, Tanner Rosborough
Scoring Summary:
SKC -- Alan Pulido 5 (Jake Davis 4) 55'
RBNY -- Julian Hall 2 (unassisted) 89'
Misconduct Summary:
RBNY -- Ronald Donkor (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 22'
RBNY -- Felipe Carballo (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 66'
SKC -- Jake Davis (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 87'
SKC -- Jake Davis (red card; second yellow card) 90+2'
Stat SKC RBNY
Shots 4 11
Shots on Goal 1 3
Saves 2 0
Fouls 18 15
Offsides 3 1
Corner Kicks 2 4
Referee: Ramy Touchan
Assistant Referee: Oscar Mitchell-Carvalho
Assistant Referee: Matthew Nelson
Fourth Official: Sergii Boiko
VAR: Kevin Terry Jr.
AVAR: TJ Zablocki
-- SportingKC.com --
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