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MLS Sporting Kansas City

Sporting Falls 2-1 on the Road against Austin FC

July 15, 2023 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Sporting Kansas City News Release


Sporting Kansas City (6-11-8, 26 pts.) fell to a 2-1 defeat on the road to Austin FC (9-9-5, 32 pts.) at Q2 Stadium down in Texas on Saturday night. Dany Rosero's first-half goal proved to be inconsequential as two goals in three first-half minutes from Austin's Gyasi Zardes and Ethan Finlay put the hosts in an unassailable lead.

Peter Vermes made three changes to a team that was playing their third match in seven days, as Logan Ndenbe replaced Tim Leibold at left back, Marinos Tzionis coming in for Johnny Russell on the right wing and rookie Stephen Afrifa earning his first MLS start in place of Alan Pulido.

Afrifa almost enjoyed a dream start to the match, closing down Austin goalkeeper Brad Stuver's clearance and seeing the ball ricochet over the bar from close range in just the third minute.

Austin almost forced their way in front in the 10th minute as Diego Fagundez clipped a free kick to the far post that found Kipp Keller who sent a towering header over the bar from six yards out.

The hosts eventually found the breakthrough in the 17th minute as Gyasi Zardes met Jon Gallagher's cross and after seeing his initial header repelled by Kendall McIntosh, the former USMNT striker fired home the rebound to give Austin a 1-0 lead.

It went from bad to worse for Sporting as just two minutes later, Austin doubled their lead. Fagundez sent an outside-of-the-foot ball that split the Sporting backline, allowing Ethan Finlay to fire a first-time strike beyond McIntosh and into the back of the net.

Sporting almost pulled a goal back in the 26th minute as Nemanja Radoja set up Erik Thommy 20 yards from goal, but he was unable to trouble Stuver with his low strike.

Sporting found their lifeline in the 33rd minute as Dany Rosero thundered home a header off Daniel Salloi's corner kick for his second goal of the campaign, making the score 2-1 at halftime.

Sporting made a pair of big changes at the halftime interval, with top scorer Pulido and captain Russell replacing Afrifa and Tzionis, respectively, but it was Austin who almost found the next goal as Jon Gallagher turned inside the area and saw a powerful effort from a tight angle pushed away by McIntosh.

Midfielder Felipe Gutierrez, who returned to the club earlier this month after starring as a Designated Player from 2018-2020, came on as a substitute in the 66th minute to mark his first appearance for the club since Oct. 6, 2019.

Austin substitute Rodney Redes almost restored the home side's two-goal advantage in the 71st minute, latching onto the ball following a turnover from McIntosh but the Sporting goalkeeper atoned for his error by tipping his low finish just wide of the post.

Sporting pushed forward late on but neither Gutierrez nor fellow sub Gadi Kinda were able to trouble Stuver with speculative efforts from distance as Sporting fell to 6-11-8 heading into the Leagues Cup break.

Sporting now readies for Leagues Cup 2023, with the team set to open play in Group 3 of the Central Region with a visit to Supporters' Shield leaders FC Cincinnati in what will be Sporting's first-ever visit to TQL Stadium next Sunday, July 23. The match will kick off at 6:30 p.m. CT and air on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV.

QUOTES

Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes

Thoughts on the match...

I'm disappointed. The two goals we gave up in the first half put us in a hole. Obviously, we had a plan to try to keep ourselves in the game in the first half. It would have been nice to have been even or ahead at halftime and then we had a chance to bring on quite a few guys. I think using them, based on how much time all these guys have played in the last couple of games, and being able to use them in a good way and then also the heat and everything else, I think we had the right idea. Again, we just put ourselves in a hole with two goals.

On conceding the two goals...

I would say that you're right that they are easily avoidable. You could defend them very easy. My frustration is just our lack of recognition because it's something that, obviously from a preparation perspective, we talked about. It's a big part of their game, serving the ball, especially cutting back and then serving a ball, which they did. And for us not to be attentive to that after our preparation for it, that's where the disappointment is.

On playing three games in a week in summer conditions...

Having played in this league and in these environments over the years, there's no doubt there's a mental aspect to being able to overcome the obstacles There are games where you have to go and play in altitude, and you don't train in altitude and you just have to find a way to overcome it and find success in it. I don't think that the goals were scored because of the number of games in seven days. I can't honestly say that. I would be making an excuse for the guys. I think that it was poor defending on our part on both goals. I also thought that we also could have done better just from a shot stopping perspective, especially the second one. But the shot should never even happen. We should be able to deal with that situation and the player should never have that kind of time, nor should that ball get to where it got to in the way that it did. It wasn't some great pass. Our defending in those two situations was very poor.

On the goalkeeping position...

I'm not going to sit here and talk about a goalie change. What I will say is that I think that there are chances that happen in games. There are goals that happen and sometimes, for sure, a goalkeeper can make a better save. There's no doubt. And then there are other ones that there's really not much he can do. You said six (goals) here over the last three games. I would say there's quite a few of them that are very difficult from the goalkeeper's perspective. So I'm more concerned about the defending in those situations. Again, I think when someone says is this now a real concern? You're concerned about something after every game, after you do inventory. Guys maybe weren't fit enough. I'm not saying they weren't. I'm saying for an example. Maybe we didn't defend well. Maybe we weren't good in possession. Maybe we didn't create enough high-quality chances. I just think that we've given up some goals in these last few games that we were in charge of games and we shouldn't have given them up, or we've given up easy goals which put us in a hole and now we're trying to climb back. That's the difficulty of it. That's the hard part to accept.

On the substitution for Nemanja Radoja...

He just took a whack in his calf. I think he's going to be okay. He just took a whack.

On the upcoming break for Leagues Cup...

First of all, we're highly motivated in this Leagues Cup. We want to go and do the best that we can. We want to try to win the thing. We have to get ready for our first game against Cincinnati. It's going to be important. They're in good form. But I think, for us, we have to work on aspects of our game. I think we have to be so much better defensively. I would normally not say this, but I'm going to say it. Our backline has to do better in these very normal situations that we're giving up goals on. They're routine situations and we have to get better right now. From this day forward, moving into the rest of the games, we have to get better. It'll be good because we're going to be able to get some guys fit. There are a lot of training days as well, and we're going to use those days. We'll have a little bit of a break with a couple of days off and then we'll get back to training and we'll start working on those aspects of our game to get ourselves ready for Leagues Cup and then also the push at the end.

On Felipe Gutierrez making his first appearance...

It's a tough evaluation. He has a great soccer brain. He's incredibly technical. He's got great vision. But at this moment when he comes on, and it was okay, we were chasing the game. And we're trying to get back in the game and he's trying to get in the rhythm of the guys and all those different things. So I know what he has. I think he has things in his game that are going to be very useful to us moving forward. I wouldn't use this as some great opportunity to evaluate his game other than the fact that I think he tried to give us what he could based on the limited time with us.

Sporting Kansas City defender Andreu Fontas

On what went wrong in the game...

It's difficult to get the results when we are not - I don't know what to say - for the full 90 minutes. It's frustrating because I think we're doing good things in the games, but for 75 or 80 minutes and obviously in this league that is not enough. Today, we started really bad. We knew that they were coming with people. They put a lot of people in the box. They cross. We knew but still we couldn't defend it. I think we started very bad. Then we got better with the ball. But again, it's a lot to comeback into the game. I think we tried. We were there. Then they waste time too. We couldn't get at least a point to get something from here. Obviously, the loss is not enough. We're sad and frustrated for that.

On what's went wrong in the recent results...

I think we weren't as bad as the results, I would say. But again, it's not enough to say it or it's not enough to be decent or good for 80 minutes or parts of the games and not the full 90. You get punished. The physical aspect, I don't know. It was obviously hard, but as you said, we did it before and we got a lot better results. I think especially the first two are frustrating because we were there. We had the wins and we let them go. This one, we started really bad. It was a little bit the opposite of the others and we couldn't get these two goals to at least tie and get another point and not let them get the three points. It's just frustrating. I don't know exactly the key. Obviously, if we knew it, we probably would have done better. I don't know exactly what's the problem, but we have nine finals after Leagues Cup. Now we have to focus on Leagues Cup. And then after, we have to win a lot of games to be where we want to be. Obviously, we wanted to finish better before this break, but we couldn't. It's frustrating. Again, no excuses in physical or any aspect. We need to be better, and we weren't.

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