MLS Sporting Kansas City

Sporting Takes First Road Loss of Season in Houston

Published on September 5, 2020 under Major League Soccer (MLS)
Sporting Kansas City News Release


Western Conference leaders Sporting Kansas City (5-3-2, 17 points) suffered their first road loss of the season on Saturday, falling 2-1 to third-place Houston Dynamo (3-2-4, 13 points) at BBVA Stadium.

Forward Erik Hurtado punctuated his first start of the season by firing the visitors ahead on the half-hour mark, but a pair of second-half Houston substitutes provided game-changing impacts as Alberth Elis equalized and Mauro Manotas headed home a late match-winner to give the Dynamo their third straight victory.

Still occupying first place in the West, Sporting will have a full week of recuperation and preparation prior to hosting regional rivals Minnesota United FC next Sunday, Sept. 13, at Children's Mercy Park in a game that will air on FOX Sports Kansas City and FOX Sports Midwest Plus.

Manager Peter Vermes continued his squad rotation on Saturday as Sporting Kansas City took the field for the fifth time in 16 days. Five changes adorned the starting XI, highlighted by the 300th career MLS start for captain Matt Besler, Hurtado leading the attack and left back Amadou Dia making his first Sporting start since April 2016. Midfielder Gadi Kinda returned from a red card suspension, joining Academy products Gianluca Busio and Felipe Hernandez in the center of the park, while veteran Graham Zusi-who was a midfield substitute in Wednesday's 1-1 home draw against FC Dallas-was deployed as a winger for the first time since the 2016 playoffs.

A tepid start to proceedings saw neither side threaten until the 19th minute when Houston forwards Darwin Quintero and Christian Ramirez combined intricately at the top of the box before playing through to Niko Hansen, but Sporting goalkeeper Tim Melia produced a reflex save and pounced on the loose ball before it crossed the goal line.

The breakthrough fell to Sporting in the 30th minute on a wonderfully worked buildup from the back that involved 10 different players touching the ball in a breathtaking sequence. The flowing move culminated with Kinda exploiting a pocket of space and slipping an intelligent through ball to Shelton, whose low piledriver from the left side of the box was blocked by the outstretched foot of Houston goalkeeper Marko Maric. The on-running Hurtado was there to stab the rebound into the roof of the net, bagging his second goal of the season and his fourth since arriving in Kansas City in 2019. Sporting have now scored in their first 10 matches of the season for the first time since 2007 and are the only MLS team yet to be shut out in 2020.

Both teams exchanged chances on the brink of halftime, with Zusi curling a strike just over the crossbar and Ramirez rattling the woodwork after running onto Quintero's clever feed.

Houston seized greater initiative in the second period and drew level in the 59th minute through Elis, who had entered the game just one minute earlier. Quintero lofted a diagonal pass from the left edge of the box to the opposite side, where an open Darwin Ceren steered a cross low for Elis to prod past Melia. The Honduran now has two goals and three assists during Houston's three-game winning run, with both strikes coming against Sporting.

End-to-end action would unfold over the next 10 minutes as Sporting and Houston searched for a go-ahead goal. Melia dove left to turn away a blistering long-range blast from Quintero in the 65th minute, less than 60 seconds before Kinda intercepted a pass and played centrally to Zusi, who unleashed a 20-yard effort that bent wide of Maric's left-hand post.

Melia again spared Sporting's blushes in the 76th minute, denying substitute Ariel Lassiter on the breakaway. Lassiter, the son of former Kansas City forward Roy Lassiter, tried rounding Melia on the breakaway, but the Sporting keeper did brilliantly to get his left glove on the ball and extinguish the danger.

The Dynamo landed their fatal blow with 85 minutes on the clock. Right back Zarek Valentin was afforded room to cross from the right flank and whipped a ball into the mixer for Manotas to head into the back of the net at close range. The goal was the 50th of Manotas' regular season career and his eighth against Sporting in all competitions dating back to 2016.

Manotas nearly added to his tally in second-half stoppage time, only for his venomous attempt to be turned away as Melia recorded his fourth and final save of the night.

QUOTES

Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes

Thoughts on the match...

I thought for 60 minutes of the game, we were pretty organized. Obviously, we got the goal and that took a little pressure off. I would state that we started to probably get a little tired. I tried to make some subs. I tried to change the team around. We went to five in the back to try to deal with (Houston's attack). We knew what was going to happen. We knew they were going to come forward with a lot of people. We couldn't close the game out unfortunately.

On the play of Amadou Dia...

On that first goal, he did get drawn inside. I thought for the majority of the game though he was pretty good defensively against those guys. I thought he was pretty good. That's the number one priority of his position and his role is to make sure he defends well and he did a good job there.

On the play of Erik Hurtado...

We had some ideas about how he could get in behind them on some of the counters. I think they do a good job defensively. They fight for every ball. They compete. I think Erik was opportunistic on the goal. It was good for him to get the goal for us. It's unfortunate that it couldn't hold up.

On Houston finding space behind the backline...

Just so we're clear, on the first couple in the first half, they were offside. I spoke to the fourth official and he said they had them as offside. Once nothing came of it - one of them turned into a goal kick so they just left it alone; the other one Tim (Melia) made the save and held onto the ball. They were offside. The one I would say they got in behind us was the one with Amadou Dia when he came inside and the ball was played over the top. That was the one that unfortunately we were in close proximity to our goal and we should have done much better in that situation as a team defending that.

On playing with five in the back...

We just wanted to get more pressure on their wingers outside late in the game. That was the big thing for us so that's why we went to five in the back. That was really it.

Sporting Kansas City forward Erik Hurtado

On his goal...

I saw the ball come into me and I connected with the midfield after we played a few good passes and then had a penetrating pass from Gadi (Kinda) to Khiry (Shelton). It's what we work on in training. Khiry got a good shot off and I was just making a run to see if he was going to play me or not and the ball happened to come to me, and I just put it in.

On Graham Zusi playing at right wing...

Graham is an all-around great player. He can play multiple positions so wherever we put him, he's going to do well. It's good linking up and playing with him because he's got experience out there. It's always good playing with him.

On the team's pressure...

Houston wasn't really attacking us. They were passing the ball back and forth between the center backs so we felt good keeping them up there. When they were passing the ball, they weren't really a threat to us but when they came further up the line, we'd step up to them and they would either kick us the ball or kick it out of bounds and that's what we were trying to do. I think we were good as a team positionally. We stayed together and were compact. When we won the ball, we went to goal and got a goal off that.

Sporting Kansas City is owned by Sporting Club, an entity founded by a group of local business and community leaders comprised of the Patterson Family, Cliff Illig, Pat Curran, Greg Maday and Robb Heineman. Sporting prides itself on a commitment and vision to provide high-performance experiences. Sporting Club purchased the team from the Hunt Sports Group in 2006, and under its direction has opened Swope Soccer Village, Children's Mercy Park, Compass Minerals Sporting Fields and Compass Minerals National Performance Center while investing in the Sporting KC Academy and Sporting Kansas City II for developing local youth into homegrown talent. A charter member of Major League Soccer, Sporting are two-time MLS Cup champions (2000, 2013) and four-time winners of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup (2004, 2012, 2015, 2017).

2020 MLS Regular Season

Match 10 of 23

BBVA Stadium | Houston, Texas

Weather: 88 degrees and partly cloudy

Score 1 2 F

Sporting Kansas City (5-3-2, 17 points) 1 0 1 Houston Dynamo (3-2-4, 13 points) 0 2 2

Sporting Kansas City: Tim Melia; Jaylin Lindsey, Roberto Puncec, Matt Besler (C), Amadou Dia; Gianluca Busio, Felipe Hernandez (Gerso Fernandes 62'), Gadi Kinda (Winston Reid 77'); Graham Zusi, Erik Hurtado (Johnny Russell 62'), Khiry Shelton

Subs Not Used: Richard Sanchez, Luis Martins, Graham Smith, Cam Duke, Wan Kuzain, Daniel Salloi

Houston Dynamo: Marko Maric; Zarek Valentin, Alejandro Fuenmayor (Kiki Struna 80'), Maynor Figueroa, Adam Lundkvist; Matias Vera (C), Memo Rodriguez (Mauro Manotas 80'), Darwin Ceren; Niko Hansen (Alberth Elis 58'), Christian Ramirez (Ariel Lassiter 58'), Darwin Quintero (Boniek Garcia 87')

Subs Not Used: Cody Cropper, Sam Junqua, Nico Lemoine, Wilfried Zahibo

Scoring Summary:

SKC -- Erik Hurtado 2 (unassisted) 30'

HOU -- Alberth Elis 4 (Darwin Ceren 3, Darwin Quintero 5) 59'

HOU -- Mauro Manotas 2 (Zarek Valentin 3, Darwin Quintero 6) 85'

Misconduct Summary:

HOU -- Maynor Figueroa (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 90+1' Stat SKC HOU Shots 14 9 Shots on Goal 3 6 Saves 4 2 Fouls 12 7 Offsides 1 5 Corner Kicks 7 4

Referee: Timothy Ford

Assistant Referee: Corey Rockwell

Assistant Referee: Cory Richardson

Fourth Official: Luis Guardia

VAR: Edvin Jurisevic

AVAR: Jonathan Johnson

Check out the Sporting Kansas City Statistics

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Major League Soccer Stories from September 5, 2020


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