Sporting KC
No place like home: Sporting KC win over FC Dallas makes it three straight at home
Late in the first half of a hotly contested midweek clash between Sporting Kansas City and FC Dallas, the question became, “Whose goal would change the match… and how?” Gadi Kinda and Daniel Salloi answered the query and claimed a 2-1 win for the home side at Children’s Mercy Park Wednesday evening.
The match was a meeting of May Masters. Sporting, despite schedule congestion, has been gaining back points as of late, going 3-1-1 in May and taking back-to-back home wins to the aggregate tune of 7-1 on the scoreboard. FC Dallas has been almost as hot, going 2-0-3 in May and currently sporting the longest active unbeaten streak in MLS’s Western Conference.
Three days on from Sunday’s 4-1 home come-from-behind triumph over Portland Timbers, Head coach Peter Vermes stayed with the same starting lineup:
Your #SKCvDAL Starting XI 🌈#SportingKC | @BlueKC pic.twitter.com/kVqm0HuRSh
— Sporting Kansas City (@SportingKC) May 31, 2023
Adding bite to the matchup of MLS originals were two facts: Sporting is likely envious of Dallas’ 4th place standing (firmly in the playoff picture with over 1/3 of the season gone) and FC Dallas is unbeaten in Kansas City since 2018 at 4-0-2.
A one-hour weather delay prolonged the buildup, but the match began in earnest from the whistle. The character of the match took shape early as Sporting built from the back and used combinations at width to get into space behind FCD’s mid-block. When Dallas attacked, it was to players in advantageous positions in space.
Striker Alan Pulido’s shot in the 9th minute from 12 yards to the left of Dallas’ keeper Jimmy Maurer off a give-and-go with Daniel Salloi drew the biggest “Ohhhhhhh” from the strong weeknight crowd. Just two minutes after, FC Dallas forced Sporting’s netminder Kendall McIntosh into two point-blank saves.
The match had indeed begun.
A Dallas goal waved off due to an offside in the 17th minute only added to the electricity already in the air. Eight minutes later, Dallas should have jumped on top. An offside evading run put Alan Velasco in behind Sporting’s back four and the subsequent ball into the box put gave Jesus Jimenez a high xG opportunity. The ball pinged off the post and Sporting survived.
Pulido looked to answer off a ball from Davis in the twenty-ninth. The Mexican cut to his left and unleashed a roller that went just right of the near post. Right center back Dany Rosero would nod over the bar six minutes later from a corner.
The 41st minute brought a break through. Left back Logan Ndenbe drove to the inner left channel, then released for Salloi. Freed from the pack, Salloi played low to the near post for Pulido. Yet, the ball was behind and rolled for a hoped-for back post runner. Gadi Kinda was the runner, and he rippled the far post netting for the lead and the spark to ignite what would come.
Breakthrough! Daniel's cross makes it through to Gadi Kinda, who sends it home!
Watch #SKCvDAL now on @AppleTV 👉 https://t.co/LbbLa7TuoJ pic.twitter.com/xbTBVdw3qh
— Sporting Kansas City (@SportingKC) June 1, 2023
Andreu Fontas forced fans from their seats with a powerful drive off the bar just before the halftime whistle. The whistle was Vermes’ signal to get to the task of pushing his side towards a second and solving the problem of the clever runs of FC Dallas’ front six targeted at taking 1v1 advantages between Sporting’s lines.
Like last match, Graham Zusi stepped on for Jake Davis at right back to start the 2nd half.
The second for Sporting Kansas City would come in the 60th minute from “Showtime”. Salloi, on a hot streak lately and forever versus Dallas, crept in from the left and wrapped his right foot around the ball and directed it inside Maurer’s far post. The Hungarian Hitman now has racked up eight goals and three assists in 15 regular season appearances against FC Dallas.
Far post from DS20 and we're 2-0 to the good!
Watch #SKCvDAL now on @AppleTV 👉 https://t.co/LbbLa7TuoJ pic.twitter.com/o62h9ZGyfB
— Sporting Kansas City (@SportingKC) June 1, 2023
Vermes made three subs after the goal and was forced to make another as Zusi went down in the 70th minute. Previously, Rosero came off with a knock.
FC Dallas made the five minutes of added time much more tense after US National Team forward Jesus Ferreira latched onto a long ball deep in the left side of Sporting’s box, evaded substitute center back Robert Castellanos, and chipped sweetly over an out of place McIntosh.
However, Sporting hung on for the three points and upped their hopes of pushing into a playoff position.
No rest for the weary – nor any wanted, perhaps for a team on a roll – as Kansas City travels to Vancouver to battle the Whitecaps late Saturday evening.
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The attack is finally getting going. Salloi is looking dangerous and once Russell is back we’ll really be loaded. Hoping Pulido can start finding the net – I’ve noticed he seems to dither sometimes instead being decisive with taking the shot.
Tzionis reminds me of Lucas Moura (yes I’m a Spurs fan if you hadn’t guessed by the username haha). This is sort of a back-handed compliment, because he’s really bright on the ball but seems to have little to no end product. Once Russell is back, I see Tzionis being more effective coming off the bench where he can dribble at a tired defense.
I think part of the reason the attack has looked better recently is the presence of both Thommy and Kinda on the field together. Even though they’re in the midfield, they’re overloading the back line and putting defenders into conflict due to their goal-scoring capabilities. It’s lose-lose for defenses: if they choose to mark Thommy/Kinda it leaves the wingers open, or vice versa. It’s a really nice extra wrinkle in the attack.
Defense on the other hand was ugly tonight. Rosero seems to be the only quality CB and looked gassed when he was finally subbed. Fontas was frightful. And now Zusi is injured. McIntosh had 2 errors leading to goals, once of which was luckily erased for offside. I wouldn’t mind seeing Pulskamp back in the mix. Not sure what you do at CB though beyond Rosero.
On Tzionis: I’ll just note that prior to coming to KC he played almost exclusively on the left.
That and I noted he combined much better with afrifa than pulido. I see a ton of potential once that chemistry builds with his RB and midfield. I’m loving his getting more minutes.
Good to know. I like Tzionis. Just would like to see more end product from him. Whether that means moving him to his more comfortable spot on the left, or figuring out which teammates he gels with best, I hope we figure out the secret sauce for him.
I think his production has been fine. When he’s been allowed to play on his stronger side.
Not that I’m suggesting to sit a hot hand in Salloi for him. Just saying, it’s unfair to judge the production of an inside forward who is playing on his winger foot’s side. Everything in Sporting’s system is geared toward him going for the half-space. But his native inclination is dribbling wide, where the fullback is already overlapping.
I’d rather have seen him play as the left sided midfielder (where Thommy was), and Thommy play right wing. Then both would’ve been close to their natural positions.
Also, I’m not going to fault the play of Tzionis on a night when he made a 30yard recovery run to our own goal line to snuff out a potential scoring chance. And bail out a ball-watching Shelton.
Tzionis has made a marked improvement since first arriving here. Except it’s not the stuff we notice (his dribbling and passing) and argue about all the time. When he first started playing here his fitness level looked worse than old man Roger and it didn’t improve. Hard to improve when you don’t play a lot. Pretty sure he was supposed to come out for Khiry in the 70th last night. He told PV he was good to keep playing.
He also did a lot of standing around when he first got here. His defensive workrate was crap. He didn’t move with the team. He just kind of floated. Now he’s tracking back. Making runs to DEFEND and on offense.
I’m hoping the next improvement is more give and goes with teammates. After be defeats a defender on the dribble and gets a pass off, there is often open space for him to run into. Sometimes he does it. Occasionally his teammates see it. But more consistency and more runs into dangerous areas, we will see the improvement that all of us are looking for.
But the hustle and the defensive workrate improvements should keep him in the good graces of PV. Which means he should get more time. And he’s still 21, 22? And has lots of potential to improve even more.
You said it much better than me. He’s steadily improving with more and more game time, but there’s still opportunities for him to work on exploiting those dangerous areas, which should eventually lead to a steadier flow of goals and assists.
All fair points. It was never my intent to fault his play. I should have fleshed out my thoughts more. I think he has the skills, but hasn’t quite put it all together yet. Then again, he’s only just now getting meaningful playing time.
Plus especially for the McIntosh comment. Ironically, the commentators were fluffing him to no end when he half-heartedly meandered out toward Ferreira. The goal wasn’t completely on him, because his defense wasn’t doing him any favors, but he didn’t help himself either. Not sure what Pulskamp did to PV, but I’d like to see him again too. Of course, now he’ll start against Vancouver and give up 4.
Castellanos and Shelton manning the right side of the defense for 25 minutes could have gone a lot worse
I’m not a fan of Vermes, but more performances like this — as well as both his subs and the time he used them — have nudged me a bit closer to complacency.
Let’s build more momentum, SKC.
And try to avoid those post-game brewhouse rants, Vermes.