Sporting Fights Back in 2-2 Draw with Dallas
Published on April 30, 2022 under Major League Soccer (MLS)
Sporting Kansas City News Release
Forwards Johnny Russell and Daniel Salloi scored on both sides of halftime as Sporting Kansas City (2-6-2, 8 points) fought back to earn a 2-2 draw with FC Dallas (4-1-4, 16 points) in an entertaining battle at Children's Mercy Park on Saturday night. Sporting struck first on a Russell penalty kick, but an upstart Dallas side responded with first-half goals from Alan Velasco and Jesus Ferreira to take a 2-1 lead into the break. The visitors were reduced to 10 men when Brandon Servania was sent off in the 67th minute, and Sporting capitalized by restoring parity through Salloi 10 minutes later.
Russell and Salloi have scored nine of Sporting's last 10 goals against Dallas, who were nevertheless able to extend their unbeaten run to eight matches in all competitions and move to 4-0-2 in their last six regular season visits to Children's Mercy Park.
Manager Peter Vermes made one change to Sporting's lineup as German center back Robert Voloder was summoned to replace Nicolas Isimat-Mirin, who suffered a facial injury in the early moments of a 0-0 home draw against the Columbus Crew last weekend. Among the defenders joining Voloder on the back line was veteran Graham Zusi, whose 286th regular season start vaulted him atop the club's all-time chart ahead of Matt Besler. In attack, meanwhile, Russell hit a major milestone with his 100th regular season start in a Sporting uniform.
Sporting's captain fired his side ahead in the 22nd minute after barreling down the right flank, beating Dallas defender Marco Farfan and cutting the ball back to Salloi, who was chopped down near the penalty spot by Jose Antonio Martinez. Russell buried the ensuing spot kick into the top right corner for his 42nd career regular season goal and his 45th in all competitions-both one shy of third-most in Sporting history. It was also Sporting's 700th regular season home goal and the team's earliest goal of the 2022 campaign.
Brimming with newfound momentum, Sporting almost doubled their advantage on 29 minutes when Russell clipped a clever ball over the top to Salloi. The homegrown winger did well to time his run past the defender, but his lunging strike from a tight angle narrowly missed the mark.
Dallas spurned a chance of their own less than 60 seconds later when a pair of U.S. internationals linked up to breach the Sporting defense. Ferreira ran onto a Paul Arriola through ball and rounded goalkeeper Tim Melia, but he was unable to conjure an acute finish much to the relief of the Children's Mercy Park faithful.
The hosts suffered an injury setback shortly after taking the lead as Zusi was forced to exit with an injury. Replacing him was Sporting KC Academy product Cam Duke, who logged his first minutes in defense this season after featuring exclusively as a midfielder in the early stages of 2022.
Dallas drew level in the 36th minute on a superbly taken free kick by Alan Velasco. Teeing up a strike beyond the left edge of the penalty area, the 19-year-old Argentine sent a right-footed curler into the far corner for his second goal of the campaign and dashed Sporting's hopes of a league-best fourth home shutout this year.
Having gained a foothold in the back-and-forth battle, the visitors surged in front on an excellent hit from Ferreira. Arriola was once again the danger man pulling strings, picking out Ferreira with a through ball into space. Ferreira did the rest by cutting past a defender onto his right foot and bending a shot past the outstretched Melia for his sixth goal in 2022, one behind the MLS lead.
Eleven minutes into the second half, Sporting were desperately unlucky not to equalize. Russell leapt high to cushion a header into the path of Salloi, whose right-footed effort was smothered by Dallas keeper Maarten Paes. The ball was recycled shortly thereafter and Salloi was once again denied, this time chipping a shot over Paes only to see Martinez rescue Dallas with a clearing header off the goal line.
Sporting threatened again on 63 minutes, orchestrating an intricate attack with Russell and Remi Walter combining to tee up Uri Rosell at the top of the box, but the Spaniard's booming attempt lifted over the crossbar.
A short-lived and miserable night for Servania was punctuated midway through the second half. Seven minutes after entering the game as a substitute, the 23-year-old picked up his second yellow card and was given his marching orders by referee Nima Saghafi. The ejection would give Sporting a man advantage for the remainder of the night.
Melia's best moment of the match came in the 72nd minute. Velasco swung in a teasing free kick from the left channel and Facundo Quignon prodded a first-time shot goalward, but Melia dropped low to his right for a terrific save to keep his team within a goal.
Sporting cashed in on their numerical superiority in the 77th minute with a well-deserved equalizer off the foot of Salloi. Seconds after Khiry Shelton received an impudent pass from Duke and saw his low drive saved by Paes, Duke found Salloi in a pocket of space near the penalty spot. The winger pirouetted and shrug off pressure before sliding a tidy finish low into the right corner. The goal was his second of the year and marked the first time that Sporting had scored twice in a regular season fixture since Oct. 27, 2021.
The remainder of the game saw Sporting dominate possession and territory, but Dallas defended deep and held on to ensure a sharing of the spoils.
Vermes' men will return to the pitch next Saturday with a visit to reigning MLS Cup champion New York City FC. The inter-conference clash will kick off at 6 p.m. CT at Citi Field, broadcasting live on 38 The Spot, the Sporting KC app and SportingKC.com.
QUOTES Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes
Thoughts on the match...
I thought we started off well. We get the goal. I think we have good aggressiveness in the attack, which is something that we wanted to start off the game with. We wanted to try and get the first goal and get into a really good position. Obviously, we create the penalty. We score that. Having played defense for half of my career, I'm always very critical when it comes to defending and I think that the first goal shouldn't happen because we shouldn't make a foul in the situation that we did. I know it was a good shot, but we've got to do better to keep that ball out, but we shouldn't foul in that situation. The second goal, not all of our line, but part of our line is stepping up when they shouldn't. There's no pressure on the ball. They're running in behind us and then we don't get a body to the player. So we give up those two goals, which is just incredibly disappointing at that moment.
We came in at half time and I just told the guys that 'you have got to go out in the second half and you have to change completely your mentality. We have to get the first goal. We get that and then we can start really trying to push the game and go for the third one, if you will.' Again, I think the intent for the guys was good. I think they were pushing the game. We were getting chances. (FC Dallas) definitely were sitting back and I think it had a lot to do with our pressure with the ball, not without the ball. I think the other thing we did though is, in the second half, we had much better pressure higher up the field which coughed up a lot of balls. We actually won a lot of balls in their half of the field. In the first half, we started out that way, but then we backed off for some reason.
The second half was much better. Then at the end of the game, I just think we could have been -- it's not for a lack of effort -- it's just we weren't risk takers enough with the ball in the box. Some of that has to do with, look, there's a lot of new players on the field and a lot of young guys on the field at the end of the game. I was looking to probably keep Roger in, but his legs were getting tired so it was one of the reasons why I had to make that move, but his experience would have been really good at that moment. Same with (Graham Zusi). They've been in those games many times. The fact that those two guys are now out and two younger guys are in changes a little bit. We just don't have the same experience. But at the end, it's also good for those guys to get that experience and understand that. Now I can show video and make them understand that they have to be a little bit more aggressive in those moments at the end of the game.
On the play of Cam Duke at right back...
Very good, really good -- especially when he first came in. He was finding himself in really good attacking positions on that right side on the opposite side of the field, probably because he was away from me at that moment. He did a good job. He had good timing. I thought he defended really well. I think he always a surprise to other teams because of his speed and he also was really good in 1v1 defending. He was really good. His athleticism really helped the team a lot in that position.
On Robert Voloder's first start...
He was good. Being thrust into this like he has been, I'm not going to say it's incredibly difficult. I'm going to say it's a little different. It's always nice to be able to build a guy into games but he's been thrust into this and he's a professional. He's got to be able to deal with that. But I think he's doing a good job. I think he's learning a lot about the league on the fly so I give him a lot of credit for that.
On playing FC Dallas again in the U.S. Open Cup in 10 days...
It's never an easy thing when you have to play a team twice like that in a short period of time. I'm sure both teams will probably make changes for that game as well just because of the small amount of time. It's all about getting recovered, getting rested and recharged and ready for the next one. So that's what we got to do.
Sporting Kansas City forward Johnny Russell
Thoughts on the match...
I thought we played well. We scored the goal and then for a period after that, we sat off them and gave them a little bit too much of the ball, too much respect. Their first goal is a bit of magic. You can't really do anything about that. But the second goal, that's something that we can stop. Our communication and our lines weren't good enough and we allowed the split, which we work hard to stop. That's disappointing, especially going a goal up and then letting them take the lead. So we knew we had to come out in the second half and we needed the three points. The red card obviously helps, but even before that. I thought we were dominant in the second half after the red card. I think there was like a 10-15 minute period where they just couldn't get out of their box and we really had to score in that time frame. Obviously, Daniel comes up with a great finish and equalizer, but it's still frustrating. The situation and position we're in, these are games that we have to win so overall frustration and disappointment.
On the team scoring twice and creating more chances...
Last week, I think we were a lot better defensively. We were a lot tighter as a group and it probably took away from us offensively. I don't think we were good enough last week offensively. That was a focal point this week. Taking the step that we did in the Columbus game and bringing it into this and adding to it. I feel like we created enough chances in the second half with enough pressure in their half and around their box where we really should have won the game. Obviously, it's nice for me and Daniel to get on the score sheet. We haven't been up to the standards that we set last year. We know that. I spoke to Daniel before the game actually, and just said, 'it's about time that we step up.' It's all good talking and we have to get to those standards that we set last year and help get us out of the situation we're in because no one's going to help us out. It's got to come from us.
On adding to his goal tally against FC Dallas...
It's always a high-intensity, competitive game. You just get certain clubs where you score goals against them. We want to continue that obviously. We want to continue that against every club, not just Dallas. We're making steps in the right direction, but I think overall we're still pretty frustrated with the point. We really needed the three to start closing the gap that we've created for ourselves.
Sporting Kansas City forward Daniel Salloi
On the pre-game chat with Johnny Russell about stepping up...
Yes, he did talk to me and it's nothing new in a way. We realize that there are lots of injuries. We can be the creative attacking players who have to get the goals and try to win the game. We have to step up in moments and I'm glad both of us could score. This is a tough year. It's been a tough start and I think we are doing better. I think it's obvious that game by game we're improving. We just have to find a way to win because we can't let our season run away from us. We have to find a way to win these games because you go to New York on the road now that's a very tough game and then you have the Open Cup coming up. Every game is difficult, so we have to find a way to win these ones.
On scoring twice in the match and building on the team's attacking performance...
I think we've been lacking that goal scoring. We need to score more and more goals and we're going to play a team who is amazing at it. They score a lot of goals and it's going to be tough. They won the league last year and you have to challenge that team and do well. We need to score more and more goals and win the game. We need to find ways to win games because we can always talk about how difficult the game is, but at the end of the day, we need to get three points somehow. If it's ugly, it's ugly.
On the team's aggressiveness in the attack...
It's one of those when everything's clicking and everything's nice, then you can beat teams being creative and playing around them by having combinations. Sometimes those things don't click yet and then you have to improve with being aggressive, being better defensively. That's something that we had to work a lot on because the least you can do is go into challenges and be aggressive and fight as a team and then the rest you can figure out later. I feel like that's the part everybody can do. Everybody can fight and everybody can put their bodies on the line. I think we've been improving in that as well and hopefully that's going to stay and then we can build on that.
2022 MLS Regular Season | Match 10
Children's Mercy Park | Kansas City, Kansas
Attendance: 17,334
Weather: 57 degrees and cloudy
Score 1 2 F
Sporting Kansas City (2-6-2, 8 points) 1 1 2
FC Dallas (4-1-4, 16 points) 2 0 2 Sporting Kansas City: Tim Melia; Graham Zusi (Cam Duke 23'), Kortne Ford, Robert Voloder, Logan Ndenbe; Uri Rosell (Felipe Hernandez 63'), Remi Walter, Roger Espinoza (Marinos Tzionis 80'); Johnny Russell (C), Khiry Shelton, Daniel Salloi
Subs Not Used: John Pulskamp, Andreu Fontas, Kaveh Rad, Ben Sweat, Jake Davis, Nikola Vujnovic
FC Dallas: Maarten Paes; Ema Twumasi, Nkosi Tafari, Jose Antonio Martinez, Marco Farfan (Nanu 85'); Tsiki Ntsabeleng (Brandon Servania 60'), Facundo Quignon, Paxton Pomykal; Paul Arriola (Edwin Cerrillo 81'), Jesus Ferreira (Franco Jara 85'), Alan Velasco (Joshue Quinonez 81')
Subs Not Used: Jimmy Maurer, Lucas Bartlett, Jader Obrian, Szabolcs Schon
Scoring Summary:
SKC -- Johnny Russell 2 (penalty kick) 22'
DAL -- Alan Velasco 2 (unassisted) 36'
DAL -- Jesus Ferreira 6 (Paul Arriola 2) 42'
SKC -- Daniel Salloi 2 (Cam Duke 1) 77'
Misconduct Summary:
DAL -- Tsiki Ntsabeleng (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 25'
SKC -- Remi Walter (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 27'
SKC -- Kortne Ford (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 34'
DAL -- Ema Twumasi (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 44'
SKC -- Johnny Russell (yellow card; dissent) 50'
DAL -- Alan Velasco (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 53'
DAL -- Jesus Ferreira (yellow card; delaying a restart) 62'
DAL -- Brandon Servania (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 63'
DAL -- Brandon Servania (red card/second yellow; unsporting behavior) 67'
DAL -- Maarten Paes (yellow card; time wasting) 90+4'
Stat SKC DAL
Shots 15 9
Shots on Goal 5 4
Saves 2 2
Fouls 15 16
Offsides 0 2
Corner Kicks 1 0
Referee: Nima Saghafi
Assistant Referee: Adam Wienckowski
Assistant Referee: Diego Blas
Fourth Official: Lukasz Szpala
VAR: Jose Carlos Rivero
AVAR: Jonathan Johnson
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