Sporting KC Falls to Minnesota

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Sporting Kansas City

Sporting KC Falls to Minnesota

September 22, 2024 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Sporting Kansas City News Release


Sporting Kansas City (8-16-7, 31 points) suffered a frustrating 2-0 home loss to Minnesota United FC (12-12-6, 42 points) on Saturday night at Children's Mercy Park. In a match that was delayed at halftime for nearly two hours due to inclement weather, Minnesota took a 65th-minute lead through newcomer Kelvin Yeboah and sealed the result with a goal from Bongokuhle Hlongwane in second-half stoppage time. The loss eliminates Sporting from playoff contention and gives the Loons their first regular season road win at Children's Mercy Park after suffering defeat in each of their first nine visits to Kansas City since entering MLS in 2017.

Sporting still has a coveted opportunity to play for a trophy and will do so Wednesday by visiting LAFC in the 2024 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Final at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles. Kickoff is slated for 9:30 p.m. CT with a free broadcast on Apple TV as Sporting competes for a record-tying fifth Open Cup title, having won the tournament championship in 2004, 2012, 2015 and 2017.

With Wednesday's Open Cup Final beckoning, Manager Peter Vermes made eight changes to his starting lineup from Sporting's rampant 4-1 midweek victory over the Colorado Rapids. Defender Khiry Shelton and attackers Stephen Afrifa and William Agada retained their starting spots, and it was Agada who nearly opened the scoring after nine minutes. The Nigerian striker latched onto a probing cross from Daniel Salloi and snapped a powerful header goalward, forcing a reflex save from Minnesota goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair.

Minnesota threatened just once in the first half, almost capitalizing on a Sporting miscue. After Dany Rosero's attempted clearance sailed skyward, goalkeeper Tim Melia advanced off his line in a bid to punch the ball clear. His effort afforded Hasani Dotson a decent look to finish from the top of the box, but his shot skipped harmlessly wide.

Sporting had two set piece opportunities go begging on the stroke of intermission. Erik Thommy's free kick skipped through the Minnesota wall and into the hands of St. Clair, then Agada steered a leaping header narrowly wide off a Jake Davis corner kick.

Following a weather delay that lasted one hour and 50 minutes, Sporting entered the second half with three reinforcements as captain Johnny Russell, fellow forward Alan Pulido and midfielder Memo Rodriguez came off the bench. Pulido went close to scoring for the second straight game in the 54th minute, receiving a pinpoint cross from Thommy and slamming his shot off target into the side netting. Rodriguez then bent a well-struck free kick a yard over the crossbar at the hour mark.

Minnesota drew first blood against the run of play. Halftime substitute Robin Lod ignited a counterattack and spread the ball left to Yeboah, who cut centrally and curled a pinpoint strike into the far right corner for his fifth goal in as many games.

After Pulido and Russell prompted St. Clair to make a pair of saves, Sporting was awarded a golden opportunity to restore parity in the 90th minute when Rodriguez was tripped inside the penalty area. Referee Ismir Pekmic wasted no time pointing to the spot, but Agada's ensuing penalty kick rattled the woodwork and Minnesota ushered clear to extinguish the danger.

As Sporting committed numbers forward in search of a late leveler, the Loons put the game to bed deep into second-half stoppage time with Lod picking out Hlongwane for a simple close-range finish. QUOTES Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes

On the second half...

We deserved a lot more than we got, a lot more. Forget about the second goal. On the first goal, obviously we have two guys there. One doesn't go to pressure. The other one doesn't cover. They both stand back and the guy gets a shot off and scores. Unfortunately, in regards to that goal, that's happened way too many times. That's why we're in the position that we're in this season.

On not converting chances...

We should have scored in the first half as well. It's disappointing that we didn't get anything out of it.

On the missed penalty...

He took it and he missed. There's nothing else to say about it.

On the options for penalty takers...

He took it. It is what it is.

On getting ready for the U.S. Open Cup Final...

They have off tomorrow to clear their heads and get ready for the final because we have got a big challenge in front of us to obviously go play LA in their stadium. It's going to be a big challenge but we we'll work towards that on Monday and Tuesday to get ready for Wednesday.

On evaluating today's match...

The only thing I have in front of me right now is the final. That's the only thing that I'm focused on at the moment.

Sporting Kansas City goalkeeper Tim Melia

On the team's performance...

Defensively, I thought we were good. We gave up two and a half chances. The first goal was kind of a slipped ball in behind us. The guy puts it in a good spot, not to take anything away from him. The second one was kind of a weird one late in the game and feeling the letdown of not being tied. We just kind of turn off for a second and then someone is walking in on goal. Ultimately, when we're only giving away that many opportunities, you have to credit our defense because they played well. It was a strange game. When you have these weather delays, it takes the juice out of the game for sure. I felt like you could feel that a little bit. But being such an important game for us -- not being able to drop points - I would have liked to see us be a little bit more aggressive and kind of throw everything at the goal, because I think we could have broke them down a little bit more than we did.

On the letdown after the win over Colorado...

That's been our year though, right? We show what we have, but we lack consistency. But saying that, all that doesn't mean anything at the moment. We have an opportunity to add such a silver lining to our entire year with an opportunity to win a cup away from home. Hopefully we play the way we did on Wednesday and show what we're capable of.

On the message to the team...

In my opinion, there shouldn't have to be any form of communication. It's an opportunity to play a final. If you added up every players' opportunities in here to play in finals, it's not a big number. They're very hard to get to. They're very hard to achieve and we have an opportunity in a year where we haven't done well. That should be massive extra motivation for all of us and we should go in there with a massive chip on our shoulder with everything to play for and something to prove.

On playing in a Cup final on the road...

Grind. You have got to be super organized defensively. Going back a long time in that Philadelphia game, we defended for long, long stretches of that game and that is perfectly okay. We don't need to drive the game. Everyone's has got to be in whatever position we need them in that moment. I think our team understands that and is very capable of it and we've shown it. It's got to be a place where we go in against a very, very good LAFC team away from home and if we have got to sit back, we sit back and defend. Who cares? All we have got to do is do everything we can to win the game.

On the team's ability to bounce back...

I think it's two completely separate things. Even this week, if you look at lineup rotation, we had to set ourselves up and there had to be decisions made for Wednesday and that's the reality of it. It was 100% the right decision. So we need to have our best game of the year on Wednesday and we are capable of it. We just have to come together as a group, come together as a team and show what we're capable of on Wednesday.

Sporting Kansas City captain Johnny Russell

On focusing on the Open Cup Final...

You have to put it past you because that's not good enough on any level. You put a performance in against Colorado and then you go in the complete opposite tonight. That's been the problem with our season: inconsistency, lack of quality and then we just allowed teams to punish us. It's a horrible feeling but you have to get over it and you have to get over it quick. We've got a cup final to play on Wednesday.

On finishing chances...

We just have to be better as a team and as forwards. We're getting in the right positions. We're getting into the right areas. The final product isn't there right now. Even the other night, we score a few goals and could have been a hell of a lot more. We created enough chances for it to be probably double what it was. We created enough chances tonight. We were not really anything close to our best and we still created chances and we don't take them. You don't take them and when a team's got quality then they've always got the chance to punish you and we've allowed that to happen tonight.

On the missed penalty...

That's on me. I should have taken it. Willy (Agada) and Alan (Pulido) grabbed the ball and I didn't want it to turn into a bit of a ugly scenario that you can tend to see at times. So that's on me as a captain. I should step up and take it. Willy said he was feeling it so I allowed him to take it but that's definitely on me. I should have taken the ball. There shouldn't have been any doubt and I should have taken the penalty. That's my job as a leader of the team. You have to lead. I just wanted to obviously let a guy who is in good form (take it). He's feeling confident and he wanted to hit it. Unfortunately for us, it didn't go in. Willy has scored a lot of important goals for us this year and the season is not finished either. We need him so we just need to get behind him and rally around him and make sure this doesn't sort of linger for him. It sucks. I've missed penalties. I missed a penalty this season to tie a game as well. I know how it feels. I'll speak to him and let him know that happens. We just need to bounce back from it.

On speaking to the team before the Cup final...

Peter spoke tonight so I'll let that settle an digest and then I'll speak to the team in the next couple of days leading into the game. We have to be very clear what the message is and what the plan is going into that game. We have to turn it around quick. We have to get back to what has been done on Wednesday night and not allow what we've done tonight to continue.

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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.

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