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MLS Sporting Kansas City

Sporting Ties Philadelphia

March 3, 2024 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Sporting Kansas City News Release


Sporting Kansas City (0-0-2, 2 points) battled the Philadelphia Union (0-0-2, 2 points) to a 1-1 draw in Saturday's home opener at Children's Mercy Park. Remi Walter fired the hosts ahead with a sublime strike in the first half, but Alejandro Bedoya salvaged a last-gasp Philadelphia equalizer in the 95th minute to split the points.

The earliest regular season home match in Sporting history saw Manager Peter Vermes deploy an unchanged lineup from last weekend's 1-1 stalemate in Houston. Veteran goalkeeper Tim Melia logged his 250th MLS appearance for the club, center back Andreu Fontas played his 350th match as a professional, and captain Johnny Russell eclipsed 550 matches in his heralded pro career.

Russell contributed to Sporting's early dominance and almost lifted his team ahead inside three minutes, dashing onto Jakes Davis' inch-perfect pass down the right channel and forcing a kick save from Union goalkeeper Oliver Semmle. Not long later, Vermes' men appeared to have taken the lead when Daniel Salloi's delectable through ball found Erik Thommy, who then crossed low to Alan Pulido for a crisp finish near the penalty spot. The offside flag was raised on Thommy, however, and Sporting's celebrations were cut short.

There was no questioning the validity or quality of Walter's go-ahead goal in the 19th minute. Following a brilliant passing sequence that involved touches from nine of Sporting's 10 field players, Davis played centrally to Sporting's 28-year-old Frenchman at the top of the box. Walter made no mistake from there, sending a sensational left-footed curler off the post and into the back of the net. The midfielder also scored in Kansas City's 2022 home opener-a 1-0 win over Houston-and has now become the first Sporting player to score in multiple home openers at Children's Mercy Park since the stadium opened in 2011.

Thommy prompted Semmle to make another save near the half-hour mark before Sporting threatened again on the stroke of halftime. Salloi cut centrally and unleashed a drive that Semmle dropped low to repel into the path of an outstretched Russell, who was unable to put his rebound effort on frame.

Fielding a rotated team with Tuesday's Concacaf Champions Cup match against Pachuca on the horizon, Philadelphia made three notable substitutions at halftime as Bedoya, Daniel Gazdag and Kai Wagner entered the fray. The visitors found their foothold in the first quarter-hour of the second period, with Melia saving a shot from Bedoya and Gazdag pelting a long-range volley marginally wide.

The final minutes of the game unfolded in breathless fashion. In the space of 60 seconds, Salloi had a shot saved on the counterattack at one end before Sporting defender Tim Leibold intervened crucially for a clearance in his own box that caromed off the woodwork and nearly resulted in an own goal.

Shortly thereafter, Davis performed a textbook slide tackle at midfield to win possession and carried the ball goalward before spreading it right to Russell, who was again thwarted by Semmle from a tight angle. At the opposite end, Union substitute Markus Anderson planted a bouncing header inches-wide.

Controversy marred the dying embers of the match. With 94 minutes played, Philadelphia was erroneously awarded a throw-in that should have gone to Sporting. The Union entered the ball back in play and quickly won a corner kick, which led to the equalizing goal. Wagner's in-swinging delivery was punched away by Melia only as far as Bedoya, who slotted a first-time shot into the roof of the net to restore parity at 1-1-much to the chagrin of 19,942 fans at sold-out Children's Mercy Park.

Sporting will now look ahead to a challenging trip to Western Conference heavyweights LAFC (1-1-0, 3 points) next Saturday, March 9. Kickoff is set for 9:30 p.m. CT with live coverage on MLS Season Pass via Apple TV.

QUOTES

Sporting KC Manager Peter Vermes

Thoughts on the match...

We scored. We defended well. We're leading the game. We're defending well. They made their changes. We made ours. That was good. Three minutes, 58 seconds of added time. There was four minutes of extra time. At 3:58 we threw the ball in, 3:59, four minutes, 4:01. The ball hits off of number seven, (Mikael) Uhre's leg, goes out of bounds. The referee points the wrong way. They throw the ball in. We break the play. They hit another ball in and we break the play again. We're now over four minutes. They play another ball in, then the ball goes out for a corner. He keeps the game going. For what reason? I don't know. Was there any major things that happened within the four minutes? Nothing. What's the reason for four minutes? Why do we even talk about four minutes? It makes no sense to me. It really doesn't. It's so frustrating for our guys.

On the message to the team...

We deserved the three points, for sure. It's hard because every time you have got to go in and you have got to talk about how it happens. It's hard for those guys to get over. But we have to. We have got to get on with our next game. That's all we can do. The guys did a good job. They played well enough to win the game today and get three points and we deserved it.

On the team's attack...

First off, Philly's a good team. A very good team both offensively and defensively. Defensively, they compete really well. They don't give you a lot of opportunities. We were good. We were dangerous. We were in front of their net quite a bit. We were in and around their box. It was the kind of game I expected it to be. It's like last year. We went there, we tied them 0-0. We did more than enough to get the three points and we should have walked away with the three points. Sometimes, unfortunately, it becomes a mystery of how these things happen.

On the stadium upgrades...

I think all the upgrades that they've made are great. I've seen them already kind of in action on other days. It's great and I think the atmosphere was great in the stadium. The fans deserved a different ending for sure.

On the referees assigned to the match...

That has nothing to do with it for me. I truly mean this. I've watched a majority of the games in the league and I think the referees that have been doing the games all have done a good job. I really do. I think that mistakes are made sometimes. I think you have to calm down in the moment. I think that it was a mistake. It was a mistake. I don't know what to do about it. I do have a problem with the fact that the time went as long as it did based on the fact that nothing happened in the game in that four minutes. It wasn't like there was a VAR check or a major injury. It's four minutes. Four minutes is done. It's over. That's why you give four minutes. To go all the way to almost five minutes, it makes no sense. And the ball is out of bounds by by their number seven and it's our ball again.

On the referee's mistake...

Did you see last year at the end of the year when we played Houston, we had referees there and there were two handballs in that game and neither of them got called. One should have been a red card. They didn't get called.

On the late equalizer...

If the game went 20 minutes, would you then expect me to try to defend every single minute thereafter? I'm not defending all the minutes. I'm defending the four minutes that were supposed to be on the board. That's what I'm defending. And the fact that their guy hit the ball out of bounds. I just said the replacement referees have nothing to do with it. The referees are the referees. I watched almost all these games in the league that have transpired so far and the referees have all done a really good job. And I also told you last year at PRO, those guys were refereeing the game in the playoffs and those guys made two mistakes in the game for two penalty kicks that should have happened in that game. We should have been in the final. I don't know what else you want me to say,

On the play of Jake Davis...

He was better this week than last week. He was better as the game went on for sure. Good timely tackles. But I think the team was better this game all around.

Sporting KC defender Andreu Fontas

Thoughts on the match...

They're a very good team. Obviously, they made some changes because they were playing a lot of games at the beginning of the season. But I think we were solid. We didn't concede many chances. We were good enough with the ball. We scored our goal and I think we did a good job defensively until the end. And I don't know what to say to be honest. I think it happens too many times against us. I don't know exactly what to say because I think it's very clear and obvious that the ball goes out of bounds off them and then they call it against us. I don't know when the time was, but it's just clear. It changed obviously the result of the game, because if we had the ball there, the game is dead and that's it. We have three points and now we lose two at the very end. It's frustrating.

On if an explanation was provided...

I don't know. I don't even know what minute it was. It was past the four minutes of extra time. I honestly don't know. I don't know what we have to do, what we have to say. They probably say sorry during the week and that will be it. But the points went away. I think we did enough to win this game.

On rebounding...

We'll take the positives from today. We'll have to get the result now away from home. At the end, it's the work that we put in and the effort that everybody did and the work that we did together. We have to take the positive from today and think that those kind of decisions or mistakes won't happen every game.

On the team's chemistry...

I think we were a much better team today than in our first game and the objective is to keep improving. I think there are still things to do better. I think we were better with the ball, but still we can be better. We lost a couple of balls in the first half and they could get in the counter. I think we defended well, but we need to be a little better with the ball in some moments. We had a couple of chances that we didn't score. And obviously these teams find ways always to get chances and to score goals. We knew that they were a good team. They subbed in very good players at the end. We didn't get the result. We just take the positives and keep working because obviously the improvement is there.

Sporting Kansas City captain Johnny Russell

On the end of the match...

I was told I wasn't allowed to speak to the referee. I went up to ask him a question. I asked him calmly. I said, 'can I speak to you? He said no. I said, 'as the captain, I'm allowed to speak to you.' And he said, 'no, you're not.' And he told (Andreu Fontas) that he checked it, which he clearly didn't. So I wasn't given an explanation. I was dismissed, really, when I was trying to talk to him. I don't know what you're supposed to do. I was trying to talk to the guy. Same as last week. They just refuse to talk to you. I'm not going to say too much. I know how sensitive the subject is right now. I'd rather keep my money for my kids than get it taken off me by the league, to be honest.

On the positives in the match...

Offensively, we probably could have had a couple more, especially in the first half when we created so many chances. Mine at the start of the game, I should probably get round it a little bit more and try and find the far corner instead of trying to drill it. But we put them under immense pressure. They make changes. It's going to be a more difficult game. And they've got quality guys who came in, but I thought we defended well. We hit them on the counter well as well. There was a lot of good signs. And then obviously what transpires at the end, I mean, you always want to see it out yourself and defend crosses, but unfortunately it falls to (Alejandro) Bedoya at the back post and he gets a good finish on it. And everything you've worked for the 90 odd minutes gets taken away. It's disappointing, especially when we played so well. We've done so many good things to have it sort of taken away at the end. It's pretty rotten, to be honest. It would have set us up nicely with a good start to the year, but we just have to regroup, make sure everyone is okay, and then we've got another tough game next week. So that's where the focus shifts on. We were maybe a little bit sloppy with a ball in the first half, but apart from that, there weren't many negatives to take from the game. Nothing really drastic to try and work on or eradicate. I feel like we played well. We looked pretty sharp. Maybe fine tune a couple of things on the offense, but apart from that it was pretty solid performance from us.

On the performance...

Like you said, you're not going to keep players of that quality quiet for the whole game. But I thought we'd done a very good job when they did make the substitutions to limit them to very few chances. We all know how dangerous Philly are when they go forward. They attack in numbers and they attack well. But I thought we controlled it pretty well. We dealt with it well. We had our shape great as a team and, like I said, we hit them on the counter well as well. Nothing else to say really, just so many positives in the game. We probably should have had the game out of sight. And then you don't take chances. You allow a team to creep back in eventually and they did that.

On the team's sharpness...

I think everything just flowed. Obviously everyone's maybe got that extra bit of fitness from last week and we know that sharpness comes the more games you play. So I think getting everyone back fit -- there were a couple of guys carrying a couple of knocks last week -- I think we had everyone fully fit this week and I think it showed that our movement on the ball, our movement off the ball, the way we were moving the ball as well. I think you could see that sharpness definitely coming back in our game. And obviously it's much easier to do that at home, but it was a huge improvement from last week. Last week was a kind of a gritty performance, whereas this week was more what you would expect from us, especially at home.

On the referees...

That's two games I've tried to talk to the referee and they don't really want to hear any of it. But apart from that, for me, you shouldn't really notice the referees anyway. They're in a difficult position. They're going to make mistakes, but some of the mistakes you can't make those kind of mistakes in big moments like that. But I feel like the guy's done, up until that, he refereed the game well. I had no complaints, really, about the way the game was refereed. I think it was fair both ways. It's just so infuriating when you work so hard for the time you do and then just such a blatant mistake really just kind of costs you. It's difficult. It leaves a sort of sour taste in your mouth and we should be sitting on four points instead of two.

On communication with referees...

It wasn't after the game. It was during the game. I tried to talk to him a couple of times throughout the game and he just didn't want to hear any of it. I don't know. I really don't. If the guy doesn't want to talk to you, then I can't force him. It's up to him.

Referee Rafael Bonilla (via MLS pool reporter)

What did you see on the play that resulted in the Philadelphia Union throw in in the 94th minute that led you to believe the ball went out of play off of a Sporting KC player?

KC #14 was the last player who touched it last using his lower part of his leg. Therefore, we awarded a throw in to Philadelphia Union.

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