Sporting KC II Fall at Home to St. Louis

Sporting KC II continues their search for their first goal and their first points at Rock Chalk Park in Lawrence as SKCII fell at home 1-0 to St. Louis City 2. The only goal of the game came in the 10th minute on a goal from Akil Watts off an assist from Ezra Armstrong on a free kick. Armstrong played the ball on the ground ahead of all the attackers and defenders who were racing back towards the KC goal with Watts getting some separation from Kayden Pierre at the back post to knock the ball home.

St. Louis started the game on the front foot, pressing Kansas City high on the field and in their own end of the field. The goal in the 10th minute after a foul by Kaveh Rad was a just reward for the visitors after their early push in the game. After the goal, Kansas City started to come into the game more, winning more possession and pushed down the field, but were unable to generate anything in the way of chances in front of St. Louis’s goal.

While KC struggled on the offensive end of the field, the defense stepped up their game and were able to contain the St. Louis attack and were able to deal better with the St. Louis press. While KC went into the half down 1-0 there were signs of life with KC controlling most of the possession by the time the teams reached half time.

Unfortunately the second half didn’t bring more in the way of chances for SKCII as they were still unable to generate a shot against St. Louis. In fact is was the visitors who created the better chances, forcing a good save out of Kendall McIntosh. KC’s offense continued to sputter and it wasn’t until the 69th minute when KC finally generated their first shot of the game on a shot by Collin Fernandez. KC continued to be the more aggressive side as the game went on and while they won a number of corners, struggled to create chances off those corners, recording just three shots in the game.

As the game got late on it started to get chippier with more fouls and in second half stoppage time, St. Louis’s Max Schneider was given a straight red card. Shortly after that KC wanted a penalty as off a corner to the back post it was played into the middle for Rauf Salifu who went to meet the header but was run into by a St. Louis defender. The incident led to another corner for KC but shortly after the final whistle blew. KC falls to 1-2-1 on the season and 0-2 at home on the young MLS Next Pro season.

Kansas City head on the road next weekend, heading to play the Vancouver Whitecaps 2 at Swangard Stadium.