Sporting KC Earns 1-1 Tie at Minnesota
July 13, 2022 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Sporting Kansas City News Release
Captain Johnny Russell came off the bench to score a second-half equalizer as Sporting Kansas City (5-11-5, 20 points) earned a spirited road result for the second straight game by drawing rivals Minnesota United FC (8-8-4, 28 points) 1-1 on Wednesday night at Allianz Field in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Minnesota was fortunate to take a 1-0 halftime lead on a 43rd-minute Sporting own goal, but Manager Peter Vermes' men responded admirably and claimed a point behind Russell's 63rd-minute strike and his team-leading eighth goal of the year in all competitions. On the defensive side, 21-year-old goalkeeper John Pulskamp totaled four saves-including two stunning stops in the final moments-in his first MLS appearance of the 2022 campaign.
Sporting have now taken seven points from their last four road matches and own a 4-0-1 record in midweek contests this season, including three victories in the club's run to the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup semifinals.
Manager Peter Vermes fielded a history-making lineup for the Rivalry Week encounter as Sporting Kansas City started five Homegrown Players for the first time-namely Pulskamp, right back Kayden Pierre, midfielder Felipe Hernandez and attacking duo Cam Duke and Daniel Salloi. Defenders Andreu Fontas, Nicolas Isimat-Mirin and Logan Ndenbe rounded out the backline, Uri Rosell and Remi Walter joined Hernandez in the center of the pitch and Marinos Tzionis manned the left wing as one of five changes from Saturday's 2-1 road win at CF Montreal.
Veteran goalkeeper Tim Melia was notably sidelined with a shoulder injury-missing his first MLS match since last October-and captain Johnny Russell was available off the bench as Sporting played its second of three straight road games in the space of nine days. With an average age of 25.1, the starting XI was Kansas City's youngest for an MLS fixture since 2015 and the third youngest lineup for an MLS match in club history.
Salloi was inches away from vaulting the visitors ahead in the seventh minute, punctuating an intricate attacking move through the central channel by settling Walter's square pass near the top of the box and dragging a low shot marginally wide of the left post. The 25-year-old forward asked further questions of the Minnesota defense three minutes later, thieving the ball from Robin Lod and forcing Loons goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair into a diving save with a dipping, long-range sledgehammer.
Minnesota responded by carving out its first chance at the 20-minute mark, talismanic playmaker Emanuel Reynoso spreading the ball wide left to Franco Fragapane for a cross that Bongokuhle Hlongwane poked well over the woodwork from 14 yards.
Not to be outdone, Sporting showcased more sizzling movement of their own near the half-hour juncture. Tzionis patiently held the ball up on the edge of the box before feeding Salloi, who pinged a clever one-touch pass into the path of Duke on the right side of the penalty area, but St. Clair advanced off his line to cut off the angle for a feasible shot and extinguish the threat.
An entertaining battle continued to unfold in end-to-end fashion, with Lod belting a first-time strike high off Reynoso's corner kick in the 32nd minute. Not long later on the opposite side of the pitch, Tzionis' searching cross eluded a pair of Minnesota defenders and fell to Duke, whose lunging effort skipped wide of St. Clair's right-hand post.
Sporting were victimized by a case of bitter misfortune two minutes before intermission, falling behind 1-0. Minnesota defender Kemar Lawrence's sliding pullback pass skipped across the face of goal, caroming off Fontas and Pulskamp and trickling over the goal line to give the Loons a fortuitous goal and a halftime edge. The own goal was Sporting's first since Aug. 21, 2020, when Vermes' men emerged 2-1 victors over Minnesota at Allianz Field.
The Loons nearly doubled their cushion on another Sporting own goal seven minutes after the restart as Reynoso's low, driven cross was poked goalward by Pierre, but Pulskamp made a crucial block and the visitors were spared their blushes. Seconds later, the ball was recycled from right to left and Loons striker Luis Amarilla snapped a header inches over the target.
Just as Russell entered the action as Sporting's first substitute, Salloi offered a 57th-minute counterpunch by slipping past a defender and uncorking a 30-yard piledriver that screamed narrowly high. Tzionis was next to try his luck, cutting the ball onto his patented right boot and prompting St. Clair into a leaping save with a 25-yard laser.
Sporting found a deserved leveler in the 63rd minute as Minnesota went its 14th straight match without a shutout in all competitions. Half a dozen minutes after his introduction, Russell embarked on a galloping run down the right side before combining neatly with Pierre, maneuvering past his marker and sending a side-footed shot past St. Clair for his sixth goal of the regular season. Russell now has 51 goals in his Sporting career, fourth most in club history, and his 77 combined goals (46) and assists (31) in the regular season are third most in MLS since 2018. The 19-year-old Pierre, meanwhile, recorded his first career MLS assist on the play.
The Loons thought they had recaptured their one-goal advantage in the 66th minute when Fragapane fed Amarilla for a simple finish on the doorstep, but the offside flag was raised on Fragapane in the buildup.
In a swashbuckling finale to the contest, Pulskamp produced two phenomenal saves in the space of 30 seconds. He dropped left to cast aside an Amarilla header, then reacted brilliantly by palming the ball over the ball after a near-post corner kick was glanced goalward by Lod. Then in the 88th minute, Russell left multiple defenders in his wake by darting into the attacking third and firing low from the top of the penalty area. St. Clair was equal to the task, then gathered his footing to swat away a would-be rebound attempt from Salloi to keep the game all square at 1-1.
Sporting will look to complete an unbeaten three-game road swing on Sunday when the club visits another Western Conference rival in Real Salt Lake (8-6-6, 30 points) at Rio Tinto Stadium. Kickoff is slated for 8:30 p.m. CT with live coverage on 38 The Spot, the Sporting KC app and SportingKC.com.
QUOTES
Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes
Thoughts on the match...
A tremendous performance by the guys. I don't know what else I could say, just a tremendous performance on oth sides of the ball. We were very organized and excellent on the ball. We created probably four high-quality goal-scoring chances in the first half. We were very dynamic in the final third and I think that we were tactically very good. Defensively, we were excellent. The goal that we receive is a tough one to swallow because we were playing very well up until that point. But again, credit to the guys for not losing themselves. An excellent, excellent game for the guys and a great point for us.
On the play of John Pulskamp...
He was tremendous the whole game. There was one with kind of a little combination play on the top of our box and the player got in on a breakaway on him. They called it back, but he made the save before they even called him offside. He comes out in a great way. He played really well tonight. In the second half, he was a monster. He never lost himself emotionally in the game, which was tremendous. And I don't mean because of the goal that occurred. There was nothing he could do about that. I'm not talking about that one. I'm talking about emotionally in the game, because now they're coming at us a little bit there at the end with the corner kick and everything else. He maintained his focus and made great saves. He was very good. It's exactly what you're hoping from your goalkeeper, right? If you're 0-0 and he makes that one save to keep you in the game and then you score, unbelievable. If you're up 2-1 and he holds the team off. But in this situation, it was late in the game 1-1 and he was pulling saves out of everywhere. He was just really good. He was also great with the ball at his feet today. His decision making was really, really good.
On if the team played well enough to win...
They played really well. The performance was great. When you consistently play performances that are good, you usually get points. Minnesota is a really good team. They have a lot of weapons within their group. They create a lot of chances off of balls that they turn over on you or they just win errant balls in the middle third of the field and they wind up going and scoring on you. We were tactically really good in that regard, but at the same time I thought we had such dynamicism with especially our front three for the most part of the game, it was really good. Johnny (Russell) came on and gave a really good spark to the group. I consider it to be a great performance and well-deserved point. Possibly, we could have gotten three because, as I said, we had four really good chances in the first half.
On the insertion of Johnny Russell in the second half...
The plan was to bring him in sometime in the second half. It could have been the start of the second half. The plan was to bring him and Khiry (Shelton) on at some point. I wanted to keep guys fresh. Daniel (Salloi) did a great job at center forward. Marinos (Tzionis), that's the position that he's probably best at where he played. I thought it was his best performance for us so far. That's definitely not to say that his other performances were poor, I'm just saying that he's now getting more familiar with our team and the responsibilities that go with the position. He was good on both sides of the ball today. He was dangerous. I think they had a tough time with him in the game. I thought that him and Daniel were combining quite a bit, which was really good to see. And then like I said, Johnny I thought was a good spark at the end.
Sporting Kansas City captain Johnny Russell
On his immediate impact off the bench...
Obviously, you hope to have an immediate impact. I thought the guys played brilliant in the first half. It's unfortunate on the goal that we can concede, but I thought we played a lot of great stuff and created a lot of chances and really wore the other team down. It's coming on with fresh legs, getting a little bit of a rest and coming on fresh, it definitely caught them a little bit off guard and we had them on a good counter. I got a little bit lucky with the ball falling back to me and then it was all about just composing myself and putting it away in the far corner. I'm delighted to come on and help the team and get the goal that got us back in the game. I probably should have had another one as well with my shot from the edge of the box but all in all, it's a good point.
On Daniel Salloi playing at center forward...
He's a very clever player. He's obviously a winger, but when he plays in that position as well, he's a guy that can find space. For being a big bean pool, he can hold the ball up as well. So wherever you put Daniel, he's such a talented player that he's going to create opportunities and he's going to find space just like the one he did in the first half where he sat two or three guys down and then just put it just by the post. You put him in and around the box and the guy is going to get chances like that. It was good to play with him there. It was a little bit different from what we're used to, but I thought the front three in the first half were really good and really dynamic with great little link up play around the box and created a lot of chances. And like I said, we probably should have been two or three up before the unfortunate goal against us. We're in a tough position right now, so we'll take the point and move on. We have another big one at the weekend.
On rallying from going a goal down...
At the start of the season, we weren't coming back from that for whatever reason. When we went down a goal, the confidence dropped and we stopped playing the way that we can. And when you're down, it's tough. But the way the guys have bounced back, the work we've put in at training. We've done so much work to try and eradicate some of the mistakes that were made, especially that night. That hurt everyone here and so it should. So none of us wanted to ever feel like that in the game. And obviously we had a little taste from coming back at the weekend. It was such a good feeling to get a win on the road and especially coming back as well, so we know we're capable of doing it. We've done it so many times last year. We don't want to be in that position doing it time and time again. But I think we've shown that we still have that character. We're down, but we're nowhere near out yet.
On coming in as a second-half substitute...
There was a lot of space there to be had. I saw it in the first half. The guys were getting in behind a lot on that side and I was just watching it closely. Sometimes it's good to sit there at the side and it's easy to watch the game so you can pick up things that you may be missing when you're playing like certain areas in which you can exploit and you can hurt a team. It helps that Cam (Duke) is constantly running about and tiring guys. So you come on and you've got fresh legs and guys are already tired. I've played a lot of games. I'm still carrying a couple of things that I'm trying to get right so I've not been myself recently. I'll get a little bit more of a rest so to come on and have an impact was the plan. Luckily, it worked out that way, but I don't want to make a habit of missing out.
Sporting Kansas City defender Kayden Pierre
Thoughts on the match...
It was a hard-fought point on the road. I think the team played good. The goal was kind of lucky, but I thought John (Pulskamp) made some big saves. Other players made some big plays. Johnny came on and scored a good goal. I'm happy to grab my first assist. But most importantly, we got a good hard-fought point on the road which is big.
On the team rallying from a goal down...
I think it just starts with training habits and I think we're certainly training better and players are playing with more confidence which also helps. And then we've got everyone contributing - guys off the bench and guys starting. I think it just stems down from everyone in the team -- coaching staff, trainers, everyone in the organization - we're trying to get into our groove and make a push to get into the playoffs. So I think that's why the mentality has switched.
On the play of John Pulskamp...
When you goalie is playing like that, there's no way you should be losing the game. John was amazing tonight. He made some big saves. He helped me out on one of them. He made some big saves tonight. Him and Tim (Melia) have been good the last couple of games, which is big for us. It just helps us defenders feel better about our goalie and not conceding goals.
On five Homegrown Players starting for SKC...
It feels good to know that young guys are getting opportunities and they're playing good, which is always great. It's just big because you hang out with those guys on and off the field. You see them in the academy growing up together. So it's nice to play with those guys on the field and get a big point, which is very nice.
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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.
