Sporting KC
Sporting KC shuts out Minnesota United with passionate 3-0 win
SKC get their first home win of the season with a dominant team performance and goals from Rosero, Salloi, & Kinda.
It was a beautiful, warm night for soccer on Saturday as Sporting Kansas City picked up their first home win of the season over Minnesota United. Eager to prove to fans this season is not lost, their passion was on full display in the 3-0 shutout. There were crunching tackles, guys sacrificing their bodies to block crosses, and Tim Melia was foaming at the mouth as he saved a PK.
The fans responded, too. It was loud, it was fun, and it felt like a return to normalcy at Children’s Mercy Park.
Rosero, Salloi, and Kinda were the goal scorers en route to a fantastic team victory.
The home side didn’t waste any time. The attack was coming down the left side of the field through Daniel Salloi in the opening minutes. After asking a couple questions, they earned a corner kick in the 9th minute. Dany Rosero rose up above the defenders to meet a perfect in-swinger from Daniel Salloi. A simple header from a corner kick. But a true sight for sore eyes for Sporting KC fans.
This ball in from DS20 tho… 😮💨
Dany Rosero opens his Sporting KC account AND the scoring in #SKCvMIN! pic.twitter.com/Sc7WqMS6E0
— Sporting Kansas City (@SportingKC) May 14, 2023
The barrage only continued from there. SKC was dominating possession and all the chances. In fact, Minnesota United failed to take a shot from the run of the play the entire first half.
Alan Pulido, looking for his second goal of the season, pounced on desperate defending and a poor clearance in the 15th minute. But his shot hit the exact upper-90 of the crossbar and out of play.
Jake Davis made his second straight start at right back and it doesn’t look like he plans to stop anytime soon. In the 18th minute he fired a hopeful, yet dangerous, rocket from 30+ yards. The ball grazed the top of the net and showed just how much confidence the 21-year-old has right now. He’s flashing speed, creativity, and he’s surprising on the defensive side of things as well.
The best moment of the night, and the entire season for that matter, came in the 22nd minute. An absolutely beautiful buildup left a perfect ball for Salloi to tuck into the corner on the first touch.
An assist AND a goal for Daniel Salloi! 🤩
Watch #SKCvMIN live on @AppleTV 👉 https://t.co/WKhxvpGdbQ pic.twitter.com/xD3RfjX6xx
— Sporting Kansas City (@SportingKC) May 14, 2023
Pulido starts it with a great turn in the middle of field and then he takes it himself all the way into the box. A clever dink sends in Walter, who leaves it for Salloi with a back heel.
However, Sporting KC let their guard down immediately following the goal. 21-year-old Sang Bin Jeong made his way into the box before being taken down by a pouncing Tim Melia. It was an ugly penalty from the veteran. He was indignant.
After he finally stopped screaming at the referee, Melia was snarling as the stared down the youngster from South Korea. He was blowing snot rockets, spitting, and looking like he was ready to explode.
The intimidation worked. After a feeble run up from Jeong Sang, Timmy stood his ground and easily gathered it in.
YOU CAN'T BEAT TIMMY MELIA WITH THAT 🤫
Tim Melia's PK save keeps Minnesota off the board! pic.twitter.com/5rwPhYyCNb
— Sporting Kansas City (@SportingKC) May 14, 2023
But in the second half, Melia tweaked something making a goal kick. A few minutes later he would make a fantastic save off a deflection, but he was eventually subbed off for Kendall McIntosh.
Gadi Kinda subbed on in the 62nd minute for Nemanja Radoja. It was just the second MLS start for Radoja, and his first appearance since he went down with an injury in early April.
Sporting KC got the cherry on top with a feel-good goal from Kinda in the 84th minute. Johnny Russell played him into the box and the 28-year-old Designated Player chipped it over Dayne St. Clair for the third goal.
Gadi Kinda opens his 2023 account for the third on the night!!!#SportingKC pic.twitter.com/s7VwzQejAO
— Sporting Kansas City (@SportingKC) May 14, 2023
It’s been a long road to recovery from Gadi Kinda and it’s great to see that smile again.
They still have a long way to go, but the last two matches for Sporting KC are about everything the fans could have asked for as a start. You can feel the immense passion from the players. Their reactions and smiles on their faces say it all.
Time to start climbing the ladder.
Next up is a midweek meeting with the top team in the Western Conference, LAFC. Kickoff is at 9:30pm on Wednesday from BMO Stadium in Los Angeles.
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Two wins in a row… who would have seen that coming!?
It felt good to see a complete team win. The second goal made me more excited than all of the previous good plays in the entire season combined. Also, I loved seeing a young player like Davis have some great moments.
Again we see Thommy on the right making good plays. And if that’s what we can expect from Walter in a double 8 spot, yes please. And Radoja didn’t look bad either! And Jake Davis. We may have just unlocked something really good. I was really hoping that shot would have gone in…
And sure enough, MLS has a story on “vengeful” Peter Vermes giving a metaphorical middle finger to the critics. Like two wins (or even a good run the rest of the season) absolves the much larger/deeper problems.
That being said, that was great fun to watch and it’d be amazing if we really could get the SKC we expected for the rest of the season.
Yeah. It’s way too early to be saying, “See, I was right all along!” Especially when midweek is probably going to be a game we all want to forget.
For one night, MLS was fun again. But that doesn’t change the fact we’re 2nd from bottom, with the team beneath us having 2 games in hand. And almost every team above us having at least 1 game in hand.
That didn’t stop Vermes on his post-game cauldron “pep” talk. Even if we have an “okay-ish” record from here on out. A glaring issue in roster construction has been brought to notice. What happens if one DP gets a red card? Or a minor ankle sprain? Do we just count those gamed without them as losses because we couldn’t have our “ideal starting 11”? We haven’t faced challenging opponents as even the win vs Seattle was against a severely hindered Seattle squad.
I mean i get being hyped we won, but it’s strange to make this result as a chance to whip his junk out. Sure, it’s the best result scoring wise we’ve had this season. But it’s also a few days since shitting the bed in Houston where we were completely inept , again, in front of goal……up a man for a large majority of the game. Great we won a game against a pretty bad team home , the bar is that low that the head coach feels a sense of accomplishment from that. I mean i guess we tied with Galaxy, and lost against Montreal so I guess winning was an accomplishment. But still, just seems odd to come out and stake the flag in the club house still sitting at the bottom of the table out of the playoffs over 3 months into the season.
Maybe wait till the summer when we are mid table to make that speech
Especially after claiming that you don’t pay attention to the noise on the stands. Leaders that are confident in their abilities and management don’t need to make speeches that say that. Especially when fans were very careful to never stop supporting the players. It was never about the players. Even frustrations with Shelton had more to do with vermes than him. It makes me even more staunchly Vermes out than before.
“But that doesn’t change the fact we’re 2nd from bottom” …but it did change. They were on the bottom. Now they are 2nd from the bottom. Change.
I don’t get this thread. They ask PV if he believes in the quality of his team and feels good to see them put it together after the start of the year they had or whatever they asked, you want him to say “no” when his biggest challenge right now is to get moral back up?
https://www.sportingkc.com/video/peter-vermes-post-match-press-conference-vs-minnesota-united-fc-may-13-2023#peter-vermes-post-match-press-conference-vs-minnesota-united-fc-may-13-2023
Here is a link to the press conference. I suggest anyone who was mad at PV based on that article should actually watch it from the horses mouth. You’ll find a fairly subdued interview where he admits to being proud of his guys and nothing more.
If you think 2nd from the bottom is a successful season, good for you. But your misquote of me doesn’t make what I said untrue. Other than, after LAG winning last night, we’re back to being the Wooden Spoon.
2 wins, with 1 over a team missing a number of starters, and the other in terrible form and without its best player, does not a successful season make. Nor does it get Vermes off the hook.
I don’t think 2nd from the bottom is a successful season, I think they can only climb the table 3 points at a time and they picked up 3 points.
I didn’t misquote you. I took part of your quote out of context to use it to serve my narrative. Not altogether unlike what that article writer did to Vermes, making it sound like he was boastful when in fact he came off more subdued and focused on the task ahead.
Only blight on the evening is waiting to find out how long (if) until Tim Melia comes back. Hip injuries at his age for a keeper are very bad.
Other than that, can’t complain about the game. Other than perhaps would’ve liked to see Pulido and Russell pulled at 60mins to save their legs for midweek. As is, that match is probably going to be ugly because I have to believe that’s going to be a rotated squad and save the starters for the much more winnable St Louis game. Even if Clouse supposedly is returning, they look like a team that’s been found out. And even if he does, we know about how “returning” from injury is rarely as simple as stepping onto the field again.
Is it enough? Well, I said we needed 7pts from these 4 games. We have 6. So…almost.
Also, sorry I didn’t participate in the Match Thread. I was dog tired from getting up at 3am to smoke beef ribs for a party. I watched. But posting would’ve been an incoherent typo-filled nightmare. 😛
I would love to see a rotation lineup midweek with some adjusted tactics, even if we get run out of town by a great LAFC lineup. That would at least be an indication that PV is learning and evolving, and that would probably be more exciting than these last two wins.
If we see the same lineup, and a couple of 88th minute subs…
The good vibes were definitely back at CMP last night. Pretty full, loud, and songs by the Cauldron at full time. Lineup changes were refreshing. It was awesome to see us score via passes played through centrally – it makes so much of a difference when you can get the CBs out of shape by stressing the central areas of the pitch. The backheel from Walter leading to Salloi’s venomous strike was pure class.
I’m very glad to have such a good win at home and to score some really great goals. Seeing Gadi’s smile and the way the team celebrated him for his goal brought a lot of joy to me.
That being said, I’m still Vermes out. It took me a while to hop on the train, so it’s going to take quite a bit to get me off. These results are encouraging, but that doesn’t absolve the fact that we had our worst start to a season ever. I think the only way that I won’t be Vermes out by the end of the season is if we make a deep run in the playoffs because that’s the kind of team he promised us but has not delivered on. Show us how “vengeful” you feel for the whole season and then maybe I’ll be convinced. Still, very happy for the team because those boys have needed this.