
Sporting Falls 2-1 at Minnesota
Published on April 27, 2024 under Major League Soccer (MLS)
Sporting Kansas City News Release
Sporting Kansas City (2-3-5, 11 pts.) fell to a 2-1 defeat against Minnesota United (5-2-2, 17 pts.) at Allianz Field on Saturday night. After falling into a two-goal deficit early, Sporting struck through Alan Pulido late in the first half but was unable to find an equalizing goal in the second half.
Manager Peter Vermes made one change to the team that drew with St. Louis last Saturday, as Sporting KC Academy product Kayden Pierre made his first start of the season at right back in place of fellow Homegrown defender Jake Davis who was serving a one-game suspension due to yellow card accumulation.
The change snapped Davis' 36-game start streak in all competitions dating back to May 28, 2023 and also marked a reintroduction for Pierre - who missed the majority of the 2023 campaign with hamstring issues - as he made his first MLS appearance since March 18, 2023 and first MLS start since Sept. 17, 2022, also against Minnesota.
Sporting fell into an early hole as the team conceded their quickest goal of the 2024 season when Minnesota captain Michael Boxall fired home after Robin Lod had flicked on Joseph Rosales' corner kick just 65 seconds into the match.
Willy Agada almost mustered the perfect response in the seventh minute, latching onto a sumptuous pass from Tim Leibold but fired over the bar with only Loons goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair to beat. The hosts could have doubled their lead six minutes later, but DJ Taylor could only find the outside of the side-netting from close range.
Minnesota doubled their advantage in the 25th minute as Rosales snuck in behind the Sporting backline and squared the ball to Tanitoluwa Oluwaseyi who tapped home. The goal stood despite a lengthy check for offside.
Sporting pulled a goal back in the 38th minute with Pulido finishing off a flowing move for his third goal of the season. Nemanja Radoja clipped a ball over the top for a streaking Daniel Salloi down the left wing who in turn picked out Pulido on the edge of the area and the Mexican showed class and composure to settle the ball before finding the corner, making the score 2-1 heading into halftime.
The goal saw Pulido move into a four-way tie for ninth place in Sporting KC history with 31 regular season goals, joining the company of Benny Feilhaber, Mo Johnston and former teammate Graham Zusi. Salloi's assist saw him rise to 97 career goal contributions (58 goals, 39 assists) in all competitions for Sporting, tying Chris Klein for fourth most in club history.
Minnesota brought on flying South African forward Bongokuhle Hlongwane at halftime and the 23-year-old immediately began causing Sporting problems - first teeing up Oluwaseyi who mishit his shot wide before testing Tim Melia himself with an effort from 20 yards out.
Sporting almost found a leveler in the 78th minute as Salloi's free kick from the left wing picked out Dany Rosero in the middle of the area but his flicked header flew straight into the hands of St. Clair. Moments later, Pulido played Salloi through on goal but the Hungarian could only drag his finish wide on his weaker left foot as Sporting fell to their first road loss of the 2024 campaign.
Sporting KC remains on the road next weekend when the team heads West for a trip to take on Real Salt Lake at America First Field next Saturday night. Kickoff set for 8:30 p.m. CT on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV as well as Sports Radio 810 WHB (English) and La Grande 1340 AM (Spanish) on the radio.
QUOTES
Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes
On Sporting's response after falling behind 2-0 in the first half...
The game shouldn't have been 2-0 to begin with, it should have only been 1-0. If you look where Dany (Rosero) is and where their player is, there is no way VAR should miss that. It's completely unacceptable. That is a missed play. It's so easy to see. So it should be 1-0 at that point. I thought the guys actually played well. I thought we made our adjustments at halftime and we had our chances. I also think we had a penalty kick missed as well on Willy Agada when he was going in on the ball and the player took him off his feet. It doesn't matter, you could turn around and swipe your leg out and may not see the guy, but if you trip him, it's still a foul. It's 100% a foul and it's a penalty 100%. Those two plays are missed and (Minnesota) has an outcome from the game. But you know what, our guys played well. It was a good reaction from the group being down (two) goals. We kept our heads in it and we didn't lose ourselves.
On Sporting's chance creation in the 2-1 loss...
When you go down 2-0, you can lose yourself in the game. We didn't do that. We were actually smart and kept our cool and concentration. I think the guys also exposed how we got in behind them in different situations a few times. We created a few chances, maybe not as clear as you would like. We had the Willy (Agada) one and we had a few here and there. We came up short on that aspect of it, but the game should be 1-1.
On the performance of right back Kayden Pierre and his substitute Khiry Shelton...
Kayden was good. It's different than playing an MLS NEXT Pro game with the speed and everything else. He hasn't had a game like the one he had today. I thought he did well, but with his fitness he started to get tired. I think he was getting to a point where he was cramping up, so the next step was to bring Khiry in, and I thought he actually did well. We were trying to push forward and he was getting into the box and getting forward, which was really good. He actually does a really good job defending his guys out there. So credit to both guys.
On where Sporting stands after 10 matches of the season...
I think that we've given up points where we were in very good positions to get points. Sometimes it's a bounce here or there, but I really like our ability to attack. For the most part, I like the way that we defend a lot of situations, so we're getting better there. I think we still have to work on closing games out. And I would say that some calls have been really poor over the 10 games that have gone against us. You can take the first game at home and start there and then go down the list. Sometimes that will take points away from you as well, but I think we've got a good group and they've shown that they can attack. For the most part, they've shown that they can defend really well as a group. We have defended really well on the road as well, which is sometimes really difficult because the other team drives the game. I thought today we turned the tide in the second half and we put more pressure on them. I think the group is good and we will continue to get better in the other areas. I actually think it's a really good group and a dangerous group.
Sporting KC forward Alan Pulido
On scoring a goal for the second straight game...
This goal for me is nothing because we lost and we came here for a win. I know it's my third goal of the season, but I don't care. I prefer to win and that is more important for me. We need to be better in these matches because we have missed points in these last four games.
On Sporting's response after falling behind early...
After their two goals, we played better with the ball. We needed to push forward and that's normal when you are losing 2-0. But why did we wait such a long time? When the game starts, we need to be ready to push and go forward because when we have the ball, we play very well and have a lot of opportunities. I don't know why the game was like this. We need to work and push forward. This is the objective for the team and we need to be ready for the next match because we don't want to lose any more games.
Major League Soccer Stories from April 27, 2024
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- Defender Moïse Bombito Records his Second Set-Piece Goal of the Season in 2-1 Loss to FC Cincinnati - Colorado Rapids
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The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
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