Sporting KC
Sporting Kansas City vs Real Salt Lake Match Thread
Sporting KC is on short rest as they take on a white hot Real Salt Lake at Children’s Mercy Park
Sporting Kansas City vs Real Salt Lake
Time: 7:30 pm CST
Location: Children’s Mercy Park, Kansas City, Kansas
How to Watch: Apple TV MLS Live
Line: Sporting KC -135, Real Salt Lake +370, Draw +290
Referee: Rubiel Vazquez
The Teams
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Sporting Kansas City
6-10-7, 25 points
10th in the West
Head Coach: Peter Vermes (15th season)
Last 5: L-D-L-W-D
Injury Report: OUT: Tim Melia (quad), OUT: Kortne Ford (Achilles surgery), OUT: Graham Zusi (hamstring), OUT: Willy Agada (tibia stress fracture), QUESTIONABLE: Nemanja Radoja (adductor)
Real Salt Lake
9-6-7, 33 points
4th in the West
Head Coach: Pablo Mastroeni (3rd season)
Last 5: W-W-D-W-W
Injury Report: OUT: Ifunanyachi Achara (knee), OUT: Teenage Hadebe (leg), OUT: Tate Schmitt (knee), OUT: Adalberto Carrasquilla (international duty)
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Actually off work tonight, able to sit home and watch the game, and be on the match thread with y’all. Kind of excited!
The ref is falling for RSL’s flops. Sure better do the same for us when the time comes and there’s an actual foul on us
And the female announcer is all in for the RSL team. She’s giving some superficial platitudes to SKC, but she sounds hardcore in for salt lake.
It seems like a lot of the announcers we get tend to be weirdly positive about whoever we’re playing, while being very “blah” about Sporting
Truth
So she mentioned how they have covered for RSL more and are much more familiar. I don’t find her biased, just her talking points for RSL are more familiar.
I find the neutral announcers much preferable over the old local broadcasts.
Nah… I did hear that, but her intonation and positive, excitable conversation definitely is favoring RSL. And her conversations surrounding SKC are much more “meh” and seems based on what you can read online…
I enjoyed our local broadcast but I agree with you that, in general, the local broadcasters we intolerable. What I wish apple had done was keep all the local broadcasters and just let us pick between listening to the home or away broadcasters.
She was the Loons color commentator previously. And the main announcer was Kevin Egan, IIIRC, who used to be Atlanta United.
This wasn’t nearly as obnoxious as most games this season, where we’ve drawn the opposition’s former announcers. And they called it like homers.
Preach. I’m sick and tired of listening to what amounts to an away broadcast on so many occasions.
Helluva play y’all. That pass in for Johnny, then Johnny’s absolute dime, and Salloi’s laser of a volley.
Radoja makes a huge difference.
Cue the beginning of the half goal conceding. How are we so consistently bad at the beginning of the 2nd half?!
Jake just doesn’t work hard enough to get in line and Rosero opens the door for musovski to slip in behind him with old man fontas trailing…. And where is Leibold.
I think you mean where is the team. This is a terrible half so far.
Fontas… As always
Lazy… Straight up lazy
Did SKC actually come back out yet?!?
Give me Gadi for Thommy rn before the 60th
Ok so Gadi in for Radoja then I want Guti for Thommy.
Near the beginning the announcers got me thinking, what are other wingers in the league on ~600k doing… Like, what do their stats look like? What’s their production look like?
That’s not a foul, but Shelton’s against LAFC 30 seconds before the goal is?
i hate to say it, but that wasn’t a foul
I’d say it’s inbetween, I think it gets called more often than not. Shoulder to shoulder isn’t the only determining factor, because you can’t just wreck someone using your shoulder and say “well it was shoulder to shoulder so it’s clean”.
There has to be some discretion used by the ref, and a call like that shouldn’t alter a game.
With that said, Rosero needs to get rid of the ball. These last few games have been terrible from him.
It was 50/50. It could’ve been called a foul. But I don’t think it was clear and obvious error either. He gets the ball first. From there you have to decide if the physical contact while jostling for the ball is excessive or not. And if one player is getting an unfair advantage from it.
Bottom line, Rosero never should’ve stood on the ball that long. It was a terrible play from him. And blaming the ref is just old at this point.
Not that it matters, but this then brings us back to the age old topic of consistency. If the call against Shelton is going to be deemed a foul to take away a goal, then this should have been 100%. Not saying this isn’t a subjective call that could go either way, I’m just saying it goes back to the topic of consistency and uniformity and the lack thereof from PRO
I think Shelton did commit a foul though. He kicked long after missing the ball. It wasn’t intentional but it was a foul.
Here, juliao won the ball and then went shoulder to shoulder (hard) with Rosero. Against LAFC, Khiry didn’t win the ball. Tonight juliao did.
No two refs are ever going to call every incident the same way. Consistency is inside the game. Not everyone everywhere. Especially on calls like this, that are 100% judgment.
And say what you want. But I didn’t think that was inconsistent with what he called the rest of the night.
And there we go … We know they’re trying to attack, counter, or pick up on mistakes and we just fumble around and get caught on the ball
is Rosero trying to get cut?
He is the worst
I hate Rosero.
I just have no faith in this team ever. Up 2-0 well can’t get excited about that. Kills me.
When is enough with McIntosh? He’s “just a guy”. Doesn’t do anything
He’s had like 6 great saves tonight…You’re posting this because he couldn’t stop a guy coming at him wide open for like 40 yards?? terrible take
He just never seems to make the big save when needed. He’s a fine backup and that’s that, maybe just me.. (I’m saying this based on the past few matches)
he’s already made a bunch of big saves tonight…does any GK in the world save that 2nd goal more than 1 out of 4 times?
There’s your works class save
That was fantastic, glad to eat my words.
never…
I get wanting to play Pulskamp. This season is over and we should be playing youth.
But McIntosh is why this team salvaged a point in this game. The defense did him no favors. Repeatedly. AGAIN.
mcintosh could still play for 5-6 years…given his lack of mls experience, he counts as Youth just as much as pulskamp
No, he doesn’t. But I’m fine letting him play.
Honestly… Fontas has to go. Rosero and Radoja seem to have the passing skill and range and also Leibold.
He had one good save. He spills so many balls or punches when he should catch.
McIntosh is replacement level. No more no less
Downvote it all you want. McIntosh isn’t good. He’s not awful but he’s not good.
Genuinely asking — could someone educate me as to why that wasn’t a foul on Rosero? He got shoved almost as hard as Kinda did on Saturday in Houston.
didn’t look like too hard of a shove to me, and i think Rosero already lost the ball when it occurred
It must be that he lost the ball already? Watching the postgame replay, there’s a clear shove.
Rosero lost the ball. Took a loose touch and juliao won it.
Then they went shoulder to shoulder.
Thommy has DISAPPEARED! GET me Guti or Roger…. run it hard for 15 ish minutes
they took him out like 15 minutes ago…that probably explains why you say he’s disappeared
Wow you’re right… The announcer said Radoja was coming off. Well I’d still like to have Guti on. This is why he was signed
hahahahah wow
So RSL rotated 7 guys and have now subbed all 5. SKC rotated 1 and have the 83 min mark have subbed…. 2. Classic Peter.
otoh, if rosero doesn’t make that huge gaffe and/or salloi doesn’t muff that chance a few minutes before from 4 yards away…
Maybe huge gaffe because he’s gassed and muffed the shot because… You guessed it… possibly gassed? We could really keep the what ifs rolling… What if Guti is subbed in for Walter and he has that chance in the middle after the long run with the ball…
Rosero standing on the ball and inviting the 1 man press is not due to being gassed. It’s just being careless on the ball.
And not for the 1st time this year.
in the past he’s pulled it off, but yeah it’s risky
im reminded of the time Rwuatudbye (sp) tried a bicycle kick clearance and was immediately traded
And even worse, it’s not like there’s anyone on the bench who could make a difference. Tzonis hasn’t done anything in two years, Shelton’s Shelton, Afrifra may have something but has played maybe 5 minutes of MLS, Gutierrez may offer something but hasn’t played for us in 4 years… Meanwhile, look at the talent RSL had on their bench.
Not faulting Kinda, but man, put that ANYWHERE else except straight at the keepers chest….
Also Vermes strikes again. Pulido is absolutely gassed. You can’t convince me that Afifra’s energy wouldn’t have been useful for 15 minutes
we’re paying pulido good money to go 90…he’s gotta sack up IMO
Pretty sure he was… Put literally everything on the line.
i’m not saying he didn’t sack up this game, but we can expect him to go 90, given his salary and who his backups are
Pulido may be (probably is) gone at the end of the season. But anyone doubting his commitment and professionalism right now isn’t serious. He was player of the month last month. He’s the only player putting in consistently high levels for Sporting every game. And he’s playing every game.
He’s run out over and over for longer than he should be, and has been putting up goals. He is definitely not the problem.
Pulido is so far from the problem that it’s fair to say he’s the only reason we’re in screaming distance of the playoffs.
Pulido and Kinda were the only ones creating anything. You want to take him off?
The issue is Rosero decides to stand on the ball against a 1 player press.
Stand in the ball against a smaller 1 player press and STILL lose… Sign of tired legs?!?
No. Sign of being careless. He should’ve passed before the press arrived.
Anderson Julio isn’t a shrimp. He’s shorter than Rosero but it’s not like he got knocked over by Ozzie Ciseneros
I say to take him out only because he’s gassed. Doesn’t matter how good you are if your legs give out from under you. Throw some energy in there and try to create something. Leaving someone in with jelly legs and hoping they can create a goal isn’t going to work.
What about Daniel getting the ball stuck under his foot with basically an empty got still up 2-1…
I can’t fault him that much, the defender make an amazing slide tackle to take the ball away
Vermes out. The team sure didn’t do too great, but Vermes’ classis subbing patterns between Saturday and tonight killed us. Now we’re screwed for another TX game in 3 days
I didn’t hate his subs tonight. He brought in Gadi and Tzionis in the 55th, which is a huge step for him. I would have liked to see someone sub in at CB, but he clearly doesn’t trust his options there. That’s on the technical director, though, not the coach 🙃
Optimist’s view: SKC were creative on offense and went toe-to-toe with one of the hottest teams in the league. Really disappointing to blow the lead, but there is some clear quality.
In a winner-take-all game, I think they can give almost anyone in the western conference a run for their money. They just need to avoid the play-in.
Oh, they’ll avoid the play-in.
They’re missing the playoffs entirely.
I’m not ready to count them out. They need ~18 points in their last ten games. That’s five wins and three draws. I think they can do that.
The team above them has 3 games in hand. Every team below them has at least 2 games in hand.
I don’t know where these presumptive point totals come from. But the problem is, we’ve dumped our advantage in home games, without gaining sufficient points. We now are playing uphill against teams that only have to draw their games in hand to remain ahead.
I think the teams ahead of us getting 18pts, given they have more games in hand, is a whole lot more likely than Sporting, who has dropped 4pts from winning positions the last 2 games. Draws are not wins. And draws don’t help anymore.
I remember seeing last year that you need to get into the mid 40’s to get in, so it’s doable. But yes, too many dropped points is a huge disappointment — the draws are even more damaging after the doomsday start to the year.
Not happening!!!
Pessimist’s view: They were creative the first half, sat back and got steamrolled by a far more talented bench the second half. If there had been 5 more minutes of stoppage time, they lose that game. Either way, they’re not getting over the playoff line.
Agreed. Too many dropped points. With more games played than anyone else in the conference. We’re not making the playoffs
I hope you’re wrong!
How many points have we dropped from winning positions this season? It’s well into the teens, at least.
That’s obscene. Blame the refs. Blame the schedule. I’m done hearing it. This team doesn’t have the mentality to finish games. #VermesOut
I posted this the other day, but between June 3rd against Vancouver, LAFC, and Houston on Saturday, there was 7 easy dropped points. Add in tonight and we’re at 10. We’d be tied for 2nd place if we hadn’t given up the points that were distinctly ours to give up, that’s crazy!
9 dropped points this month from winning positions.
Revolting.
Worse. 10, I forgot, we lost LAFC. So all 3 dropped that game.
facepalm
Making the playoffs seems out of reach because of the last few disappointing games. Bring on the Leagues Cup. Maybe they can make a run and get a Champions League birth
The last thing I want is being in the champions league. It’s not like we’re going to overhaul the roster in the offseason, so you can bet Vermes will be using the same 13-15 players over and over, so the last thing they need is another tournament