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MLS Sporting Kansas City

Sporting KC Falls 1-0 Against Chicago

June 24, 2023 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Sporting Kansas City News Release


Sporting Kansas City (5-10-6, 21 points) fell to a 1-0 defeat against the Chicago Fire (5-6-8, 23 points) on Saturday night at Children's Mercy Park.

After a scoreless first half, Fabian Herbers struck less than two minutes into the second half for the game's only goal and the Creighton University product's second in a four-day span.

Playing the team's third match in eight days -- and their hottest of the season with the temperature at 91 degrees for kickoff -- Sporting was shutout at home for the first time since April despite outshooting the Fire and carving out numerous scoring chances on the night.

In the 15th minute, Daniel Salloi forced the first of four saves from 19-year-old Chicago goalkeeper Chris Brady with a dipping effort from distance. Brady made his best save of the match eight minutes later, sprawling to his left to push away Alan Pulido's bending attempt from 25 yards out.

Erik Thommy would try his luck from a similar position on the field in the 26th minute only to see the shot swerve over the crossbar. Moments later, Pulido slipped in Salloi with a delicate through ball between two defenders however Fire defender Arnaud Souquet did just enough to deal with the danger as the ball carried across the endline before Salloi could wrangle it under his control.

Ten minutes from halftime, Remi Walter had arguably the best look at goal of the first half but the Frenchman's first-time strike sliced off his left foot and into the Supporters' Stand. Pulido would register one last shot in the opening stanza from the opposite corner of the six-yard box only to have Federico Navarro slide in at the final moment for the timely intervention.

The decisive moment of the match arrived exactly 100 seconds into the second half when Chicago midfielder Jairo Torres delivered a low cross across the goalmouth and, following a fortuitous deflection, into the path of Herbers just past the penalty mark. The 29-year-old playmaker did well to direct his shot through traffic and into the back of the net for his third goal of the season and 15th of his eight-year MLS career.

Sporting would spend the remainder of the second half in pursuit of a breakthrough that ultimately proved elusive.

In the 51st minute, club captain Johnny Russell - making his return to the starting lineup for the first time since suffering a hamstring injury on May 20 - nearly delivered a pinpoint pass to Salloi at the backpost if not for a last-gasp touch by Souquet. Five minutes later, second-half substitute Gadi Kinda unleashed a well-taken shot from 25 yards out that took a deflection and whistled just wide of the post.

Kinda continued to make an impact in the 64th minute with a superb set piece delivered to the backpost where Robert Castellanos - starting for the suspended Dany Rosero - did well to lose his mark but couldn't direct his header on target. Brady would then make his fourth and final save in the 85th minute as Marinos Tzionis fired from long range with Chicago defending deep in the dying moments.

After rescuing a result with a 91st minute goal on Wednesday, Sporting KC nearly produced another moment of magic in the 91st minute on Saturday. Walter's curling cross found Salloi at the far post and the Sporting KC Academy product headed the ball back across but couldn't connect with Kinda before Carlos Teran cleared the chance on the doorstep.

The final whistle brought an end to Sporting's nine-match home unbeaten streak against Chicago as the Fire earned their first win in Kansas City in nearly a decade dating back to June 29, 2012 and improved to 4-0-0 against the Western Conference this season.

Sporting Kansas City will look to bounce back next Saturday when the club kicks off a six-game slate in the month of July against the Vancouver Whitecaps. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. CT at Children's Mercy Park and tickets are available online at SeatGeek.com.

QUOTES

Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes

On how much the travel and heat impacted the game for both sides...

I think, no doubt, that it's a factor in the game, but it's what this league is about. You have to be able to mentally fight through that piece. Whether you're playing the midweek game or not, it's going to be hot and you have to manage the game, you have to be good with the ball. There's different things that you can do to save yourself in that regard. In the first half, I don't think that we were good enough with that part of it. I'm talking about measuring ourselves to what our standard would be. I don't think that we did well with the ball in the first half like we can. I think that was a part of the game that wound up being the result at the end for us. I also think what it does is that when you don't have the ball and you have to defend, you waste energy. When you have the ball, you make the other team waste energy and then they don't have that energy to go forward. So, we just didn't do a good enough job in the first half from that perspective. Start the second half, the goal comes off of a throw in. We over commit for no reason and then you now all of a sudden start to have a breakdown line by line by line and they get a deflection - but they caused it because at the end of the day they took advantage of the situation.

On the team struggling to create clear-cut opportunities late on...

Look, we've done it ourselves. When you go up, you can pack it in and it can be really hard for a team to break you down and you see it time and time again - whether it's us or anybody else in this league - the team goes up, you're chasing the game. It's a difficulty. They did a good job defending. They went to five in the back at the end, they did a good job, they handled it well. We had some chances here or there, but we weren't close enough. The ball flicks off the guy's head, goes to Daniel (Salloi) at the back post, but then he sees it late, just little things like that, but again, you're chasing the game.

On not being able to find a clear chance in the box...

I think we were just impatient to be honest with you. I think from the get-go, we were impatient. We were trying to do everything in two and three passes, and like I said when you get in the other team's half, you work hard to get the ball in the final third. Now all of a sudden you get there and you're moving the ball a little bit, and all of sudden, you take a shot from 35 yards out. You're not scoring from there, I'm telling you. When you do, it's one out of 100. You don't need to be taking those shots, and we've talked about that many times. We took way too many shots from distance today. We could have been much more patient with the ball, and we weren't, and I think that came to haunt us at the end.

Sporting Kansas City defender Jake Davis

On the team's frustrations from the match...

I think they were more of a counter attacking team but the only thing for us lately has been starting the second half strong. Going into the next game we need to focus on not losing our momentum even though halftime happens, just staying focused to get through the first ten minutes of the second half. I think that's the most important thing for us, but otherwise we created chances, dominated possession, won tackles. I think that's just our biggest thing at the start of the second half.

On if the team was too impatient in possession...

Yeah, I think we all know that. Obviously a lot of us have a bit of ambition to play certain passes. He's right, and I am a part of that, there were a couple of passes today and last game that I rushed just like everyone else but I think it's a really important thing because of the heat and humidity here. I think he's trying to say that if we can possess the ball more in their half, it tires them out and then we'll all know the right time to actually make that pass and go forward.

On the team's keys to recovery when playing three games in seven days...

It's just down to the basics. We don't have a lot of training sessions, the guys that have been playing, we have a lot of recovery. We have a very nice training facility so every modality, every trainer that's there to help us recover. It goes down to the little things - ice baths, sleep when you go home, even taking a nap at the facility after training. It's all the little things that I think everyone knows that we have at our facility and using those and being serious about recovery because it's really important in games and it shows.

On what he tells himself and the team after a tough loss...

"I don't know if I'm saying anything, but I think we all just come together whether that's in a meeting or just between the players and staff together - talk about what we can do better and what we need to focus on in the game. I'm sure being patient in the buildup and starting the second halves, I'm sure that will come up but we just got to find a way, together, to eliminate those problems.

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