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MLS Sporting Kansas City

Sporting Eliminated from U.S. Open Cup

May 10, 2023 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Sporting Kansas City News Release


Sporting Kansas City saw their 2023 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup run come to an end on Wednesday night as the team was eliminated in the Round of 32 with a 1-0 loss on the road to Houston Dynamo FC at Shell Energy Stadium. Thor Ulfarsson's 12th-minute goal was enough for the Dynamo, who had to see out the final 55 minutes a man down following a red card to Chase Gasper.

Sporting made 10 changes from the team that beat Seattle Sounders FC on Sunday, with Gadi Kinda the only player maintaining his spot in the lineup. John Pulskamp was back in goal with veterans Graham Zusi and Roger Espinoza at outside back, while Nemanja Radoja made his return from injury in the midfield and Stephen Afrifa earned his professional debut up front.

Sporting began the match on the front foot and should have taken the lead in the sixth minute. Graham Zusi played a delightful ball over the top to find Marinos Tzionis streaking down the right wing and his low cross picked out Afrifa in front of goal but the 22-year-old was unable to hit the target on his debut.

Houston took the lead in the 12th minute as Ulfarsson picked up a second ball 25 yards from goal and lashed a powerful low effort into the bottom corner to give the hosts a 1-0 lead.

Sporting center back Chris Rindov made his first start for the club and he had two opportunities in the matter of three minutes to equalize off almost carbon copy set piece situations. In the 20th minute, he headed Kinda's corner kick over the bar and three minutes later, he again met a Kinda set piece and this time planted his header against the crossbar.

Sporting continued to pile on the pressure and Tzionis was the next player to go close, meeting Espinoza's delivery on the volley but his effort bounced into the arms of Andrew Tarbell.

The match turned on its head in the 35th minute when Espinoza's stunning pass picked out Tzionis whose first touch took him in on goal only for the winger to be tugged back just outside the area by Chase Gasper, who was shown a straight red card for denial of an obvious goalscoring opportunity.

Kinda stepped up to take the free kick and forced an excellent save out of Tarbell with a shot that was destined for the top corner.

Sporting came out with intent to start the second half with both halftime sub Daniel Salloi and Zusi both forcing Tarbell into diving stops within the first three minutes of the half.

Sporting spurned a golden opportunity to equalize as Khiry Shelton found himself clean through on goal after Ethan Bryant forced a turnover, but the forward's finish caromed off the post and away from goal.

The gilt-edged opportunities continued to flow for Sporting as this time Salloi sent a free header over the bar off a brilliant cross from Zusi in the 64th minute.

Houston survived a controversial moment in the 70th minute as Nemanja Radoja attempted to flick a ball into the path of Remi Walter in the box which was blocked by the arm of Brooklyn Raines but referee Sergii Demianchuk missed it.

In the 85th minute, Salloi and Bryant combined nicely down the left before Salloi cut a cross back toward Walter in the area but the Frenchman could only divert his header over the bar as Houston would hang on to advance to the Round of 16.

Sporting continues the club's congested MLS schedule this Saturday night when the team plays host to Minnesota United FC at Children's Mercy Park. Kickoff is set for 7:39 p.m. CT on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV, while the game will also air on Sports Radio 810 WHB (English) and La Grande 1340 AM (Spanish).

QUOTES

Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes

On the team not finishing its chances...

There were so many sitters today. You have to score. I mean, it's a simple thing. You have to score. I don't know what you want me to tell you about it. I can't shoot the ball, so I can only tell you that there's probably at least four, maybe a fifth that you could throw in there as well, but there's at least four just unbelievable opportunities. We didn't score.

On the schedule congestion...

No. I wouldn't put that in there. Nope. We put a group of guys on the field that all had energy and they had an opportunity in front of them as well. They had a real opportunity in front of them. Unfortunately, we didn't get it done. But we sure had the chances. But it has nothing to do with travel. It has nothing to do with midweek and all the other stuff. That's part of what we do. You have got to be ready. We rotated our roster around. We put fresh guys out there. We had subs all lined up. We had all that ready to go. I don't think it was for a lack of that. Now there are some guys that went longer than I thought, but they also went longer because we had the ball for a good portion of the game, especially the whole second half. So it wasn't as if they had to defend and they were wasting a lot of energy there. They could stay on the field, but they didn't kill themselves in this game.

On the play of Marinos Tzionis...

First half, he was very good. I just think we were slow at moving the ball in the second half and we didn't find as many opportunities where he was 1v1. They also made a little bit of a change because they put a couple of different guys out there to be with him one-on-one. And really at that point, they didn't have to go forward anymore. Because they already knew they were down a man and they were just packing it in every time they could. It was for sure hard to break that down, but we created more than enough chances in the game to have walked away with the win.

On the sub of Robert Voloder for Robert Castellanos...

What we did was we went to actually three in the back, and we went to five in the middle of the park, meaning three in the middle, two out wide and two up front. So we actually put on another attacking player to get us into that shape.

Sporting Kansas City midfielder Roger Espinoza

On not being able to finish any of the team's chances...

It's tough to say, tough to say. We created a lot of chances. I like to be a positive guy. I'll believe that with the chances, if we keep creating chances like that, we'll be in a good spot. At least we're creating them.

On getting ready for Minnesota at home on Saturday...

That's the beauty of soccer. You can right away go play on Saturday and try to win that game. We have some guys that rested tonight, so hopefully on Saturday now we continue with another win at home.

On playing at left back...

Exactly 10 years ago in the FA Cup, I was a left back, so 10 years ago. It felt good. You can go 90 minutes just because you can rest a little bit when the ball is on the other side, on the weak side. But hey, anywhere I can help the team, it doesn't matter where - except for goalie, right, I can't play there -- but anywhere I can help the team, I'm okay with that. It sucks that we lost the game, but if I can help the team anywhere, I'll do it.

On the team being able to focus on league play...

Yeah, we have to go now and worry about MLS. The Open Cup is over and now we have got to be excited because we won last game in Seattle and now we still have a good run to go. We have a few (upcoming) games, one at home and then next week two away. So we've got to be ready for that. I just don't know when we're going to have home games. It looks like every game we play is on the road, but I'm happy to be home this weekend.

On playing Houston repeatedly in the U.S. Open Cup...

It doesn't matter. Anybody you have got to play, you've gotta go to win. Every game is tough. Every team is tough. It's easier for us. It's a quick flight. So I'm not complaining just because we don't have to go far to the east or far to the west coast. It's very close to us. It sucks that we had to play away, but that's the draw that we got. I thought we had the opportunity to win tonight. We created enough chances to win the game.

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).

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