MLS Sporting Kansas City

Sporting KC Falls 2-1 to Houston

May 11, 2024 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Sporting Kansas City News Release


Sporting Kansas City (2-5-5, 11 points) fell 2-1 to Houston Dynamo FC (5-4-2, 17 points) on Saturday at Children's Mercy Park.

Daniel Salloi bagged his first goal of the season to draw Sporting level on the hour mark after Houston had taken a first-half lead through Hector Herrera, but the Dynamo surged ahead for good in the 78th minute behind a decisive strike from Ibrahim Aliyu.

Manager Peter Vermes deployed a starting XI highlighted by a formidable front four that had never previously started together: Salloi, captain Johnny Russell, forward Alan Pulido and striker Willy Agada. Nemanja Radoja and Memo Rodriguez sat deeper in the midfield, while goalkeeper Tim Melia was shielded by a backline of Jake Davis, Andreu Fontas, Robert Voloder and Tim Leibold. Regular starters Dany Rosero (quad) and Remi Walter (knee) remained out with injuries, while midfielder Erik Thommy saw his streak of 57 straight regular season appearances end due to an absence for personal reasons.

The hosts began brightly as Pulido conjured the first decent look after 15 minutes, winning a tackle 35 yards from goal and carrying the ball forward only to see his venomous blast blocked through traffic. Seconds later, Rodriguez did brilliantly to intercept a pass in Houston's defensive third before blazing a low drive inches wide of the far left post.

Houston threatened at the opposite end in the 22nd minute. Coco Carrasquilla found a pocket of acreage on the edge of the box to clip a diagonal ball to the opposite post, but Ibrahim Aliyu miscalculated his side-volley attempt and Sporting were let off the hook. His fleeting chance preceded another promising attack from Sporting, with Russell lofting in a seductive delivery from the right that glanced across the face of goal without a finishing touch.

Herrera vaulted the visitors ahead on a sweetly struck curler in the 31st minute. An orchestrated move saw Houston play a short corner kick and work the ball centrally to the longtime Mexican international, who was afforded too much space on the edge of the area to bend a 20-yard strike into the far right corner for his first goal of the 2024 campaign.

Sporting wasted no time looking to respond and nearly did so in spectacular fashion in the 37th minute when Salloi's 35-yard heat-seeker was palmed away by Houston goalkeeper Steve Clark. Rodriguez's all-action display against his former club carried into the late stages of the first half, the former Dynamo man aggressively gaining possession and unleashing a long-range missile that Clark was forced to cast aside.

Houston right back Griffin Dorsey went close to doubling his side's lead three minutes into the second period but was unable to put his left-footed curler on frame. Sporting had a golden chance go begging on the other end shortly thereafter when Agada chased down a clever Rodriguez long ball over the top and dragged his breakaway shot across Clark and wide by the slimmest of margins.

Salloi opened his 2024 scoring account with 61 minutes on the clock. Rodriguez ignited the attack by dribbling goalward and attempting to squeeze a pass into the penalty area. Although his initial service was repelled, he steered the rebound into the path of Salloi, who took a touch and swiveled at the top of the box before picking out the bottom left corner for his 59th career goal for Sporting in all competitions, fourth most in club history. Rodriguez, a former Dynamo player, picked up his team-leading third assist of the season on the play, inflicting damage on his former employers.

Melia produced two phenomenal saves midway through the second half, first a reflex stop to thwart Aliyu at the near post and then an outstretched smothering of Erik Sviatchenko's powerful header off a corner kick.

Houston would find their winning goal with 12 minutes remaining. Dorsey embarked on a blazing run from the defensive right channel into the central attacking third before slipping a through ball to Aliyu, who side-footed a shot past Melia for his team-best fourth goal of the year.

Sporting had an excellent chance to restore parity in the 88th minute. Substitute Alenis Vargas floated a clever diagonal ball to the left side of the box for Leibold to head back across goal, teeing up Agada for a header on the doorstep that Clark somehow kept out.

Vermes' side will look to bounce back next Saturday, May 18, by visiting Austin FC (4-4-4, 16 points) at Q2 Stadium. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. CT with live coverage on MLS Season Pass via Apple TV.

QUOTES

Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes

On Houston taking advantage of their chances...

There's a little bit of that, but I would take a step back. I would say first, the two goals we gave up, they're atrocious in my opinion. I'm the head coach so I have to take responsibility for it. But the organization is always put together on set pieces. It's a simple situation. For us to give up that goal the way we did is amateur at best. The second goal is a lack of effort. And it's really easy to see who those people are. A lack of effort to get back there because their player ran by a couple of ours. That's not Sporting Kansas City mentality. It's not. I have a real problem with that aspect of it. I'll be dealing with that very quickly because that's just unacceptable to me. If there's one thing that I can't put up with, that is the lack of effort on plays. The other thing is we have a responsibility to our fans when they come into this place to leave your heart on the field and to leave your blood, sweat and tears on the field. I think certain guys do that and I think certain guys don't. If I have to make the changes within the starting lineup then I will do that. It's unfortunate. Now, I'm going to go back to your question. In the first half, we had some incredible opportunities where we turned them over in their half but our decision making was very poor. We're shooting from 35 yards out when we can actually dribble right into goal. We stole one and we shoot and Willy (Agada) is wide open. If you just give it to him, he's walking in 1v1 with the goalkeeper. Decision making, that part of it has to always get better. That's something that you're always working on. But you also have to be able to take advantage of the things that you have created for yourself. That's why I go back to those situations. We won the ball. We turned them over in the first half. We should have scored two goals easily, if not three, based on some of the opportunities that we turned them over on. Did they finish their chances? Sure, but they were both just terrible, terrible defending on our part.

On the effort...

I don't want to get into what I plan to do with them. I'm not going to get into that, but it is definitely going to be addressed.

On the play of Memo Rodriguez...

Him and (Nemanja) Radoja, those two guys worked their asses off. That's the easiest way to say it. They're not the guys I'm talking about when I say a lack of effort. Those two guys, they kill themselves on the field. When they come off, they've left everything there. The two of them are tremendous. I think there could be, at times, maybe some decisions a little better, but that's asking maybe sometimes for a little too much because everybody mistraps a ball, misplays a ball, whatever. But those two guys, they work their butts off.

On what will turn the momentum around...

Change of mentality. Change of mentality. Change of mentality. That's it. That's it. Sports are all about desire and passion. That's what it's about. In sports, you suffer. You suffer in different ways. Sometimes you suffer a result. Sometimes you suffer because of the amount of effort you had to put into a game. That all is part of it. I don't believe that every guy on that field suffered that way tonight. Mentality and heart, you have to have it. If you don't have it, you might as well forget about it. You can't walk into the stadium and you can't step into the field and you miss the most important ingredient. It is effort. If you don't have that and if you're not willing to outwork your opponent - because I know soccer is 11v11 -- but at the end of the day, especially the players, they're 1v1. There are 10 guys. They're 1v1. They play against the same guy a lot in the game. Sometimes you play against another guy, sure. But you have an individual duel with the guy that you really see in the game. We all don't dominate those environments. And you have to. You have to do it physically, you have to do it mentally and then you have to do it technically and tactically as well. You have to do that. And that's not being done by quite a few guys. Again, it's mentality.

On the time it takes to build mentality...

No, it doesn't. It doesn't. No, it doesn't. It really doesn't. Because this is a very similar group that we had last year. This is very similar. There are only a couple additions to this team at the moment. That team figured out, from a mentality perspective, to do what they did last year, which was, in my opinion, pretty impressive once we got our guys back. It's a mentality right now . It's not that they don't have it, it's that it's not happening. And as I said to you, I'm the first person to say I'll take responsibility but when I have to do that, but when I was talking about suffering, there will be some suffering over there, some real suffering.

On finding a spark...

Like I said, it's not all the guys. It's quite a few guys, though. And when they get out there, they're not putting in 90 minutes, 70 minutes, 60 minutes, whatever their time is. They're not going after it. They're not helping the team. It's like I said, look at the second goal. The second goal, their guy runs by two of our guys who were further back and one stops in his tracks basically. If he's just running back, the guy passes him the ball and he just takes the ball up the field if he wants to. So it's more of mentality and effort is what it is.

On how long mentality has been an issue...

I sure don't like the fact that we've had points here at home and leads where we've given up those leads. And that comes down to mentality. Now the situations were that we were firing on the other side and now there's a lack of aggression even in some guys going that way as well. Does it all come to a head tonight? No, I don't think so. I'm just not letting it get out of control because right now I don't like where it is.

Sporting Kansas City forward Daniel Salloi

On his goal...

It felt great. Unfortunately, it didn't get us the win, but that was nice.

On the goal giving him confidence...

Yeah, of course, any goal gets confidence going so I'm very happy about that.

On the team's mentality...

If there are players who don't have the mentality, get rid of them and move on.

On addressing the mentality...

We're playing professional sports. If you don't have the mentality, then what are we doing? If it's me, get rid of me. If it's others, get rid of others. Every year we have this problem, then change it.

On the frustration...

We got ourselves in a bad form, a bad run. It's difficult to get out. But the bare minimum is always the mentality, I think. If you're lacking that, then you have a bigger issue.

Sporting Kansas City midfielder Memo Rodriguez

Thoughts on the match...

The confidence of the team in the first half - trying to win balls up high - we knew that we could turn them over. Obviously, the last ball or the final shot wasn't there and we didn't have that killer instinct. Obviously in the second half, we took the foot off the gas a little bit for whatever reason. Now we focus on the next game.

On his goalline clearance...

On the first goal, it was a little bit tough because Hector (Herrera) is obviously outside the 18. I had to get out. I don't think I would have got there regardless. But I just had to make sure to stay in my position and help Tim (Melia) in that aspect to try to get the ball out. Thankfully, I did.

On playing his former team...

Just me trying to be the best version of myself and try to help the team in any way possible, obviously. I have history with the club, obviously. I did all my career there, basically. But, I'm just self-motivated and I just try to help the team in whatever I can. That's what I tried to do tonight.

On the mentality of the team...

Obviously it comes as a collective group. I mean, we have to change something. It's a matter of everybody getting together and having that self motivation and trying to be a tough team to beat. The culture here is always, at home, being hard to beat. Sometimes you have got to win ugly. Sometimes you don't have to play the pretty soccer all the time. If we have to do it that way, then we go on that way and just try to be a very hard team to beat. It takes the whole 28 players that are on our roster.

On what is needed...

I think it's just a little bit of everything. There are 11 guys on the field and guys on the bench. If we see the team is down, myself included, we have to try to bring the team up. It doesn't come just from the captain sometimes. Obviously everybody has to be self-motivated and just try to be a tough team to beat. Tonight in the second half, we tried to push. We didn't get the equalizer or the game winning goal, but we move on to the next game. We have to focus on us being better on the pitch. More desire to win, obviously, and we'll see what happens.

On Houston's goals...

The first one, I was backside. The ball comes outside of the 18 and I have to step up. I don't think if I stay there, I don't think I get it. It was pretty in the corner. Obviously it was a great goal by him. You can't do much about that. I think the second goal, we either kill the play before he starts getting pace or defend better as a group, not pinpointing any guys. Collectively as a group, we just have to defend the counter better. We know if we are pushing for the goal or for the equalizer or for the win that we're going to be exposing the back at times. You just have got to kill the play in order to defend better.

On his yellow card...

You can't worry about the ref too much. Obviously, I was just trying to be aggressive. They play in the middle with one-two touches and with wall passes. It's just part of the game. I'm just trying to be aggressive to try to win the ball and try to turn them over.

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