MLS Sporting Kansas City

Sporting Earns 4-1 Win Over St. Louis

October 30, 2023 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Sporting Kansas City News Release


Four different goal scorers powered Sporting Kansas City to victory in a devasting 4-1 away win over archrival St. Louis City SC in Game 1 of the Western Conference First Round Best-of-3 series on Sunday night at cold and rainy CityPark.

Logan Ndenbe, Remi Walter and Gadi Kinda bagged sensational first-half goals before Daniel Salloi sealed the emphatic result with a 61st-minute finish as Sporting collected its first road playoff win since 2011 and its third away victory all-time in the MLS Cup Playoffs. The dominant performance saw Manager Peter Vermes' men score the second-most goals by a visiting team in the 28-year history of the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs and leave St. Louis with the heaviest MLS defeat of their inaugural campaign.

With a 1-0 lead in the best-of-3 matchup, Sporting will play for a series-clinching victory next Sunday, Nov. 5, when the rivals meet again for an all-important Game 2 at Children's Mercy Park. Kickoff is slated for 4 p.m. CT with live coverage on MLS Season Pass via Apple TV and a limited number of tickets available online at SeatGeek.

Manager Peter Vermes deployed a lineup that featured two changes from Wednesday's dramatic Wild Card match against the San Jose Earthquakes. Kinda started in place of fellow Designated Player Erik Thommy, while winger Khiry Shelton replaced club captain Johnny Russell.

The visitors created a scare for the zealous home crowd in the 12th minute, cleverly attacking down the left side of the penalty area through Kinda, Salloi and Alan Pulido, but the final product failed to test St. Louis goalkeeper Roman Burki. A moment later, Shelton did well to preserve possession and elude a tackler in the box before finding Salloi, whose low drive skipped across the wet turf and wide of the mark.

Sporting goalkeeper Tim Melia, a hero in Wednesday's shootout win over San Jose, was summoned to action for the first time on 21 minutes, dropping instinctively to cast aside Indiana Vassilev's venomous long-range blast after a St. Louis set piece was only partially cleared. The hosts had another dangerous set piece opportunity go begging shortly thereafter as Eduard Lowen's driven delivery fizzed wide of the far post.

Ndenbe fired Sporting ahead in spectacular fashion, dispatching his first goal as a professional from 20 yards out in the 27th minute. Receiving a pass in a central area, Pulido drifted left and spread a pass wide to the 23-year-old Belgian, who took a settling touch before picking out the top right corner with a heat-seeking rocket that left Burki firmly beaten. It was Sporting's first road playoff goal in the first half since 2003 and gave the club its first playoff lead away from home since 2015.

Sporting's advantage lasted just 1 minute and 53 seconds. St. Louis restored parity near the half-hour mark through center back Tim Parker, who slotted low across Melia after Sporting failed to repel Vassilev's out-swinging corner kick. The equalizer rejuvenated CityPark and St. Louis could have surged in front a few minutes later, but Melia stretched out to produce a smart save on Joao Klauss' piledriver.

Vermes' men enjoyed their best three-minute stretch of the season with another pair of sublime strikes in the 36th and 39th minutes that stunned CityPark into silence, save a section of joyful Sporting supporters in the upper deck. Walter vaulted Sporting back into the lead with a pinpoint finish from the top of the box, bagging his first playoff goal off an assist from Salloi, who kept the ball alive after St. Louis had initially cut out Pulido's cross and Kinda's instinctive shot at close range. Salloi now has six goal contributions in the MLS Cup Playoffs-second on the team behind Graham Zusi's-as well as 19 goal contributions this season in all competitions, tied with Pulido for the team lead.

Purring with confidence, Sporting went two goals to the good on perhaps their most impressive strike of the year. Shelton rose high to win a 50-50 ball off Melia's long goal kick and the ball found the feet of Kinda, who embarked on a mazy run to create space before curling a world-class 25-yarder into the back of the net, opening his MLS postseason scoring count in style.

With a 3-1 lead at halftime, Sporting had already secured its first three-goal road playoff game in club history and equaled the most goals St. Louis had conceded in its inaugural MLS campaign.

Sporting kept their foot on the pedal after the break, creating the first two chances of the second period. Salloi was involved in both, forcing a reflex save from Burki on a shot that punctuated an incisive attack involving Pulido and Shelton down the right channel in the 52nd minute, then uncorking a right-footed effort that deflected high and prompted Burki to make a reactionary stop.

Salloi would not be denied his piece of the prize, however, and notched his deserved goal at the hour juncture. Kinda's out-swinging corner kick from the right flag was met at the near post by Pulido, whose glancing header to the back stick was poked home on the doorstep by an unmarked Salloi. The play saw Sporting equal a club record with four goals in a playoff match, having previously accomplished the feat in 2002 and 2018. The quartet of goals were also the most conceded by St. Louis this season in all competitions. With his involvement in the scoring play, Pulido tabbed the first multi-assist game of his MLS career since July 2020 at the MLS is Back Tournament.

Melia did well to keep Sporting's three-goal cushion intact with a brilliant stop in the 73rd minute, denying Klauss what would have been an excellent long-range goal. Sporting's veteran keeper added another stop eight minutes later, corralling Njabulo Blom's hopeful attempt from outside the box, before saving his best save for the final moments, spreading low to punch aside Klauss' towering header on the edge of the six-yard area.

QUOTES

Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes

On scoring three goals in the first half...

I think from the opening whistle, we were knocking on the door. We had some very good counters. We were maybe just off with the final pass or maybe we should have passed it somewhere else. But we had the actions in us. The goals were tremendous goals against that goalkeeper too because I have a tremendous amount of respect for him. I think he is a fantastic goalkeeper. He has done well all season. But those were just really, really good goals by us in today's game. He's got great distribution. It helped us and I think it helped us in a lot of ways. They scored pretty quickly right after. We could have easily lost confidence quickly, especially being away from home. They have made this into a really, really tough place to play. Their fans are into it. That got their fans into it. But for us to get two more goals and then get in and just keep working towards it was big for us, obviously.

On Logan Ndenbe's goal...

I think he deserves it based on the fact that, ever since he came back from his second injury in preseason, he has been a man on a mission. Right place, right time. He does it in training at times as well. A great reward for him, but more importantly the team.

On Gadi Kinda's goal...

Obviously Gadi has a lot of things on his mind with his home and his family and everything else. There was one game that I threw him in sort of right afterwards and he was a little bit disconnected. I probably shouldn't have put him into that game on that day, but he had said that he's ready to go. He feels he's ready to contribute for the team. I thought he was a force today. He was exactly the person that we needed when we brought him in here to begin with. Today he showed that he's kind of back to himself, which was very important for us.

On getting the win in Game 1...

I think we were on such a mission to get back into the playoffs because of our situation with all of our players out and all those things. When we got in, it was such an emotional victory if you will. And then we had to play three days later and that game against San Jose was a very difficult game from a lot of perspectives. It was a difficult game just us getting into it, coming off that emotional high, and we were trying to weather the storm. We suffered a lot in that game. The fact that then we went through the penalty kick shootout -- even more emotions, right? Guys are under pressure. There's just a lot that gets taken out of you. The fact that we now have got to come here. We have got to play a team that has had good rest and hasn't gone through that emotional roller coaster. They've known they've been in for quite some time. It was a big performance by our guys. But I also think that the changes that we made were necessary today. They were necessary. What I'm probably most proud of all of it is that all those guys contributed in such a meaningful way. I really think that has a lot to do with the fact that a lot of those guys got experience all throughout the season.

On the team's defensive performance...

I think they always had it in them, but I think we've had a lot of consistency with the back four now and the goalkeeper and I think that helps. Same people always playing together. They're working things out in training. They're working things out in games. They're just getting more familiar with each other. I think there's a big part of that. I think the other is that I think that their focus and concentration has risen as games have gone on. That has been a big help for us.

On Johnny Russell's absence...

He has a little bit of a sore leg and I wanted to be very careful with him. I was going to maybe bring him in late, but since we were in a good position, it helped out so much not to have to bring him into the game.

On the message to the team heading into Game 2...

You have got to go on with your business. That's a very good team we played tonight. There's a reason why they're in first place in the west. When you do it consistently over the course of the season, it means a lot to a team and they're very good. They have great commitment in the group and they have some real dangerous players within their team. Obviously, we have got a game coming up and we have to look at it it's just the next game. We have got to try to win that game. That's the only way to look at it.

On the team's mentality...

There's no doubt that we've had to scratch, scrape, bite, fight, all the things that you can throw out there. We've had to do all those things since May 1st because, obviously, everybody knows and it's well documented where we were. And so every game that we went into, we've had to get a result. We've had to get points. So as the season wound down, there was less and less room for mistakes or results. So the guys have had to find a way to battle time and time again. I think the first 30 minutes against San Jose, I think San Jose was - I'm not going to say that they were just better than us, they were just more fresh than us -- and so for us, we had to kind of suffer through that game a little bit. The last 10-15 minutes of the first half, we were in it. The second half, I think we were in it much more and we actually almost won it in regulation late in the game and also at the start of the second half. But again, it's just an emotional roller coaster. As much as I've said this before, I can go up to the guys and ask them, 'Hey, how are you doing? You're feeling good?' Ego takes over at that moment and he says, 'Oh yeah, I'm good. I'm good. I feel like I can play. I'm okay. Everything's good'. But it's where I have to make some decisions on some guys and I had to do that this time around. And like I said, I think the good thing is I think that freshness really ruled the day in that those guys contributed and said, 'You know what? They're going to come in and make sure that they play the role that they need to.'

On the team's tactics in the playoffs...

Well, without giving too many things away, I think that the playoffs are, at times, incredibly difficult to navigate. I say that because some of it can depend on where the form is of your team coming out of the season. Some of it is how you finished the last game of your season. In our situation, some of it could be how was your wild card game and each one of those poses a different thing. The other is that you also have to take inventory with the team that you have. How many guys have been in the playoffs? How many guys understand what playoffs are? A lot of times you have got foreign players that come in they've never been through anything like this so it's completely different for them. There's this educational process that you go through with a bunch of those guys. And then the other is that -- I know it's cliche in all sports -- but it's so easy to lose yourself in the playoffs as well in that you start thinking too much about too many things. The only thing that you can work with and focus on is really that next game, that next 45 minutes. That's where you have got to have everything prepared for and then you have got a halftime and you can make some adjustments and then move on from there.

On the team's tactics in the match...

I know that there are people that have a lot of opinions around the fact that I always play a 4-3-3. But what they don't realize is there's a lot of nuance that goes into playing that way and that, depending on different situations and different teams you play against, you have to make adjustments. I think where the real credit goes to is the players. Their execution of what needed to be done in the game was top notch. They really paid attention to our game plan and they were very focused and concentrated for 90+ minutes. It's not easy to do that because obviously as each game comes along there's pressure. But they did an excellent job on that.

On the message to the team at halftime...

They're a team that, man, as they did the last time we played here and in 12 minutes they scored three or four goals. They have the ability to just hike it up, put the pressure, put the pedal to the floor and go. It's a team that can crush you. You also have to take in consideration that Tim (Melia) was fantastic tonight. He made some stops where he held onto the ball where easily he could have bobbled the ball just because of the slickness of the field and the weather conditions. But the team stay focused and concentrated. I would say that's the biggest thing.

Sporting Kansas City is owned by Sporting Club, an entity comprised of local business and community leaders. Sporting prides itself on a commitment and vision to provide high-performance experiences. Sporting Club purchased the team from the Hunt Sports Group in 2006, and under its direction has launched Swope Soccer Village, Children's Mercy Park, Compass Minerals Sporting Fields, Compass Minerals National Performance Center and Central Bank Sporting Complex while investing in the Sporting KC Academy and Sporting Kansas City II for developing local youth into homegrown talent. A charter member of Major League Soccer, Sporting are two-time MLS Cup champions (2000, 2013) and four-time winners of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup (2004, 2012, 2015, 2017).

-- SportingKC.com --

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