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MLS Sporting Kansas City

Sporting Falls to St. Louis

May 20, 2023 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Sporting Kansas City News Release


Sporting Kansas City (2-8-4, 10 points) suffered a 4-0 defeat in the club's inaugural meeting with rivals St. Louis City SC (7-4-1, 22 points) on Saturday night at Citypark in St. Louis. The hosts struck twice in both halves with Indiana Vassilev notching a brace to go with goals from Eduard Lowen and Niko Gioacchini.

With a breathless stretch of five matches in 14 days in the rearview, Sporting will rest and recover ahead of a home game against the Portland Timbers next Sunday, May 28. Kickoff at Children's Mercy Park is set for 2 p.m. CT with tickets available at SeatGeek.com and live coverage on FOX and MLS Season Pass via Apple TV.

Peter Vermes made three changes to Sporting's lineup from a 1-1 draw at LAFC on Wednesday, bringing in new starters at both outside back positions while also swapping out Designated Players in the attacking midfield role. Veteran Graham Zusi reprised his right back role and Tim Leibold returned at left back, logging his first appearance since suffering a hamstring injury on March 11. Further up the pitch, Gadi Kinda replaced Erik Thommy, who had previously started all 13 regular season matches this year.

An electric atmosphere at Citypark provided the perfect setting for a battle that saw St. Louis threaten first in the fifth minute. Winger Jared Stroud squeezed his way past a pair of defenders on the edge of the area, benefited from a fortuitous bounce of the ball and had his shot from near the penalty spot saved impressively by outstretched Sporting goalkeeper Kendall McIntosh. Not long later, Lowen's low drive from distance fizzed marginally wide of the left post.

At the opposite end, Sporting conjured a chance of their own in the 14th minute. Remi Walter-earning his 56th consecutive regular season start-won an aerial challenge that teed up forward Alan Pulido for a shot at the top of the box, but his deflected effort was cast aside by St. Louis keeper Roman Burki.

The hosts pushed ahead in the 19th minute when Lowen buried his penalty kick after Sporting midfielder Nemanja Radoja was penalized for a foul on Vassilev inside the box. It was Lowen's third goal of the campaign and the fourth penalty conceded by Sporting this season, the most in MLS.

Sporting's problems were compounded in the 25th minute as Vassilev bagged his first goal of the year, pushing the scoreline to 2-0. Jared Stroud created a turnover in a dangerous area and slipped a pass to the 22-year-old attacking midfielder, who took a touch left and dragged a shot across McIntosh into the right corner.

McIntosh spared Sporting's blushes in the 34th minute, sprawling low for a near-post save to deny Gioacchini. Shortly thereafter, Sporting captain Johnny Russell swung in a corner kick that was nodded goalward by defender Dany Rosero and saved comfortably by Burki.

Left back Logan Ndenbe entered as a halftime substitute for Sporting and wasted little time making an impact. His looping cross from the wing found a leaping Russell at the far post, but Burki did well to save the captain's header on 52 minutes. Pulido later combined with Walter inside the penalty area, but the latter's shot skied over the crossbar.

Sporting's strong start to the second half was nullified in the 55th minute. Gioacchini, a Kansas City native, raced free on the breakaway following a goal kick-latching onto Stroud's decisive pass in behind the defense-and coolly finished past McIntosh for his fourth goal of the year.

Further frustration greeted Sporting in the 74th minute when Russell's well-struck effort from 15 yards was saved by the diving Burki. And with momentum on their side, St. Louis added a fourth goal seconds later as Vassilev finished a sweeping counterattack with a curler into the far left corner for his second tally of the game.

Burki added gloss to his standout performance by producing a stunning save to deny Sporting substitute Marinos Tzionis in the 85th minute. The German added another stop a minute later, touching Pulido's lunging strike over the bar.

QUOTES

Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes

On the first half goals for St. Louis...

The one I watched was the penalty. It's not a penalty kick. It's not. So there's nothing else to say. It's not a penalty kick. That starts the ball rolling for them, but it's not a penalty kick. You can look at the one on Remi (Walter) on top of the box for them. It should have even been a card on top of it the way the guy goes through him and how he gets hit. That is what it is. They played well. They deserve the three points. They had a good game, so hats off to them.

On if there's any communication with the officials postmatch...

No, not really. You don't get anywhere. It's over. It's done with. You can't do anything about it, unfortunately.

Thoughts on the match..

I think that up until the penalty, I thought the game was kind of like a little bit of back and forth, feeling each other out. I think they had good energy for sure, but of course they're at home. We're coming off a midweek game. We kind of expected it. We tried to make a few changes in the game to give some freshness to the group and we're still trying to get a couple of guys fit because they can't play 90. I think, obviously, the first goal gets them on a run and I think kind of after that, it's one of those things where the game opens up a little bit because we're trying to go after the game. At the end, they played well and they deserve three points.

On the play of Tim Leibold...

I would say it was good. It wasn't anything special. I would just say it's good. It was good to get him out on the field. Like I said, he got 45 minutes. There was a possibility he only could do 30, but we got him 45. So it was good that he was able to get through that. But obviously he needs games because he hasn't played, as you said, since the LA game and he only played spots in the first two games before that against Portland and Colorado. He needs more games. Logan (Ndenbe) has done very well in that position. As I said, he expended a lot of energy in the LAFC game. That was a tough one.

Sporting Kansas City midfielder Roger Espinoza

Thoughts on the match...

It was a tough game for us. At the beginning, you can see right away that they were on the front foot. We were not able to keep the ball in the right spaces. They won it in the right spaces. They were able to counterattack right there on the first goal and the penalty. And they got momentum from there. It was very difficult for us to manage the game and credit to them for doing that.

Thoughts on the officiating...

It's very tough. We're away from home, so it's a very difficult game for us being away from home. We didn't get some calls that we should have gotten. I didn't see the PK very well, but honestly I don't think it's a penalty. It was a difficult game and a lot of running.

On the performance of the team this year...

Hey, we just started doing better. This is just a bump in the road for us. I was just going to mention that earlier. My perspective to a lot of the guys is we're not a big squad. A lot of guys have been with a lot of injuries and it was very difficult for us coming from LA to come play here. We had a midweek game. They didn't. It was just a tough game for us there.

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