Lancaster header delivers Sporting KC II third straight loss

Sporting Kansas City II dropped their third straight single-goal loss of the 2020 USL Championship season by a score of 1-0 after Cameron Lancaster provided the winning goal in the 50th minute. Now dropping all three points in six consecutive matches, their last result was a 2-2 draw against Jimmy Nielsen’s Hartford Athletic in early October of 2019.

Manager Paulo Nagamura elected to stick with the same starting lineup that took the field in last weekend’s 2-1 loss against the Indy Eleven. Louisville City made two changes from their loss to St. Louis FC last weekend.

Once again, SKC II came out and played well in the opening half, but entered the halftime scoreless after Enoch Mushagalusa’s 11th minute shot was blocked and Christian Duke wasn’t able to make the most of his opportunity in the 30th minute.

Louisville found the opening goal after Cameron Lancaster headed Niall McCabe’s cross past Brooks Thompson in the 50th minute. SKC II responded well and created some good opportunities, but weren’t able to punish Lou City. Manager Paulo Nagamura made all five subs, but other than switching Jaret Townsend for Fredinho Mompremier, they seemed to disconnect the rhythm of play as Louisville did well to close out the game and come away with their first ever win at Lynn Family Stadium. The time-wasting tactics from Louisville that went very lightly punished by the referee was met by a very animated Paulo Nagamura throughout the later stages of the match.

Sporting now drop to 0-3-0 on the season with three straight single-goal losses, which puts them last place of four teams in Group E. Lou City’s win is their first since the restart, bringing them to a record of 2-2-0 and keeps them in third place of Group E on six points.

Sporting II played well for the majority of the match, but the quality in the final third wasn’t good enough. There were some poor decisions with the ball and some clear-cut chances that should have been scored. Defensively, SKC II played very well for the most part once again, but got away with some bad giveaways that they will need to clean up in the future. One of the biggest things that must frustrate the coaching staff will be the six offside calls, many of which were very avoidable and stopped some good moves forward.

Off the bench, Jaret Townsend looked very good, but missed SKC II’s biggest chance in the 62nd minute. For the second straight game, Mason Leeth was thrown into a difficult situation chasing a goal and replaced Sam Raben at right back. Danny Barbir replaced Camden Riley before forward Dominik Resetar replaced captain Christian Duke. One day after signing, Isaiah LeFlore came on late, but didn’t have much of an impact on the left side. In the end, I definitely think there could have been some more effective substitutions.

Sporting KC II will remain in Louisville for their next match on Wednesday, July 29th, when both sides will face each other again at 7:00 PM CT on ESPN+.

Full match highlights: