Sporting Routed in Columbus

Sporting Kansas City’s 2024 woes reached a new low on Saturday night in Columbus as Sporting was routed 4-0 by the Columbus Crew at Lower.com Field. The Crew got a hattrick from Cucho Hernandez and a goal from Christian Ramirez to get the win. Sporting came out in a new formation for the game, a 3-4-3, but were hit with an early substitution as Kayden Pierre went down with an injury and was replaced by Khiry Shelton. Shortly after the substitution, the Crew took the lead as Max Arfsten was played in behind Shelton and Robert Castellanos down the line. He played the ball back into the box for Hernandez who cut around two sliding KC defenders and put the ball into the far corner for the lead. Hernandez doubled the lead in first half stoppage time as a Crew short corner was eventually played into the box where Hernandez got a step on Robert Voloder and some help from a deflection as the ball went through Dany Rosero’s legs and into the net.

Half time saw Sporting make three more substitutions, bringing on Alenis Vargas, Johnny Russell, and Andreu Fontas for Willy Agada, Stephen Afrifa, and Castellanos respectively. The substitutions didn’t improve Kansas City’s offense though as they were held without a shot in the second half until a speculative Memo Rodriguez effort in the 86th minute. As KC tried to get back into the game they pushed their defensive line higher and like against Real Salt Lake, left them exposed to counters, which Columbus was able to find success at. Ramirez tallied his goal in the 66th minute on one such counter, getting played in behind the KC defense. John Pulskamp made the initial save on Ramirez’s effort but Sporting’s defense had slowed their recovery by that point and Ramirez was easily able to be the first player to the rebound and put it away for the 3-0 lead. Hernandez finished off his hattrick in the 71st minute on a free kick that he curled into the far post.

The loss drops KC to 3-12-5 on the season, having won just one of their last fourteen league games. They’ve won only one of their last eleven league games.