Sporting Earns 2-1 Comeback Win over Austin
May 10, 2021 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Sporting Kansas City News Release
Sporting Kansas City (2-1-1, 7 points) staged a stunning fightback on Sunday night at electric Children's Mercy Park, erasing a late deficit to secure a 2-1 victory in a pulsating battle against upstart expansion club Austin FC (2-2-0, 6 points).
After Jon Gallagher vaulted Austin into an early lead, Sporting seized attacking initiative and were rewarded for their dominance with an 82nd-minute equalizer from Ilie Sanchez and a dramatic 90-minute winner off the head of substitute Gadi Kinda. The last-gasp comeback marked the first time Sporting had won an MLS match when trailing past the 80th minute since June 2018 and lifts Manager Peter Vermes' side into a tie for fourth place in the Western Conference table.
Sunday's instant classic served as a Sporting reunion for Austin FC head coach Josh Wolff, assistant Davy Arnaud and starting center back Matt Besler, all of whom starred for Kansas City as players during their heralded MLS careers. The visitors were facing a Sporting side that made four lineup changes from last weekend's road loss to Real Salt Lake, with defenders Roberto Puncec and Graham Zusi joining the backline, Roger Espinoza bolstering the midfield and Daniel Salloi slotting into the attack.
Zusi's inclusion in the starting XI -- his first MLS match since suffering a long-term foot injury against Chicago Fire FC on Oct, 7, 2020 -- notably vaulted him past longtime teammate Besler and into sole possession of first place in Sporting history with 295 regular season appearances for the club.
A frantic first half saw Sporting conjure the first major opportunity within five minutes. Logging his 100th Sporting appearance in all competitions, captain Johnny Russell slipped a delectable through ball into the path of striker Alan Pulido, who rounded onrushing goalkeeper Brad Stuver only to see his effort from a remarkably tight angle skip wide into the side netting.
Sporting were left ruing the miss just two minutes later when Austin opened the scoring. Afforded space on the right sideline, Jared Stroud whipped a diagonal ball across the field for Gallagher, who took a touch and finished low past goalkeeper John Pulskamp for his goal in an Austin uniform.
The visitors nearly produced an instant equalizer, as Salloi did well to chest down a floated delivery from Pulido and fire a blistering 13-yard strike over the crossbar in the ninth minute. Not long later, Austin FC Designated Player Cecilio Dominguez summoned Pulskamp into a pair of lunging saves with long-range belters from outside the box.
Busio was on the receiving end of golden chances in the 17th and 23rd minutes, both of which were supplied by the lively Zusi. The 18-year-old's left-footed attempt was cast aside by the outstretched Stuver, six minutes before his unmarked header carried inches over the woodwork. Busio asked yet another question of the Austin defense near the half-hour mark, winning a loose ball and prompting Stuver to drop low for another save.
Seconds after Busio planted his header wayward, Stuver did brilliantly to stick out his foot and deny Salloi in a one-on-one breakaway. The back-and-forth spectacle continued to entertain, as Austin midfielder Tomas Pochettino's blast from distance rattled the underside of the crossbar in the 34th minute.
Sporting finished the night with 25 shot attempts -- two more than their first three games of the season combined -- and took a stranglehold of proceedings in the late stages, but not before Pulskamp made a smart save to thwart Stroud on a quickfire Austin counter attack in the 48th minute. Shortly thereafter, Dominguez bucked forward and dragged a left-footed shot marginally wide of Pulskamp's left-hand post.
Sporting's frustration was compounded on 58 minutes when another chance went begging. Busio's high pressure created a turnover and forced Austin midfielder Alex Ring into a meaty tackle that redirected the ball invitingly to Salloi, whose side-footed snapshot drifted off target by slim margins.
The complexion of the game changed in the 67th minute when Ring received his marching orders for a second bookable offense, this time clipping Ilie from behind near midfield. The play reduced Austin to 10 men and opened the door for Sporting to lay ceaseless siege on the visitors' goal.
Salloi was desperately unlucky not to level terms in the 74th minute, combining with Busio on the edge of the box before unleashing a smoothly struck curler that was touched onto the crossbar by Stuver's fingertips. Four minutes later, Busio's in-swinging corner took a glance to the far post and was headed back across the face of goal by substitute Kaveh Rad. Fellow center back Andreu Fontas was well positioned to steer home but prodded his header a few inches high.
Sporting's cathartic breakthrough came with 82 minutes on the clock, as Ilie leapt to nod Russell's corner kick past Stuver and inside the near post. Ilie tallied his first goal since July 2019 on the play, extending the club's home scoring streak to 19 consecutive regular season matches.
With a boisterous crowd pushing the hosts forward in search of a winner, Sporting grabbed exactly that in the final minute of normal time. Substitute Khiry Shelton's flicked header off a cross from Luis Martins found an open Kinda, who made no mistake nodding into the back of the net for his second goal of the 2021 campaign. The momentous goal sparked scenes of celebration across the stadium, and although Sporting spurned a pair of chances to add icing to the cake in second-half stoppage time, the 2-1 result would stand until the full-time whistle.
Vermes' men will face a quick turnaround next week, visiting rivals Houston Dynamo FC (1-2-1, 4 points) in at 7:30 p.m. CT showdown at BBVA Stadium. The Western Conference clash will be shown live on Bally Sports Kansas City Plus, Bally Sports Midwest Plus, BallySports.com and the Bally Sports app.
QUOTES
Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes
On the second half substitutions...
We actually were looking to get Khiry (Shelton) as a second forward. That's what we were trying to do, and we wanted to go to three at the back. We decided to make the changes that we did. Daniel (Salloi) was incredibly dangerous. He had some great chances. I thought the goalkeeper made a tremendous save on the one late in the second half there where he tipped it over the bar when Daniel cut inside. It was a great strike. The goalkeeper made a great save. He was keeping them in the game. We wanted to apply pressure with another person in the middle to give us a reference point and I thought that having Khiry in there really helped us.
On the team creating so many chances...
What I really appreciate about the guys is that I said to them at halftime, 'There's no reason to come in at halftime and feel down.' We created some really good chances. We're still trying to find ourselves for a number of reasons. We're still trying to get fit. We're trying to just get bodies on the field. There's a lot of different things that we're trying to do right now. We're just not fully there yet. What I really like is that the guys kept a good mentality going into the second half and really never gave up trying to get back into the game. They were purposeful about the decisions that they made in and around the box. Luis (Martins) today with his service was tremendous. He was really, really good with his service today. I think that made a big difference in the game.
On staying positive despite being down 1-0...
I was really proud of the fact that we came out to try to be more like us. I thought we were good with the ball. I thought we circulated the ball, especially down the left we were very strong. We were creating chances and that's what I want to see from our team. I know sometimes the ball is going to go the other way and something is going to happen, like on the goal that they scored. That's going to happen every once in a while. We kept ourselves in the game. That was the most important thing. That's why I was so positive.
On Ilie's performance...
He has a lot of assets that he provides us in the game. The fact that he could move around, play in the back. When we moved to three in the back, he went to the back in the middle. It helps us immensely to be able to make that shift and for him to do it in a really, really good way. It helps us a lot. That was a big change in the game which I thought put a lot of pressure on them.
On the play of John Pulskamp...
He's getting better all the time. You can tell he's getting more comfortable with his feet and he's getting more comfortable in the management of the game. For a guy as young as he is, he's doing a hell of a job.
On Austin FC going down a man...
I think he could have easily had a couple of yellows that would have led to a red. All the same I guess, it probably just could have happened a lot earlier. Sometimes there is an accumulation. What they did a really good job of is when we did break them a few times and started to get out on the run, they were doing the tactical fouls. I think those things need to be managed, and unfortunately neither the players nor the coaches can manage that. The referee has to. All in all, I thought those guys did a decent job in the game.
On the play of Andreu Fontas...
He's a very, very experienced player. When we have the ball, he's very good in those moments. We're a team that wants to have the ball. We're a team that wants to play out of the back. I thought that he was very good on the ball again today. He was very calm in situations. He made some timely tackles defending. That consistency continues to bear fruit for us and we've just got to keep riding that and he does, as well. Credit to him, because he takes care of himself.
On Graham Zusi's return...
He's a monster. For him to go 55 minutes like he did today, I wasn't sure if I was going to have to sub him 30 minutes into the game or 45. The fact that he went another 10 minutes after the break was tremendous. That's a credit to him and the way he takes care of himself and the way he works. I was in preseason with him. When I was going and working out in the gym at 6 o'clock in the morning, he was there every morning doing therapy, staying strong, staying fit. He's a consummate professional and a great example to a lot of guys on our team. Even when he came off and he was sitting on the bench - him and Roger both, two guys that have as much experience as they do and played so many games for this club - they were so motivated and cheering the guys on and into the game. It's great to see their competitiveness and the way they go about their business. I'm very happy for Zusi. He's put a lot of work into getting to where he is and he had a really good performance.
On the return of Matt Besler...
It's not an easy thing. I have a special place for Besler. We spent a lot of years together. We went through a lot of battles and a lot of wars and won a lot of them. I know what it's like when you leave a team that you've been with and then you go someplace else. It's always a tough thing as a player. I've got nothing but great ideas about him, great memories. He's a class act. I wish him knowing but the best and it was good seeing him after the game.
Sporting Kansas City midfielder Gadi Kinda
Thoughts on the game...
It was a good game. We had a lot of chances to score. We deserved to take the win and I'm happy for the three points.
On the team's mentality...
We had a great mentality, even up against 11 players. I think we played very well. We could have scored before they got the red card. I hope the next game we will score our chances.
On the team's chemistry...
We have a good relationship with all of the players. We understand each other very well. You can see it in the games.
On how he felt when he scored...
I like to score. It's the best feeling to score and a last-minute goal is amazing. I am very happy with these three points.
On celebrating postgame...
It felt amazing. The fans are fantastic. It's a great feeling.
Sporting Kansas City defender Graham Zusi
On returning to action and playing against Matt Besler..
I actually can't describe in words what it felt to be back in front of the fans. It kind of caught me off guard, I was a bit emotional when I came out for warm-ups. It felt fantastic to be back and to cap it off with a win as well. Playing against Bes, we've been teammates for so long and we've had this very healthy competitiveness towards each other really our whole careers and I think that's what's pushed us to where we've been able to get to. So to compete against him in a match was fun. Bes was Bes on the field. He was smart, extremely good on the ball, soccer IQ is through the roof and just a tough guy to play against. When we were close to each other on the field we exchanged a couple of words and said our hellos. You always want to be on the same team as Bes but the next best thing is competing against a guy like that.
On becoming Sporting KC's all-time regular-season appearance leader...
I was not aware of that, but that's kind of cool I guess. This club means everything to me, it's the only one I've played for and the only one I know and the only one I'd like to play for. You go throughout the years and the memories we've built here, the trophies we've won and the trophies we want to win in the coming years as well. I really have nothing but fond memories from my time here and I'd like to see that continue for as long as possible.
On the team's confidence in being able to rally late in the game...
If you look at the game as a whole, I think we fully deserved to win the game with the amount of chances that we created. Some of them, from no fault of our own - goalkeeper made some fantastic saves against us, a couple of them I think we could've done a little bit better as well but we created some high, high quality chances in this game and I think we deserved the win. Fully took advantage of the red card as well, I think with stoppage time we probably had another 30 minutes left in the game once the red card happened. The guys were calm and collected, continued to play our game and we know that once we're a man up it should give us ample time to get some more opportunities and a couple of our guys put away some good chances.
On goalkeeper John Pulskamp making big saves after the team had scored...
That's inexcusable from us to score a goal and then give up a chance from the kickoff. That's pretty poor and it's lack of - we lost focus for five seconds and that should not happen off a kickoff but Pulskamp bailed us out on that one. I can't say enough about some of the saves he made today but from a focus standpoint that's inexcusable from us.
On surpassing Matt Besler as the club's all-time regular-season appearance leader...
As far as I'm concerned, any record that myself or Matt holds, whether one of us jumps the other, we've done that all together so might as well tattoo both our names in the history books.
Sporting Kansas City midfielder Ilie Sanchez
Thoughts on the performance...
I think that today is a good step forward for us to build confidence. If we play the way that we tried to in the first half and that we did in the second half, for our next games it's not going to be that difficult to get the three points. I'm happy because we got the result obviously but more happy because of the performance, especially in the second half.
On the team's mentality to score two goals late in the game...
It's not easy, it's not easy. I know that we played with one man up for 20 minutes but probably they should've gotten the red card earlier so that doesn't mean anything. We did our job, we took advantage of the circumstances in the game and very happy that we got the three points.
On scoring from a corner after creating several opportunities from set pieces...
The crosses are everything, Busio played me two similar crosses in the second half, Johnny was excellent in the one that we scored. The crosses are everything for us, we just have to be consistent in our runs and that's what happened tonight and I'm happy for helping the team.
On how tonight's result will help the team with two games next week...
Well we have to rest now. I think that going into two games, one in the middle of the week and one next weekend at home, for us it's better if we're happy with our win. It's one more game, four in the season, 30 to go so let's keep building, improving and now it's time to rest and focus on Wednesday's game tomorrow.
2021 MLS Regular Season | Match 4
Children's Mercy Park | Kansas City, Kansas
Weather: 52 degrees and cloudy
Score 1 2 F
Sporting Kansas City (2-1-1, 7 points) 0 2 2
Austin FC (2-2-0, 6 points) 1 0 1
Sporting Kansas City: John Pulskamp; Graham Zusi (Jaylin Lindsey 54'), Roberto Puncec (Kaveh Rad 58' [Khiry Shelton 85']), Andreu Fontas, Luis Martins; Ilie Sanchez, Gianluca Busio, Roger Espinoza (Gadi Kinda 54'); Johnny Russell (C), Alan Pulido, Daniel Salloi (Remi Walter 85')
Subs Not Used: Kendall McIntosh, Amadou Dia, Grayson Barber, Wilson Harris
Austin FC: Brad Stuver; Nick Lima, Jhohan Romaña, Matt Besler, Zan Kolmanic; Tomas Pochettino (Hector Jimenez 85'), Alexander Ring (C), Diego Fagundez (Daniel Pereira 61'); Jared Stroud (Rodney Redes 61'), Jon Gallagher (Sebastian Berhalter 71'), Cecilio Dominguez (Julio Cascante 71')
Subs Not Used: Andrew Tarbell, Frederik Kleemann, Danny Hoesen, Kekuta Manneh
Scoring Summary:
ATX -- Jon Gallagher 1 (Jared Stroud 2) 7'
SKC -- Ilie Sanchez 1 (Johnny Russell 1) 82'
SKC -- Gadi Kinda 2 (Khiry Shelton 2, Luis Martins 1) 90'
Misconduct Summary:
ATX -- Jhohan Romaña (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 42'
ATX -- Alexander Ring (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 45'
SKC -- Ilie Sanchez (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 56'
SKC -- Luis Martins (yellow card; dissent) 59'
ATX -- Alexander Ring (yellow card/red card; unsporting behavior) 67'
ATX -- Daniel Pereira (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 87'
Stat SKC ATX
Shots 25 11
Shots on Goal 8 6
Saves 5 6
Fouls 7 10
Offsides 1 1
Corner Kicks 14 3
Referee: Ted Unkel
Assistant Referee: Cameron Blanchard
Assistant Referee: Kevin Klinger
Fourth Official: Chris Ruska
VAR: Kevin Terry Jr.
AVAR: Fabio Tovar
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