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Sporting KC 5-0 over Miami FC: Highlights and Quotes

Highlights of the goals Sporting Kansas City scored in preseason, plus updates on missing players and other preseason tidbits.

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2 years ago

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Credit: Thad Bell

Sporting Kansas City improved their preseason record to 2-1-1 with a win over USL Championship side Miami FC on Saturday afternoon. It was the team’s fourth preseason game ahead of the 2024 Major League Soccer season. Just one preseason game remains before Sporting KC hit the road and face the Houston Dynamo to open 2024.

For the penultimate preseason game, Sporting would play 120 minutes, instead of the standard 90.

The Lineups

The starting lineup saw the first appearance of the preseason by center back Dany Rosero who returned (presumably with his green card) from Colombia. The only other change to the Starting XI was newcomer Zorhan Bassong playing left back in lieu of Tim Leibold, who would come on later. Everyone else remained the same as the lineup we saw against Nashville SC.

60 minutes in, the first round of subs came on:

  • John Pulskamp for Tim Melia
  • Tim Leibold for Bassong
  • Alenis Vargas for Johnny Russell
  • Willy Agada for Alan Pulido

In the 77th minute, more significant changes were made with the additions of Kayden Pierre, Robert Castellanos, Robi Voloder, Jacob Bartlett, Felipe Hernandez, Memo Rodrigues and Marinos Tzionis. 77 minutes for seven of the 11 starters is the longest anyone has played this preseason in a game we’ve been made aware of.

The final two subs saw unsigned third round pick Jonathan Robinson replace Leibold and Danny Flores replace Hernandez in the box-to-box midfielder role.

There are a few things to potentially take away from the lineups:

  • Bassong with the starters is interesting and he put in a longer shift than Leibold, the presumed starter.
  • Daniel Salloi was once again missing, though Peter Vermes says he should be ready for the Atlanta United preseason finale.
  • Stephen Afrifa continues to play ahead of Marinos Tzionis at left wing and Vermes heaped praise on him after the game saying he “was very good again,” and later adding, “he is making believers out of all of us.”
  • Vermes also praised Rosero, Agada, Voloder and SKC Academy defender Bartlett, who played defensive mid over Danny Flores.

The Goals

Sporting KC won 5-0 (highlights below) with an own goal from Miami, a run of play goal from Stephen Afrifa and a hat trick from Willy Agada, including two PKs. One PK was earned by Alenis Vargas and is shown below, and the other was earned by Marinos Tzionis.

  • 46′ – Miami own goal
  • 65′ – Stephen Afrifa
  • 93′ – Willy Agada
  • 96′ – Agada
  • 118′ – Agada

Alan Pulido somehow hit the post with a wide-open net when he clearly should have scored. He had a banger against Nashville, so I guess there are bound to be some stinkers too.

The Highlights

The team released highlights without audio showing four of the five goals. We put some music over it to liven it up a bit. Enjoy!

Sporting KC close out preseason next Saturday against Atlanta United at 10:00 AM CST in Miami.

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Since 2014, Chad Smith has been deeply involved in covering Kansas City soccer. He's written about Sporting KC, the KC Current and SKC II for numerous platforms, including The Blue Testament, which was the precursor to the KC Soccer Journal. While his initial connection to Sporting KC was established in Phoenix covering preseason, he now resides in the Kansas City area, offering thorough analysis and a strong commitment to local soccer.

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Jake

Ok so they played Miami FC 2? The article says USL Championship side Miami. And as far as I know, their first team was just in Asia as part of their preseason tour.

Anyway, good to see some of those depth pieces; Agada, Afrifa step up and show PV that they deserve to be a part of the rotation. That Vermes quote on Afrifa? That’s huge. Vermes doesn’t usually make comments with such high praise, especially for a guy that we don’t expect to be a starter.

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Josh Wallace

That quote from Vermes about Afrifa says a lot. I’d venture to guess Afrifa is gonna get every single chance to be first off the bench or start in some games on the wing.

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Chad Smith

The comments are acting up and I can’t reply to comments underneath them (I have our admin looking into it).

Jake — Miami FC is a wholly separate team from Inter Miami. They used to be in NASL I believe and are in the USL Championship (2nd division). Inter Miami FC II are a different team that plays in MLS Next Pro (3rd division).

Jake and Josh — I agree, I’m excited about Afrifa. I think he’s definitely 2nd on the depth chart at LW behind Salloi but ahead of Tzionis based on how they’ve been rolling out lineups. If Daniel is healthy, I suspect he’ll have a lion’s share of the starts, but at least PV should trust Afrifa to get some minutes.

I can’t tell you how excited I am at the possibility of all that speed off the bench! Afrifa, Agada and Vargas all seem like burners. The team can play a totally different style with them and even Shelton. They can be a counter attacking team and Pulido could be more of a distributing attacking 10. PV always calls him a 9.5.

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SportsChum

Agreed! That last paragraph has me excited!

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