Sporting KC
Gateway to the Pain: Sporting KC dominated by St. Louis City SC 4-0
St. Louis City SC puts on a dominating performance at home in the first rivalry match, dismantling Sporting KC with a 4-0 victory.
Any recent semblance of goodwill and excitement from Sporting Kansas City fans dissipated like air leaving a balloon Saturday evening, as Sporting KC were battered by new regional rivals St. Louis City SC 4-0.
Indiana Vassilev supplied a brace for St. Louis while Eduard Löwen and Nicholas Gioacchini each put in one of their own as part of the dominating performance.
The first fifteen minutes were, more or less, even, with both teams committing to a back-and-forth match, both teams nibbling at the edge of a chance. Sporting KC keeper McIntosh was first tested in the fifth when Jared Stroud advanced into the box and moved into the center of the area, getting off a good shot on goal but McIntosh made a diving save to keep St. Louis out of the goal.
In the 14th minute, Pulido was responsible for Sporting KC’s first real chance of the night, rocketing a rebound toward goal which required a diving stop from Roman Burki.
But it was St. Louis who broke through. In the 17th minute, Nemanja Radoja brought down Vassilev near the penalty spot, earning St. Louis City a penalty. Lowen sent McIntosh the wrong way on the ensuing penalty kick, giving the home side a 1-0 lead in the 19th minute. It was Lowen’s second goal of the season.
Edu. Easy.
1-0 | #STLvSKC | #AllForCITY pic.twitter.com/eyrUoWCMtt
— St Louis CITY SC (@stlCITYsc) May 21, 2023
It got worse from there for Sporting KC. Following a tackle which won the ball from Gadi Kinda in Sporting’s defensive half, Stroud sent it over to Vassilev, who had space just inside the box, beat Zusi and sent a low ball past McIntosh into the net for St. Louis’s second goal of the evening.
Indy makes it ✌️
2-0 | #STLvSKC | #AllForCITY pic.twitter.com/pUpSYbY86s
— St Louis CITY SC (@stlCITYsc) May 21, 2023
Peter Vermes made two subs at the start of the second half, bringing on Eric Thommy for Gadi Kinda and Logan Ndenbe for Tim Leibold. With some fresh legs, Sporting KC started the second half with a bit momentum, creating a couple of chances trying to pull one back. In the 51st minute, Johnny Russell was responsible for Sporting KC’s best chance of the match at that point, receiving a cross and from Ndenbe and winning the ball ten yards out for a strong header on goal, but Burki was there to make the leaping save, keeping Sporting KC scoreless.
The home side then ended all momentum with their third goal of the evening. A long ball from Burki found Stroud and Gioacchini playing a high line right on top of the Sporting KC defense. Stroud touched the ball over the Gioacchini in the attacking half and he was all alone behind the back line, finishing the score with a chip over McIntosh to make 3-0 St. Louis.
The assist 😯
The finish 😏3-0 | #STLvSKC | #AllForCITY pic.twitter.com/0GDedpkKJ1
— St Louis CITY SC (@stlCITYsc) May 21, 2023
Sporting KC’s next best chance at a goal came in the 73rd minute with Alan Pulido bringing the ball into the box from the the far side, finding space to give the ball to Russell streaking in. Russell’s shot from 15 yards out, however, was met with a diving save from Burki
The away side would be punished once again for trying to score, just a minute later. Tomás Ostrák won a ball from Radoja in the defensive half then began a breakaway for St. Louis. Ostrák took the ball all the way to the box where he then handed it off to Vassilev, who found the far post for his second goal of the evening.
Dr. Jones would be proud 🤠
4-0 | #STLvSKC | #AllForCITY pic.twitter.com/kpQG2kZHvS
— St Louis CITY SC (@stlCITYsc) May 21, 2023
Sporting had several chances in succession to at least put one goal on the books, but the 84th minute, but both Alan Pulido and Daniel Salloi had prime shots blocked by Burki, ensuring the clean sheet for St. Louis.
🎶 He’s in your head 🎶
🧤 @RBuerki1 pic.twitter.com/nHlvKqO2nu
— St Louis CITY SC (@stlCITYsc) May 21, 2023
The final whistle mercifully blew after three minutes of stoppage, giving St. Louis the 4-0 win in the first match of this new rivalry. Sporting KC returns home next week to take on the Portland Timbers on Sunday.
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Yuck…just yuck.
The ref was bad.
But that doesn’t change SKC embarrassed themselves. It wasn’t just a tired performance. It was a spineless one.
Sounds like a coaching issue. No, don’t say players.
It can be both. The players shouldn’t need to understand what local rivalries mean. But SKC never looked up for the fight.
And I’ve been #VermesOut for most of a year now. So don’t think I’m protecting him.
Great photo Thad. One of the many calls Penso probably blew (I can’t remember, it was out of hand).
That looks yellow worthy, but I know Ceilo (sp?) never got a yellow.
I didn’t watch but that photo looks like an orange card to me
I was so upset during the game, but I’m weirdly kind of over it. We’ll see what I summon for tomorrow when we do a podcast.
I’m with you Chad.
I was never expecting much from this game, and like I mentioned on Twitter, was hoping that Vermes would punt on this game out of protest from the ridiculous scheduling. Instead STL nearly murdered at least 3 of our starters.
Ehh, I would hope we would never punt a game out of protest, that seems a little silly. Every team deals with fixture congestion at some point, it is what it is. What I find interesting is we rolled out an identical starting XI against Minnesota and LAFC, and then only made 3 changes for the STL game. Seems like poor squad management to me, but that’s just my opinion.
Shit management, especially for all of the spoken concerns of injury, match fitness, etc. Subs didn’t happen early enough in the first two games to prepare for this game.
I don’t know what you want him to do, not fly a 2nd 11 to LA so they stay fresh? The travel is more draining to players then 90 minutes of game. I honestly think squad rotation is overrated when the schedule is like this.
Straw man argument, you completely exaggerated my point. I’d also push back on travel being more draining than 90 minutes of game. Travel can definitely compound exhaustion, but the cause of exhaustion is a large amount of games in a small window of time, in my opinion.
What I’d like for him to do in the future is be better at managing rest for his players. As an example, against Minnesota we had already gone up 2-0, and yet didn’t make the 1st sub until 62’. Not counting McIntosh coming in for Melia, the final 2 subs didn’t occur until the 86’ just after we went up 3-0. So pretty much everyone except Radoja (subbed at 62’) played a full 90 in a game we already had control of at HT, therefore could have rested some guys sooner. Then Vermes rolled out the identical starting XI against LAFC instead of resting some of those guys for STL. Made 2 subs at the 61’ minute (Davis and Thommy off) and then waited until 83’ and 93’ for the final 2. So now at this point, almost all of these players have put in 2 consecutive 90 minute shifts, and the majority of them also started against STL. I’m not saying that better rotation would have fixed everything, but it’s a start at least.
And if the argument is that we don’t have good enough players beyond our starting XI to rotate with, well then that falls on Vermes’ shoulders too.
There absolutely needed to be better managing of minutes. Vermes has never done that. And yes, the lack of depth to do it with definitely falls on him.
Also, in the days when teams flew commercial, you could make the argument about travel being draining. But everyone flies charter now. A 3.5hr flight is not “draining.” It’s a nap. There are no connections. No terminals.
MLS literally posted the foul on Kinda saying “perfect slide tackle” and it makes me want to throw up.
Dubious refereeing aside, there was no way we were even going to draw with the way we played tonight. No one looked up for it. McIntosh had a shocking performance as well (I know he’s the 3rd stringer put in a tough spot right now, but still). You’d hope the seat is getting warm for Vermes, but who knows at this point. After the small promise of a few positive results, it feels like we’re right back to Russell’s quote a few weeks ago about how the team is broken.
If the only difference had been they had Roman Burki and we played a backup, I could swallow a loss on the road to a fired up rival.
But that isn’t even close to describing the difference between the two teams. How SKC could look like the team that’s never played a rough and tumble high-stakes game before is pathetic. Blame the ref. Blame the goalkeeping. But SKC refused to stand up for their mates tonight. Repeatedly. And that’s not on Vermes, even. That’s a mentality issue of the team.
I saw a team that got fouls and yellows called every time they tried to stand up for their mates. SKC definitely didn’t play well but there were also 2 calls that should’ve been pks going our way that weren’t even fouls. To me it’s more like “SKC wasn’t good enough to overcome StL and the ref “. They still weren’t good enough, but the deck was stacked against them
Did the ref influence the game? Yes.
Did SKC not do nearly enough to compete in a rivalry game? Also yes.
One team came to play a rival. The other showed up to finish out a road trip.
I think I’d be more upset about the ref if we had generally been playing well this season. But I’m just not up for hearing a bunch of excuses at this point. I saw some fans complaining about how we had to travel midweek to LA and then to STL. Sure it sucks, but every team deals with the same scheduling challenges at some point; the good teams figure it out and rotate the squad. Meanwhile, our starting XI between the Min-LA-STL games was almost identical….
I do not disagree. Personally I expected mass rotation vs LAFC to prepare for this game. But it’s clear Vermes rated the LAFC game as more important, and paid for it last night.
So, Twellman kept talking about how he asked PV if he would change tactics to cede possession to STL since that’s how teams have been beating them. PV basically said no because he thinks teams should stick to their identities (Beavis laugh). Sporting did exactly that and ended up with nearly 65% possession and lost by 4. I have no doubt that Twellman’s story is true because PV has said that many times before. And it’s bitten us in the ass before too. It’s so crazy to invite a counter-attacking team to counter-attack you, especially when they’re at home and would otherwise have to press the attack (something they’ve shown they can’t do).
Penso sucked and McIntosh let in a soft goal, but we were never winning with those tactics.
Say it again louder please.
I would be fine even if we tried to exploit teams that press us by changing to a box midfield, outnumbered the press, and beating it over the head with artificial transitions. Like Brighton or Columbus in MLS do.
Sure. It’s higher risk than playing direct. But it’s showing confidence in your players while still giving them the tools to succeed.
Nah. 433 or bust. Fullbacks screaming forward and leave our 6 on an island. It’ll be fine.
Invert the midfield. Bait the press. Then play the switch to Russell or Salloi. We have the players to execute this.. And it’s demonstrated to be the way to both keep the ball and beat pressure. Which is why Pep switched formations after watching Di Zerbi ball.
In the “adapt or die” environment of the MLS, it’s insane to think this is Vermes’ mindset. It’s no wonder we’ve fallen so far behind both on and off the field.
Of course they out possessed them, they were trailing all game. You want them to cede possession down 2+ goals?
Even the first 2 StL goals happened because SKC insists on playing out of the back no matter what. Most of their possession the first half was desperately rolling passes through their own penalty box under STL’s extreme pressure until they could get it to Kinda or Salloi somewhat close to midfield. STL would then take those guys out like a linebacker (excuse me, “make a perfectly timed slide tackle”) and have a breakaway goal chance. They have to be able to take long kicks accurately and maintain possession in their own half sometimes. Russell spent almost the entire first half playing as a fifth defender to cover for Zusi getting torched by faster players while he was trying to ground pass to his own keeper from the end line. That style was guaranteed to fail that game.
I turned the game off after the third goal, so I can’t speak to the rest of the game. Before I say this, no we did not lose because of Penso. However, he definitely influenced the game in huge ways via the first two goals and being completely inconsistent on fouls and cards. Those affect the outcome, but if you’re a professional soccer player, you have to figure out a way to play through that. There were moments before our collapse that we looked like a decent team, but STL came to play a rivalry match and we came to play a regular season game. They were fired up, we were just happy to be playing soccer.
Hoping to add SOMETHING positive here. I didn’t watch the game. I’m in Portland for trip and bought a last minute ticket to the Portland – Minnesota game. It was a neat experience. As a neutral observer I thought the ref called a solid game but the Portland fans wanted to crucify him.
Anyway, Minnesota looked bad all game then scored in the last seconds of stoppage time. That stadium went from full to almost empty in just a few minutes. In a season where SKC is so bad it hurts, reveling in someone else’s pain was a great experience.
Schadenfreude can be cathartic.
I commend you for neutrally reporting the game.
Sorry guys, I should know that whenever I bet on the win, they’ll assuredly lose.
But in reality the 3 game streak is looking like an aberration.m and it’s back to business as usual. None of the new guys outside of rosero (more on him in a bit) have done anything. Leibold has been hurt and maybe had one appearance that looked decent and the rest have been the same disappearing act. Radoja was awful last night. Just looked lost and completely gave up on the last goal. Rosero has been a bright spot, but the frustration of having to carry fontas and being Iput in bad spots is spilling over. I get the other two have been hurt, but we are 4ish months in and still are talking about working to fitness and learning the system with 2 would be big additions.
Essentially, we preferred to be competitive at la then be competitive on national television playing an actual rival for the first time. I’ve been a pulido fan and defender, but at some point you can’t have him everywhere except the box. There were times he was dropping so far back he was playing as a midfielder passing to thommy and others in the box and he was hanging back. You can’t have your arguably best finisher no where near goal, whether that be by design or by his playing preference.
But hey, all our trophies are thanks to Peter. So just buy your tickets for next weekend
Radoja was swarmed. Which is what a pressing team who sees a single pivot loves to do. Hence why I want to see this team switch to a double pivot, to outnumber the press and set up a box to move the ball through midfield easily.
I’m fine dropping Pulido deep. If we then used that to release our wingers. Again, make a box in midfield (a pair of them, actually) to move the ball between the lines easily. The ball-side fullback would move up to support the play. And the first look when the ball gets between the lines would be to release a winger 1v1.
Essentially Zerbi-ball with Brighton. Nancy does the same thing (from a 3 back set) with Columbus. And did that last year in Montreal as well. Pulido arriving late created more than one scoring chance last night. Burki made a couple great saves. That happens sometimes. But if the difference between the teams had been that Burki made world-class saves and our guy didn’t, I could’ve lived with that a whole lot better than what we got.
I get the pulido counterpoint. And like i said I’ve been a fan of the guy since he got here. But the problem is, he isn’t looking to play in Russell or Daniel usually. He’s looking for a cutting in thommy, Gadi, remi, etc who then work the ball to the wing and then they do a cross over the top into a now loaded box that leads to nothing besides a shot from outside the box. At some point, Alan has to be the guy making the cut. Look at Seattle, he timed it perfect and put a finish on it to score. The rest of the team hasn’t shown the ability to do that so you sacrifice alan for nothing usually. I’m with you on flipping the triangle. Having remi and radoja drop back and playing thommy or even pulido if we had Willie on the team as the tip would make sense. But it just isn’t going to happen.
Until radoja has a break out game, I’m just not going to be a believer. I get St. Louis tactically eliminated him, but outside of his cameo early in the season where he left hurt I just don’t see anymore ability then any of the 6’s we’ve churned through the last few seasons. I mean it helps to have remi to go further up the field but it’s still a liability at that position that was supposed to have been addressed that’s dragging on for another season
He’s looking for the attacking 8 because that’s what the system wants him to look for. If we tweaked the pattern of play, he’d look for different players.
And Alan’s movement is part of what makes him dangerous. You can’t turn him into a static 9 and expect him to be better. He popped up at the end of attacks enough vs St Louis. Burki made the saves. He isn’t suffering for not getting into scoring positions.
I just watched this last night after spending the weekend on the Katy Trail. Don’t know that I have anything insightful to add that hasn’t already been said. The ref was bad and Kinda was getting mugged like a 1980s hockey player, but this performance is on Vermes. Especially after his self-righteous response after the Seattle match. You want to claim vindication after one win, you better own all the losses, too. Other have covered the details already.
I finally watched the “highlights.” That penalty call for STL was ludicrously bad.