Sporting KC Shoot Endlessly But Can’t Find the Net
They battled the LA Galaxy to a 0-0 draw.
Sporting Kansas City hosted the Los Angeles Galaxy in their first home game of the 2023 season.
They fired 30 shots but couldn’t find the back of the net but managed to concede in the draw. Did we tell you there’s strong attack and shaky defense?
There were only two changes in the starting XI: Tim Leibold took over for Ben Sweat and Khiry Shelton returned for Marinos Tzionis. On the bench, Nemanja Radoja made his first appearance since signing in the off-season.
The visitors, as we knew, were without one of their stars in Chicharito, but they still put up an impressive offensive line-up.
Before the game could begin, the Cauldron revealed another high quality tifo.
Sporting got away in front and put a lot of pressure on the Galaxy, barely letting them out of their own end. But the most dangerous early shot was from the Galaxy but Pulskamp came up big and pushed it wide before the offside flag was raised for the follow-up touch.
The game settled down a bit after the LA shot on goal in the 20th minute Raheem Edwards yelled for a PK after minimal contact between him and Zusi, but the referee had none of it.
In the 29th minute, sustained pressure from Sporting looked like they might score from a corner, but before the ball could be kicked the referee ruled a foul when it emerged that the LA keeper would be Bond own cleaned player.
In the 33rd minute, Roger Espinoza continued the trend of dangerous set pieces, scoring a header from a corner, but it was too close to the keeper, who collected it for another save.
In the 35th minute, Erik Thommy had a promising interception in midfield, but he delayed the pass to Agada, who missed the target and ended a promising counterattack.
In the 40th it looked like Sporting might finally break through as Salloi got two shots in quick succession into the box, but somehow both were blocked. They then forced an immediate turnover, but the cross was intercepted by Bond. Shortly thereafter, another quick attack followed down the left flank, but Thommy smashed his shot wide of the post!
The pressure stayed on in the 44th when Remi Walter let a ball come his way near the top of the box and it hit a rocket that Bond had to dive and slide over the bar. Just before half-time, Sporting checked the keeper again, but it even went to zero at half-time.
Sporting KC had 17 shots in the first half, eight of them on target and six of them blocked. The record for shots in a half is 23. The Galaxy only had one shot for the entire half.
The second half got off to a frantic start before Pulskamp ended the Galaxy attack with a nice wide ball to Alvarez in the 54th minute. Sporting rejoined the field in the next minute with a well served cross from Graham Zusi which Agada got his head at while struggling through contact from Leerdam who kept his head down.
In the 60th minute, Sporting KC had a golden opportunity when Daniel Salloi played a dangerous ball into the box which Agada touched and Shelton tried to shield the ball instead of shooting, taking the eventual chance from a teammate and collecting from the goalkeeper became. KC kept up the pressure and played another ball in shortly after, Agada heading wide.
The first substitution came in the 63rd minute when Marinos Tzionis replaced Khiry Shelton. In the 67th, Nemanja Radoja made his debut for Roger Espinoza. Oddly enough, he appeared to be playing at No. 8 instead of No. 6 on the defensive midfielder.
In the 72nd minute, Leibold made a timely interception and ran to the front and found Tzionis, but he couldn’t get his shot on target. Minutes later, Leibold was done and was replaced by Ben Sweat in the 76th minute.
In the 84th minute, a Tzionis cross was awkwardly deflected and Bond slammed his post to push it out for another corner.
From there, the game ebbed away and ended 0-0.
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