Sporting KC Stunned At Home Against Seattle Sounders
Sporting Kansas City lost 4-1 to the Seattle Sounders at Children’s Mercy Park.
On a beautiful spring day and for the first time in Kansas City good weather in a while, Sporting Kansas City were hoping for their first win of the season against the Seattle Sounders. Most were hoping the job could get done as Seattle was missing six players for international duty (Xavier Arreaga, Reed Baker-Whiting, Alex Roldan, Raul Ruidiaz and Obed Vargas) and their second forward Heber was missing with an injury.
Sporting came out in the 5th minute as Willy Agada scored his first goal of the season! Agada scored after Daniel Salloi saved a low shot from Frei, but Agada was the first to deflect the rebound and hit it home.
The mood was high until Jordan Morris leveled after a passing sequence in the 23rd minute and Zusi was burned out by Leo Chu, whose low cross was found by an unmarked Morris.
Sporting reached halftime with an even score. Seattle came out with more aggression and Jordan Morris scored three more goals (four total…). His second goal came in the 54th minute after his low shot ricocheted under Pulskamp after trying to make his way big against Morris (Editor: Ben Sweat keeps him on the side).
Ben Sweat was sent off just short of Morris’ hat-trick after coming late against Leo Chu with a shoulder and earning his second yellow and showering early.
Morris scored his hat-trick in the 69th minute with poor coverage through the entire back line. Leo Chu lashed out again in another cross, which was tapped by Morris.
Morris ended the game in the 77th minute with…you guessed it. Another cross into the box for Morris to head them into the bottom corner.
On the plus side, captain Johnny Russell made his first appearance of the season after recovering from a hamstring problem that sidelined him for the first four games of the season. Kansas City will have to wait until next weekend to get their first win of the season as they travel to last year’s Eastern Conference champions Philadelphia Union, who are also having a somewhat odd start to their season, winning twice and losing three.
Key moments from Sporting Kansas City:
- Willy Agada scored and Johnny Russell returned to the field and that was it.
man of the match:
If I had to name a Sporting player man of the match, I would say Agada, but nobody really stood out anyway. Morris and Chu were deadly deadly together tonight and one of them deserves the award.
What to watch out for next weekend:
fighting spirit. This team has looked great in the first three games of the season. Unfortunately, the lack of finishing destroys confidence on the field. With Russell back and Pulido on the bench, hopefully one or both can make this team work this season. Philadelphia is a very good team and they are favorites to win the title this season. It’s a tall order, but the players need to start with confidence to get a good result. Let’s hope Leibold or Ndenbe (Editor: Ndenbe will probably be out for another six weeks) are back and healthy to play alongside Nemanja Radoja next weekend.
The sweat will also disappear through his red card, but Vermes hinted that a player who has consistently made mistakes will be substituted out of the group for a while during the post-game press conference.
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