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MLS Sporting Kansas City

Sporting KC Falls 2-0 to Austin FC

July 30, 2022 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Sporting Kansas City News Release


Sporting Kansas City (5-14-5, 20 points) fell 2-0 to Supporters' Shield contenders Austin FC (13-5-5, 44 points) on Saturday night at Children's Mercy Park. The visitors struck at the tail end of the first and second halves through midfielder Alex Ring and MLS MVP frontrunner Sebastian Driussi as Sporting suffered their third straight league loss and their fifth consecutive MLS defeat at home.

Less than 72 hours removed from a debilitating shootout loss at Sacramento Republic FC in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup semifinals, Sporting fielded a reshuffled lineup as right back Kayden Pierre, winger Marinos Tzionis, striker Willy Agada and midfielders Cam Duke and Felipe Hernandez entered the fray. Agada earned his first start for the club after arriving from overseas earlier this month and coming off the bench in each of Sporting's last two matches.

Entering the weekend unbeaten in five road matches and boasting the best scoring offense in MLS, Austin threatened inside seven minutes as Driussi settled a pass from Maxi Urruti and sent a 25-yard firecracker inches wide of goalkeeper John Pulskamp's left-hand post.

Sporting responded with a beautifully orchestrated move of their own at the quarter-hour juncture. Agada did brilliantly to touch Andreu Fontas' long ball into the path of Hernandez, who embarked on a 40 yard run goalward before spreading the ball left to Tzionis. The 21-year-old Cypriot fired low and forced a save from Austin goalkeeper Brad Stuver before the visitors managed to scramble the rebound clear.

Not long later, a wild sequence saw Austin have three goals rightly disallowed. Urruti picked out the top corner with a thunderous long-range blast, Diego Fagundez tapped home on the doorstep and Ethan Finlay slotted home on the breakaway, but all three players were in offside positions upon receiving their passes.

At the opposite end, Sporting captain Johnny Russell dashed onto a long throw-in from Pierre and crossed low for Tzionis near the endline, but Austin center back Ruben Gabrielsen intervened to extinguish the danger near the 30th minute.

Two minutes before halftime, Sporting were reduced to 10 men as Duke picked up his second yellow card and was thusly ejected from the match. Things went from bad to worse for the hosts on the strike of intermission when Ring's long-range strike skipped through the legs of Pulskamp and tricked into the back of the net, giving Austin a 1-0 advantage to protect.

Manager Peter Vermes made two attacking substitutions at the break as winger Daniel Salloi and newcomer Erik Thommy replaced Tzionis and Russell, respectively. Thommy prompted Stuver to make a save early into his cameo and at the 60-minute mark, Sweat fizzed in a teasing cross that a lunging Agada was unable to steer goalward.

In the build-up to that play, however, Austin midfielder Felipe Martins committed a handball infraction inside the box that initially went unpunished. Consulting VAR during the next stoppage of play, referee Fotis Bazakos awarded Sporting a spot kick and Salloi had his penalty attempt saved by Stuver, who dove low to his right to cast aside the shot.

Sporting's luck turned for the better in the 67th minute when VAR waived off a goal from Fagundez, who was narrowly offside prior to tapping an easy finish into the net after Pulskamp had made a strong save to deny Finlay from the right side of the penalty area.

In the 87th minute-shortly after Sporting veterans Roger Espinoza and Graham Zusi entered the action from off the bench-Austin had another bid for their second goal go begging as late-game substitute Rodney Redes dragged his 15-yard effort across Pulskamp and wide of the frame.

Not to be denied, head coach Josh Wolff's side grabbed a clinching goal with 90 minutes on the clock. Fagundez drove centrally and slipped a through ball to Driussi to dispatch into the low right corner for his MLS-leading 14th goal of the year.

Vermes' men will conclude their current homestand next Saturday, Aug. 6, hosting five-time MLS Cup champion LA Galaxy in a 7:30 p.m. CT kickoff at Children's Mercy Park. Tickets are available at SeatGeek.com and the game will air live on 38 The Spot, SportingKC.com and the Sporting KC app.

QUOTES

Sporting KC Manager Peter Vermes

On the red card in the first half...

First off, he got two yellows in two minutes. I don't know if the first one is a yellow card or not, but it really doesn't matter. You have it. You have to be aware. To get a second yellow in the way that he did, the referee is 100% correct. If you grab a guy, you hold a guy, you pull a guy back - holding is one of the seven cautionable offenses. One-hundred percent, he is correct.

When a team is struggling like we are, and then you are that undisciplined, it has an incredible negative effect. I tried at halftime to get the guys to rally a little bit. I think at the end, they tried. We got a penalty kick, but sometimes when things aren't going well -- they're not going well -- and then that happens. We still were in it a little bit. The second goal means nothing to me in that regard.

But that was a really, really bad mistake in the game today. You can't make that mistake. If you've been playing the game for a long time, which he has, and so have other players, at the end, you can't make that mistake. You can't make that mistake. You just can't. It's called a caution. So you should be cautious after that.

On Willy Agada working toward full fitness...

From his team, he was out more than five weeks. We tried to get him here fast, but he couldn't get here based on the documentation with immigration. But he gave a great shift. I was going to try and do something different in the second half with him. I was going to pull him off at some point, but when we went down a man, it changed everything.

On the team's performance...

The performances -- other than a few plays here and there in a lot of games -- have been the difference. It's one of those things where you can spend time looking at video, you can spend time talking about it, all those different things, but at some point there has got to be a responsibility that you take when you step inside there that you make sure that you don't make those mistakes that hurt your team. And unfortunately, to go into a situation where we get the man thrown out and then they score, it puts you behind the eight ball big time. We had a chance to get back in it, but it just wasn't there.

On the play of Ben Sweat...

When he's played, he has a pretty good record for us. In the last game in the first maybe 10 minutes, he was a little out of sorts. I don't blame him. He hasn't played a number of games in a row, so he's going to be a little bit. But all of a sudden he found his game and he was excellent in the game against Sacramento. And today he was very good again.

On how the red card impacted the game plan...

I think we had a very good plan going into the game. We make it to halftime and we have the ability to bring Roger (Espinoza) and (Erik) Thommy into the midfield. We have the ability to bring Daniel (Salloi) on in the second half. And at that point, maybe Johnny (Russell) isn't stretched and he can actually stay on. Now you have (Willy) Agada and you can bring (Graham) Zusi on at halftime or with 30 minutes left in the game, and we can go and put the push on them in our place. Obviously, we had to do that based on the amount of minutes that we had in the game in Sacramento. So we had to kind of adjust the guys around.

It's disappointing when you know that you had some difference makers coming off the bench and you were getting ready to use them within less than five minutes and that occurs. It hurt us and it's a shame because I think all those guys would have been different and the game would have been different if we had that opportunity.

Sporting Kansas City defender Ben Sweat

On his resilience after playing 116 minutes on Wednesday...

I want to do everything to help this team out. We're in a tough place right now, so I could care less what I put my body through. As long as I put the team first and help the team, that's what I'll do.

On his preparation ahead of this match following Wednesday's match...

This is almost my 10th year as a professional. I know how to take care of my body and I know the things I need to do. In every game, we have to put the Open Cup game behind us and now we have to focus on the regular season. I knew I was playing this weekend, so I knew I had to get ready, and I did everything possible to get ready.

On the team's effort while playing down a man..

We had chances to tie the game, possibly win the game, down at the end. Everyone put extra effort in and that's what it takes in games like this. We just haven't had the roll of the dice this year, and that's just football. We have got to learn from our mistakes, and we have to play for something this year and it's just one game at a time and getting results while we have all these home games this last part of the season.

Sporting Kansas City midfielder Felipe Hernandez

Thoughts on the match...

I think we controlled the match for a little bit. There were parts where we went forward and defensively, we were compact and didn't give them much. But unfortunately, playing down a man is tough any time in a game. It's difficult to play down a man.

On finding positives in the performance...

I think one thing that we always have is our work ethic. Even down a man, we were able to create some chances. It's just difficult playing down a man for a half or more.

On supporting a teammate after a mistake...

It happens. It happens to older guys, younger guys, it doesn't matter. He knows. He's apologizing. But there's nothing to apologize (for) because it's a team effort and it's happened to people before. We just have to work around that and work around being down a man.

On the play of Willy Agada and Erik Thommy...

It's good to have them here. They're getting fit. It's good to have them here and doing their thing. They seem to be fitting in pretty well, so we're excited for them.

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