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SKC falls at Portland in 1-0 defeat

A close battle versus the Timbers

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1 month ago

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Jansen Miller vs Portland | Credit: Thad Bell

After a record-setting win last week, Sporting Kansas City went on the road to the Portland Timbers at Providence Park. A spectacular first-half bicycle kick for Portland’s Santiago Moreno was the difference in the match. The trip to Portland was the first of three away matches in an eight-day span for Sporting KC.

Interim head coach Kerry Zavagnin made only one change to Sporting KC’s starters, Tim  Leibold joined the lineup to replace the injured Logan Ndenbe.

Portland’s starters:

A good reminder that there are always more important things than sports. SKC sent their love and support to Gadi Kinda. The former SKC attacker has been ill with an undiagnosed issue. Portland’s Santiago Moreno received the

The last two defeats for SKC have been decided by moments of individual brilliance by their opponents. FC Cincinnati and the Timbers both benefited from bicycle kick goals in the box. John Pulskamp had little chance to save either shot. In the tenth minute, Santiago Moreno received the ball from David Da Costa. Moreno touched the ball up with his left before shooting it with his right over his shoulder.

“I could be better goalkeeping-wise, there’s always something you can look at,” Pulskamp observed. “But being realistic, it’s just one of those things where you kind of just have to tip your hat, they’re extremely difficult. That ball is behind the player the entire time, and it was the same thing with (Kevin) Denkey’s goal (in Cincinnati). You’re not seeing that ball until it’s essentially past his head, or at the last second. So it’s much different than a flicked header or a straight volley where you’re seeing the ball off a cross. You’re seeing it off his foot. It’s much different. You’re not seeing the ball, and then out of nowhere it appears. You’re almost trying to look for it. And then it appeared on my right and it was just wide enough that I couldn’t get there.”

Sporting KC responded well after Portland scored. The visitors quickly created a pair of good chances at close range. Daniel Salloi took a close-range shot set up by Manu Garcia that was stopped by Maxime Crépeau. A few seconds later, another strong shot from Salloi was again stopped by Crépeau.

Zavagnin was happy with the reactions his squad displayed. “I think we preach this and we’ve been doing this for a number of weeks now—to stay in the moment. We can’t control the result as much as we would like to, but our guys have been really resilient in tough moments, even going down in Cincinnati, and I can name a few other moments. But today was another indication, a positive indication of the resiliency of the group. And we didn’t concede. We didn’t give. In. In fact, we put our foot forward and we kept going. That’s a that’s a real credit to the mentality that this group is building and developing, and a lot of positives to take out of out of this game tonight.”

On the opposite end, Pulskamp had to make a huge kick save to keep Sporting KC in the match.

The second half started well for SKC with a few chances created, including one that Manu Garcia would want back. A cross found Garcia at the backpost, but the talented midfielder did not strike it cleanly and he had to watch it go over the goal.

Zavagnin used his subs, looking to at least earn a point but also with a mind towards the next two matches. Jake Davis came in at half and was a positive influence in the midfield. Also of note, Santiago Munoz stepped on the field the first time for Sporting KC.

 

Score 1 2 F
Sporting Kansas City (3-8-1, 10 points) 0 0 0
Portland Timbers (6-3-3, 21 points) 1 0 1

 

Sporting Kansas City: John Pulskamp; Andrew Brody (Khiry Shelton 69’), Jansen Miller, Robert Voloder, Tim Leibold (Zorhan Bassong 69’); Jacob Bartlett (Jake Davis 46’), Manu Garcia, Nemanja Radoja; Shapi Suleymanov (Santiago Munoz 81’), Dejan Joveljic, Daniel Salloi (C) (Erik Thommy 70’)

Subs Not Used: Ryan Schewe, Dany Rosero, Memo Rodriguez, Stephen Afrifa

Portland Timbers: Maxime Crepeau; Juan Mosquera (Eric Miller 84’), Finn Surman, Kamal Miller, Claudio Bravo; Joao Ortiz, David Ayala (Cristhian Paredes 68’), Santiago Moreno (Omir Fernandez 78’), David Da Costa (Jonathan Rodriguez 78’), Antony; Felipe Mora (C) (Kevin Kelsy 68’)

Subs Not Used: Trey Muse, Ian Smith, Dario Zuparic, Ariel Lassiter

Scoring Summary:
POR – Santiago Moreno 3 (David Da Costa 6, Antony 7) 10’

Misconduct Summary:
POR – Claudio Bravo (Yellow Card; Unsporting Behavior) 67’
SKC – Shapi Suleymanov (Yellow Card; Unsporting Behavior) 73’
SKC – Jake Davis (Yellow Card; Unsporting Behavior) 74′

STAT SKC POR
Shots 11 9
Shots on Goal 3 3
Saves 2 3
Fouls 13 14
Offsides 2 5
Corner Kicks 0 8

Referee: Ricardo Fierro
Assistant Referee: Stefan Tanaka-Freundt
Assistant Referee: Ben Pilgrim
Fourth Official: Adorae Monroy
VAR: Daniel Radford
AVAR: TJ Zablocki

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