Sporting KC fall at home 2-1 to RSL

Sporting Kansas City had to make an early sub when Gerso Fernandes was tackled on a breakaway and went down hard. Gerso came back on a couple minutes later but quickly decided he could not continue, and Sporting KC brought on the Hungarian Homegrown Daniel Salloi in the 6^th minute.

With that change, Sporting KC lost a lot of speed down the left side but Salloi was making up for it in quality runs in the first half but unfortunately his finishing was as cold as it was all season. The second half got even worse.

Johnny Russell opened the scoring when he took a free kick from just outside the box. Felipe Gutierrez had earned the attempt when he was fouled by Nick Besler. Russell’s attempt went just over the salt wall and under the bar past a helpless Nick Rimando.

A few minutes later Real Salt Lake earned an equivalent attempt when Andreu Fontas fouled Corey Baird. The Salt Lake shot went off the post and rebounded directly to Baird who had an easy point-blank shot while most of the Sporting KC players could only watch as he level it at 1-1.

The next good opportunity came for Sporting KC at the end of the half. Russell was tripped up in the box as he was running onto a pass. Gutierrez stepped up to the spot and hammered the ball low to the left hand side and off the post. The shot was hard enough that the rebound came well outside the box triggering a Salt Lake counter that Sporting KC had to work hard to stifle.

With Sporting KC pushing for a go ahead goal most of the second half and doing a decent job of shutting down counters it still failed them in the 70th when Jefferson Savarino picked out an unmarked Baird who had time to pick his shot and gave the visitors the 2-1 lead.

The home team made a call for a penalty in the 73rd but referee Fotis Bazakos took a look at VAR and went with his initial call of no penalty.

The game got even tougher for the home side when Salloi was shown a straight red for a hard tackle on Damir Kreilach in the 84th.

In the end another anemic performance on the offensive half and not sold enough on the defensive side doomed Sporting KC.