Sporting Levels Late in 1-1 Draw with Portland
August 19, 2021 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Sporting Kansas City News Release
Daniel Salloi continued his sublime season with an impressive 92nd-minute equalizer as Sporting Kansas City (11-4-5, 38 points) rescued a late 1-1 draw against the Portland Timbers (7-9-3, 24 points) on Wednesday night at Children's Mercy Park.
The Timbers led for most of the evening, landing their punch in the 17th minute off a Felipe Mora header, but Sporting's spirited pursuit of a leveler was rewarded in second-half stoppage time when Salloi's brilliant snapshot from 18 yards beat Portland goalkeeper Steve Clark at the near post. The 25-year-old forward has scored or assisted in six consecutive regular season appearances, two shy of tying the club record, and leads MLS with 18 combined goals (12) and assists (six) this season.
Wednesday's result saw Sporting move into second place in the Western Conference, one point behind leaders Seattle Sounders FC, ahead of a crucial Rivalry Week showdown at Minnesota United FC (7-6-6, 27 points) on Saturday afternoon. Sporting's seventh match in 22 days will kick off at 2:30 p.m. CT with national coverage on ESPN, the ESPN app and ESPN Deportes as well as local radio calls on Sports Radio 810 WHB and La Grande 1340 AM.
Taking the field for the sixth time in 19 days, Sporting deployed an unchanged lineup from Saturday's 2-0 road win over FC Dallas. Celebrating his 35th birthday, Sporting defender Graham Zusi reached a major milestone in his 307th regular season match on Wednesday, passing LA Galaxy legend Cobi Jones for most appearances by a one-club player in MLS history.
Sporting fell behind for the seventh time in 10 MLS home matches this year when Portland winger Marvin Loria swung in a teasing cross that Mora nodded past goalkeeper Tim Melia. Mora leads Portland with seven goals in 2021, while Loria has a team-best five assists.
The hosts almost conjured a quick response in the 25th minute. Midfielder Gadi Kinda played an incisive pass to forward Alan Pulido, whose deft touch found Salloi on the left side of the penalty area. The Hungarian cut past his defender and unleashed a side-footed effort that Clark cast aside.
A pedestrian first half gave way to more action in the second period. Clark was forced to make a reflex save on the hour mark when Kinda rose to snap a header goalward off a delectable Zusi delivery from the right channel. Sporting dominated possession for extended periods, ending with 69% of the ball, but Portland would threaten 15 minutes later when a costly turnover allowed substitute Diego Valeri to chip a close-range shot inches wide of the target.
Portland continued to defend deep but could do nothing to prevent Salloi from finding the back of the net on 92 minutes. Drifting into the central third, Pulido spread the ball wide left to Sporting's in-form attacker 40 yards from goal. Salloi glided down the left flank, squared up defender Pablo Bonilla and hammered a quick-trigger blast just inside the near post.
The superb play extended Sporting's club-record home scoring streak to 25 regular season matches, the longest active run in MLS. Manager Peter Vermes' side also leads MLS with 18 points gained from losing positions in 2021, four more than any other team.
QUOTES
Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes
On if the draw was a fair result...
Probably. In the first half, I think we were sluggish. I thought we were slow. We weren't sharp. In the second half, we brought a lot more. The one thing you have to admit is it's always difficult when a team has to break another team down all game long in a low block. We found chances. Shoot, we could have won it at the end obviously with (Andreu) Fontas. I give the guys credit for the second half. It's not always going to be perfect. It's not always going to be the way I think it should be or the way that I want to write it up. It's just not always going to be that way. Sometimes you have to adapt and adjust from maybe not playing well or not being sharp on that day or being a little bit fatigued. Probably it was some of that. I would say that they probably had some of that as well. Our sharpness wasn't there in the first half. The second half was better.
On the team's schedule congestion...
We've played a lot of games. We're still trying to get healthy. He won't say it but Johnny (Russell) is not even fit yet from when he was out. He was out for over 10 days. He's got to get back to 90 minutes fit and he's just played two 90-minute games in the last five days. We've got to keep working towards that. We can get ourselves past this next game and give ourselves a little bit of a breath and hopefully get a new player in as well. We can start moving the team around a little bit.
On managing minutes...
In the game against Dallas, when the team is feeling good and playing well, I'm going to stick with it. Like tonight, I thought the second half started out and I'm giving those guys a chance to redeem themselves. They came out in the second half and they started playing really well. I made the change at the end there because I wanted to see if we could get two forwards, especially with Khiry (Shelton), inside the box. He almost got on the end of one of them. Right away, he made an impact and that's what I was hoping for. It's not anything other than sometimes I just think there's a feel that you think that sometimes if you take a guy out, it could change it dramatically. And I didn't want to do that, especially when a team is in a low block and your team is keeping the ball and you're finding stuff. You don't want to disrupt that.
On the team's crosses...
I think we were really good on the flanks. When you're in low block like they were for the majority of the game, you're going to have to start putting the ball in the box and have to start trying to create some havoc. It's almost like sometimes you're hoping for a little bit of a pinball situation that catches them off guard because they have so many players in there. I think we were exposing them on the flanks. I don't think they really had an answer. You'd have to ask them, but maybe they were willing to take service. I don't know.
On Daniel Salloi's goal...
He puts power on the ball. He beat him with speed tonight on that ball. It's a good finish. It's a great finish. We probably needed a little bit more of that but, again, they had a lot of players just crunched in that area of the field. Who knows what the possession was? (Seventy percent). It's not easy to do that. It's just not easy doing it. And, at some point, you're also going to give up some counters like we did. But we found a way to defend them and go the other way. But doing what we did for as long as we did was pretty darn good.
Sporting Kansas City midfielder Remi Walter
On how the team is feeling after such a congested schedule and if that led to a slower performance tonight...
I think that's true, we were a little bit slow in the first half. I think it's because we don't come into the game with a good mindset. We need to push the team when we are at home and I think it's the most important thing if you want to win. We had a good reaction in the second half and the coach said at halftime that we need to move faster so we tried to do that, but it's not easy because we played a lot of games in this period. We tried but I think the most important thing is to have a comeback in the game and take one point.
On the difficulty of breaking down a team that defends with a low block...
Every team is different, but we need to focus on us, our game because we are at home and we need to play our game. It's hard when team's play in a low block, but we try, we try.
On adjusting to different positions in the midfield...
I can play the eight, but I prefer in this league and in this team I prefer to play the six. I think it's good for me to organize the game, catch a lot of balls, but if the coach needs me at the eight I can play and I'll do a different job because it's very different. I'm ready for that and I'm ready to continue for the next game.
On how difficult it was to play in the midfield when most of the game was played on the wings...
When we play a team like that, we need to go on the side because it's easier to have opportunities to score. For me, I need to be focused on my job, to keep the ball, to play well with my partner and to have good cooperation when players come into this area. I know it's not easy for the midfield when it's like this but we play and we try to score.
On the amount of work that goes into defending counter attacks when chasing the game...
It's hard because we need to run, to run and to run. We need to do a good job for the team to not take a goal, but we are ready for that. This position needs that so I'm ready.
Sporting Kansas City forward Daniel Salloi
On his 12th goal of the season...
If you watch it back, Luis (Martins) was overlapping and I was looking at Khiry (Shelton) coming for a one-two and I just had so much time that I just kept going and going with it. That space opened up at the near post, defender kind of shifted to the middle and the far post of the goal. That was my only way to shoot it, I'm glad I hit it so well that it was a very strong shot and that's why he couldn't save it at the near post.
On playing against Portland's low block...
It's difficult. I felt like we were more direct in the second half than we were in the first half. What I saw on the team and on myself is that there just wasn't enough energy today and with so many games behind us and coming up, it's difficult to play our "A" game every time. I'm glad we got at least a point but obviously it's terrible to drop points at home, especially when other teams win and they catch up to you or go in front of you, it's tough but what can you do? Move on to the next one.
2021 MLS Regular Season | Match 20
Children's Mercy Park | Kansas City, Kansas
Attendance: 17,081
Weather: 84 degrees and sunny
Score 1 2 F
Sporting Kansas City (11-4-5, 38 points) 0 1 1
Portland Timbers (7-9-3, 24 points) 1 0 1
Sporting Kansas City: Tim Melia; Graham Zusi, Ilie Sanchez, Andreu Fontas, Luis Martins; Remi Walter, Roger Espinoza (Khiry Shelton 80'), Gadi Kinda; Johnny Russell (C), Alan Pulido, Daniel Salloi
Subs Not Used: John Pulskamp, Amadou Dia, Kayden Pierre, Roberto Puncec, Kaveh Rad, Cam Duke, Grayson Barber, Wilson Harris
Portland Timbers: Steve Clark; Josecarlos Van Rankin (Pablo Bonilla 46'), Bill Tuiloma, Dario Zuparic, Claudio Bravo; Renzo Zambrano (Diego Valeri 71'), Diego Chara (C), Cristhian Paredes; Marvin Loria (Sebastian Blanco 64'), Felipe Mora (George Fochive 64'), Dairon Asprilla (Yimmi Chara 46')
Subs Not Used: Aljaz Ivacic, Larrys Mabiala, Blake Bodily, Jaroslaw Niezgoda
Scoring Summary:
POR -- Felipe Mora 7 (Marvin Loria 5) 17'
SKC -- Daniel Salloi 12 (Alan Pulido 3) 90+2'
Misconduct Summary:
SKC -- Daniel Salloi (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 25'
POR -- Diego Chara (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 28'
POR -- Josecarlos Van Rankin (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 43'
SKC -- Alan Pulido (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 62'
POR -- Pablo Bonilla (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 77'
POR -- Diego Valeri (yellow card; not retreating) 84'
Stat SKC POR
Shots 13 8
Shots on Goal 4 1
Saves 0 3
Fouls 8 14
Offsides 1 2
Corner Kicks 11 1
Referee: Ismail Elfath
Assistant Referee: Peter Balciunas
Assistant Referee: Jeremy Kieso
Fourth Official: Brandon Stevis
VAR: David Gantar
AVAR: Kyle Atkins
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