MLS Sporting Kansas City

Sporting Ends Season with Playoff Loss to Minnesota

Published on December 4, 2020 under Major League Soccer (MLS)
Sporting Kansas City News Release


Sporting Kansas City suffered a season-ending 3-0 loss to Minnesota United FC on Thursday night in the Western Conference Semifinals of the Audi 2020 MLS Cup Playoffs at Children's Mercy Park.

Minnesota struck three first-half goals in the space of 12 minutes -- receiving a Kevin Molino brace, a Bakaye Dibassy header and three assists from Emanuel Reynoso -- to claim their first win in seven tries at Children's Mercy Park and advance to the Western Conference Final on Monday at Seattle Sounders FC.

Sporting's 2020 campaign ends after the club claimed its fourth first-place conference finish in the last 10 seasons under Manager Peter Vermes, who on Thursday fielded an unchanged lineup from a thrilling Round One playoff victory over the San Jose Earthquakes on Nov. 22.

A turbulent first half for the hosts began brightly as Sporting went agonizingly close to opening the scoring within two minutes. Forward Johnny Russell cut past Minnesota defender Chase Gasper on the right wing and fed midfielder Roger Espinoza, who returned the ball to Russell with a brilliant scoop pass into the box. The Scottish international chipped his shot over the head of stranded goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair, but Minnesota defender Michael Boxall had retreated to head clear off the goal line.

Russell had another major chance to fire his side ahead in the 14th minute, dashing onto Khiry Shelton's through ball and driving goalward, but his side-footed effort was repelled as St. Clair produced a vital reflex save. Only a minute later, the keeper denied Sporting center back Roberto Puncec on the doorstep by turning away his close-range header.

The Loons flipped the game on its head by exploding for three goals between the 27th and 39th minutes. Reynoso manufactured the breakthrough, slipping a pass through to Molino who finished low past Sporting goalkeeper Tim Melia, before the duo combined again eight minutes later. Molino's second tally was an impressive sliding volley off a Reynoso lob pass, giving Molino four goals during the Audi 2020 MLS Cup Playoffs.

Minnesota landed their final punch six minutes shy of halftime as Dibassy nodded home off a Reynoso corner kick, giving the Argentine playmaker his sixth assist of the 2020 postseason.

The second half unfolded in pedestrian manner as the teams combined for just three shots on target. Melia saved a pair of long-range Reynoso strikes before Sporting substitute Erik Hurtado had his 76th-minute attempt smothered by St. Clair.

Sporting Kansas City will now enter the offseason with eyes cast on 2021, which will see the club compete in its 26th campaign as a charter member of Major League Soccer.

QUOTES

Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes

On the play of Emanuel Reynoso...

I think he's done very well for them. He's a very good player. He played very well tonight. He's a good addition. They found a way to play with him. He's driving the team. He played very well.

In regards to the game itself, the first 20 minutes we had four excellent chances and we don't come away with anything. When that happens, they score their goal. They had nothing up until that point. The game changes. I think we probably lost ourselves a little bit in that time period where they scored three goals.

You've got to give the guy credit. He's illusive. Guys find their openings. That's the way it goes sometimes.

On what went wrong in the first half...

We talked about something very specific with them. They love picking up balls in the middle of the park and they like to run at you. It's a big part of their game and they have a lot of interchanging of positions. They do a good job of it. It was a lot of that. I think that on the first goal, they played through us in between the lines and we weren't there to defend the individual ball on that play. The guy just plays a ball through and he gets on a breakaway. I think our line in that moment was too high. That's the way I see it right now but I'd have to see he game again.

On what was absent in the first half...

I don't think it was absent in the first 45 minutes. I think it was that short period of time. We had great chances. We had unbelievable chances. Up until that, they had nothing even at our goal. If we scored one of those, it's different.

We gave up three goals. That's never good. It was for us to try to come back in the second half and try to get the first goal and see if we could chip away at the three. If we did, it would be a hell of a comeback. Unfortunately, we weren't able to do it.

On the breakdown on the first goal...

I haven't seen the game again, but my recollection of what I saw at the time was that both teams were very compact in a very small amount of space. Our line was higher up the field. When the ball got played in between our two lines and the player kind of came off the backline, we didn't step with that guy nor did we drop off at the same time which is what you do. We were kind of caught and then they played the ball through. Molino came running from a deep lying position and we kept him onside. That's really what it was.

On the takeaways from the 2020 season...

We had to deal with a lot of things like a lot of teams did. I give the guys a lot of credit. They were very disciplined. They really were responsible to each other and to the club. It wasn't easy the way they had to go about their lives every day. It really wasn't. They really couldn't do much or go anywhere or do anything. Their normalcy was completely shut down. From that perspective, I give them a lot of credit. They also found a way in a lot of difficult moments to have a calmness and be good. You don't come in first place in the conference just by accident. You don't. I know that a lot of people have made that comment. At the time, I never responded to it but I think it was extremely disrespectful when everybody talks about the schedule that we played and all that stuff. There are teams that we played that we beat and other teams that we didn't play who played those teams and lost to. So I don't know how people make those decisions. It's extremely disrespectful to our club. I would never look at it that way. This was a very difficult year and I thought our guys performed and conducted themselves in a really, really high professional manner.

And there's some really good things. We have some very good players here. A lot of guys got a lot of experience. But it's never good when you finish a season when you know that you had more to give.

I give Minnesota a lot of credit. They found a way. They were very good in transition and on the goals that they scored in that short period of time. After that, we couldn't find a goal. That's the way that it goes sometimes.

On the absence of Alan Pulido...

It's a simple one. Whether it's him or any other player on the roster, I'm never going to sacrifice a guy for one game, especially if for some reason he's just not physically right or I think that's he in a place that he's going to put himself in a place where he could actually get more severely injured. If we would have went through in this round, for sure he would have been in the team -- I don't know if he would have started - but he would have been in the team in the next match if we had gotten through.

Sporting Kansas City forward Johnny Russell

On the team's early chances...

We got off to a great start. I have the chance and [Michael] Boxall does well to clear it off the line. Then again, I have another great chance. I've got to score the second one. No doubt about it, it has to be a goal. We started so well in the first 20-25 minutes until their goal against the run of play. Even the second one is against the run of play. They've been doing that all season so credit to them. I spoke about it during the week. The counterattack, we knew they were going to do it. For that 20-minute period, we just didn't cope well with it at all. We've worked on it so that's disappointing. Like I said, credit to them. They're a dangerous team and they just caught us during that spell.

On the biggest takeaways from this season...

It's been a difficult year for everyone. I think just the effort and commitment that the guys have put in-it's been a crazy year. The start of the season, the big break, going to Orlando then the restart, it's been tough. We stuck together. We were one of the teams who excelled in that period. It's just disappointing for it to end like that when we know we're better than that. We started so well, then that period killed us then after that, it's a very uphill battle to try to get three goals back on that Minnesota team.

Sporting Kansas City midfielder Ilie Sanchez

On the match...

I think that tonight we didn't have anything on our side. We started in the right way, but their first goal was punishing for us and we couldn't come back. They played their game, and we knew exactly what they wanted to do and what they are good at and it happened again. Same in Orlando against Philadelphia - we have 10-15 really bad minutes and we cannot come back. That's a pretty obvious assessment of the game, but I'm not able to give you a different answer.

On matching up against Emanuel Reynoso and the entire MNUFC squad...

He's a good player. [Kevin] Molino is a good player. [Robin] Lod is a good player and [Ethan] Finlay is a good player. For players that like to run into the space, they focus their game on these four players and that's why they moved to the next round.

On allowing three goals and the response...

Obviously, it's tough but that's not surprising. I just think that we could've managed the situation, but if you fall behind 3-0, we knew it was very difficult for us to come back. It's something that we've been working on, but unfortunately, we couldn't show it tonight.

On how the goals were allowed...

They base their game through the middle channel and they accumulate a lot of players through those two, three channels. It's always tough for our defensive line and midfield line to adjust to those movements and that's what happened. We let the players on Minnesota do their job and we couldn't figure that out fast enough to stop them.

Score 1 2 F

Sporting Kansas City 0 0 0

Minnesota United FC 3 0 3

Sporting Kansas City: Tim Melia; Jaylin Lindsey, Roberto Puncec, Winston Reid, Amadou Dia (Luis Martins 56'); Ilie Sanchez, Roger Espinoza (Felipe Hernandez 78'), Gianluca Busio (Gadi Kinda 56'); Johnny Russell (C), Khiry Shelton, Gerso Fernandes (Erik Hurtado 68')

Subs Not Used: John Pulskamp, Andreu Fontas, Graham Smith, Cam Duke, Daniel Salloi

Minnesota United FC: Dayne St. Clair; Romain Metanire, Michael Boxall, Bakaye Dibassy, Chase Gasper; Jan Gregus, Osvaldo Alonso (C) (Hassani Dotson 72'); Ethan Finlay, Emanuel Reynoso (Marlon Hairston 80'), Kevin Molino (Jacori Hayes 88'); Robin Lod

Subs Not Used: Adrian Zendejas, Jose Aja, Noah Billingsley, Thomas Chacon, Kei Kamara, Aaron Schoenfeld

Scoring Summary:

MIN -- Kevin Molino 3 (Emanuel Reynoso 4) 27'

MIN -- Kevin Molino 4 (Emanuel Reynoso 5) 35'

MIN -- Bakaye Dibassy 1 (Emanuel Reynoso 6) 39'

Misconduct Summary:

MIN -- Emanuel Reynoso (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 42'

MIN -- Jan Gregus (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 57'

MIN -- Chase Gasper (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 80'

MIN -- Bakaye Dibassy (yellow card; time wasting) 82'

MIN -- Marlon Hairston (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 84'

Stat SKC MIN

Shots 19 13

Shots on Goal 5 8

Saves 5 4

Fouls 12 20

Offsides 2 3

Corner Kicks 5 4

Referee: Drew Fischer

Assistant Referee: Kathryn Nesbitt

Assistant Referee: Peter Manikowski

Fourth Official: Victor Rivas

VAR: Edvin Jurisevic

AVAR: Eric Weisbrod

Check out the Sporting Kansas City Statistics

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Major League Soccer Stories from December 4, 2020


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