Sporting KC
Pulido bags brace in 2-1 Sporting KC win over St. Louis
A beautiful night at Children’s Mercy Park saw Sporting KC defeat first-placed rivals St. Louis City SC by a final score of 2-1.
The Capital Cup. The Heartland Derby. Call it what you want… it was a beautiful night of soccer. Children’s Mercy Park came alive for the second ever installment of the KC/STL rivalry as Sporting KC took down first place St. Louis City SC by a final score of 2-1.
Alan Pulido was Man of the Match with two goals. But both goals, and the match as a whole, were fantastic team efforts for SKC. These final seven matches of the MLS regular season are going to be a fight. But Sporting KC are ready for it.
The first real chance of the game came in the 13th minute. Logan Ndenbe was taken down for what looked to be a penalty kick. But after the shortest VAR check that has ever been checked, the referee deemed the foul to have occurred just outside the box. Erik Thommy stepped up with a laser of a shot that was parried away by Roman Bürki. Russell followed up with a second chance but the ball was eventually cleared away.
St. Louis opened the scoring with a painful homage to the last time these teams met. Felipe Gutierrez was taken down and the visitors quickly attacked after the no-call. The big man up front for STL, Samuel Adeniran, was all by himself on the counter. But he needed no help. Adeniran used every ounce of his 6’5″ frame to drive a powerful shot into the side netting for the 1-0 lead.
An absolute rocket off Sam Adeniran's left foot 🚀#AllForCITY x @EdwardJones pic.twitter.com/yHXCBhmlkp
— St Louis CITY SC (@stlCITYsc) September 3, 2023
But it was only nine minutes later Sporting KC would get back on level terms. Erik Thommy got the ball at the top of the box and was swarmed by red (or pink or whatever they are) jerseys. The German lofted it over to Daniel Salloi who fired it across the six yard box. Pulido was there to tap home the equalizer.
Thommy's scoop ⤴️ Daniel's cross ➡️ Alan's finish 💥
Watch #SKCvSTL live on @AppleTV 👉 https://t.co/UybeyJo2yK
1-1 #SportingKC pic.twitter.com/5ZHkvzyOUi
— Sporting Kansas City (@SportingKC) September 3, 2023
Children’s Mercy Park was absolutely bouncing. The rival supporters were battling on opposite sides of the stadium like student sections at a high school basketball game. The players could feel it as the action on the field mirrored the exciting playoff atmosphere in the stands. The counter attacking style of play from St. Louis meant the ball was up and down the pitch all night.
The decisive goal came in the 44th minute. It was clever combination play with Thommy that sent Jake Davis down the sideline. He split the defenders and made his way into the box before dropping it off for an easy finish from Pulido.
Jake Davis' second career assist gets Alan Pulido his brace and us the lead!#SportingKC pic.twitter.com/uTXGTYVhcu
— Sporting Kansas City (@SportingKC) September 3, 2023
Center referee Alan Chapman was noticeably letting the rivalry match get physical. Fans of both teams chanted “Ref you suck” at some point in the night. I’m not exactly sure what that means, but it means something.
SKC Manager Peter Vermes even praised him after the match.
“I actually think Alan Chapman did an excellent job,” he said. “He let things go on both sides.”
Yellow cards finally started to come out in the second half and tempers remained in check for the most part.
St. Louis and their strong traveling support thought they had equalized early in the second half, but Adeniran was called offside by the slimmest of margins.
A wild moment in the 73rd minute should have seen Sporting double their lead, but Bürki was able to make a double save on Daniel Salloi. Thommy had played him in with an absolutely gorgeous ball, but it looked like Salloi had too much time to think.
Burki comes up HUGE. Salloi has to score here. Two chances… #SportingKC #SKCvSTL pic.twitter.com/Cu4Cd8rPHJ
— Chad Smith (@PlayFor90) September 3, 2023
As a unit, Sporting KC did very well to close out this gritty win against such a pesky team. This makes it six points from the first two games out of the Leagues Cup break, and an incredible start to the playoff push.
Next up is a Lionel Messi-less Inter Miami on Saturday in Ft. Lauderdale. Miami will also be without several of their starters due to international call ups.
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Random little question: as I have rewatched SKC’s second goal, I’m curious why Felipe Gutierrez doesn’t look more excited when the ball goes in. If anything, he looks a little disappointed. Obviously, the highlights jump from angle to angle so I don’t see him that long, but I’m also not picking him out in the post-goal group celebration. It’s just a surprising response, but I’m probably reading way too much into a couple seconds of video.
He does kind of hang his head doesn’t he. I agree it’s a bit of an odd look. I’m sure there’s an explanation.
I went back and looked based on this comment, and I agree, it was a bit odd.
One possibility: He’s wide open along the left, no STL player paying him any mind. Yet the pass goes to Pulido in the middle of a whole swarm of defenders. So maybe it’s just a bit of frustration that he didn’t get to capitalize on his great positioning? I can empathize with a bit of “dammit, that was mine!” sentiment, but it still looks really odd that he doesn’t then engage in the broader celebration. His body language reads like a STL defender. Maybe he’s frustrated with his own contributions so far, or somehow thinks he isn’t getting enough looks from teammates?
He could have just been tired
Quick thoughts.
Judging from the match thread I’m sure this will get downvoted but I don’t mind how Chapman calls games. I’ve always felt like he let’s them play, and those were the kind of games I liked to play in, very physical. I thought he called (or non-called) it evenly last night. The problem is that he often tightens it up in the second half and that’s when inconsistency creeps in.
Salloi was really good and energetic last night. Moreso than I’ve seen in a while.
Rosero played smarter, which helped.
The trainers in this town really know how to help an ankle.
The whole team finally had the bite and physicality that everyone here and in the pods have been asking for.
Yeah the way he refs is *fine (I’m still not a huge fan), it’s just the inconsistency for me. He calls games differently depending on the half, and ebbs and flows on which team he’s giving more calls to.
There was fouls I thought should have definitely been called for STL in the 2nd half that he had called when SKC was on the receiving end got the call in the first half, and vice versa.
Games are so much more enjoyable when neither team is specifically thinking about the ref because they don’t know what he’s going to do.
I was pretty amused to see that the Kibble SC post-game Reddit thread was absolutely laced with people complaining that the ref favored SKC, when we were all absolutely convinced he was letting CITY get away with murder.
One could argue that’s the sign of consistent (if not necessarily good) reffing. But I just felt like I never understood what his standard was throughout the game.
This is where I come down I think too.
I thought he let way too much go (which favors STL b/c they commit the most fouls in the league and SKC commit the 2nd fewest). We want to possess and play pretty; they want to break up the game and create chaos.
I think Russell both should have gotten a yellow (or at least a foul) for his studs up challenge in the 1st half) and earned one (or at least a foul) when he was taken down on a counter in the 2nd. A couple earlier yellows might have calmed things a bit.
What I hate is inconsistent application of the rules. Guys were tugged down by jerseys and arms and that’s supposed to be a yellow.
The VAR was a mess too. Super quick reviews where I wouldn’t mind another 30 seconds to get it right. Ndenbe is maybe in the box (it’s close, so maybe it’s not clear and obvious). Salloi had a hint of offside on the first SKC goal. The first STL goal seemed like it was started after Gutierrez was tugged back by the arm to create a turnover.
Vermes said he liked the reffing, but if he lost I bet he wouldn’t have. They cut to him several times after blown calls and his face told the whole story. I read that comment after the game as playing nice and saying it through gritted teeth.
I agree that the VAR was awfully quick last night but on Ndembe’s foul my vantage point was 10 rows up in the Cauldron exactly on the penalty box line on that side and he was clearly clipped on the foot while both his feet were just outside the box..
The biggest change for this team in the last two games compared to the rest of the season is being able to finish a game that we’re winning early. Yes, it was still a high intensity game in the second half, but STL didn’t really threaten in the entire second half. The team really did a great job of eliminating the mistakes and poor touches that we started the game with. But I’d also like to thank Lowen and Klauss for looking pretty terrible overall.
“swarmed by red (or pink or whatever they are) jerseys.”
dog food.
“swarmed by dog food jerseys.”
So does the St. Louis stadium have their concessions provided by Purina?
“Would you like dry food or wet food?”
That’d still be preferable to Aramark at the K. Or to most of what STL calls “Italian” food.
It was a good match. I agree the ref changed the rules a bit in the second half which was hard to get used to but it was mostly even no matter how butthurt the STL folks are in their Twitter thread. I thought we got a good game from everyone. Yes even Shelton. It may be time to stop sh*tting on him. Or time to thinking out starting to stop. I liked the bold runs from Ndembe even when they didn’t pan out. The 2nd half shut down from Radoja was good. Rosero did good but man that offside was close and he played it perfectly which is terrifying to watch. Davis had a good game but there was a scary give-away and twice he tried to make an interception, didn’t get it, and left us in a precarious spot. But I guess that’s what the center backs are there for and his judgement will only get better. Nice to see Pulido in the golden boot race. Have we paid him his $4.4M yet?
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Any news on Kinda? Did we put him on a plane back to Israel or we keeping him around where he might convelesce enough for a 15 minute appearance (if needed) against Miami?
Hey moderators I think it’s time in the season where we need the weekly “What we want to happen” and then the follow up of “how did it go?” For example we wanted that SJ and MN tie and got it. We wanted Seattle to beat Portland and we got it. We needed NE to beat ATX but only got the tie. etc.
I agree and I’m gonna message Mike to see if he wants to start writing those “What we wanted to happen” pieces.
On Kinda, I’m not sure. The team hasn’t announced his call-up yet. Maybe due to the injury. But if he skips international duty, I think it’d be dicey to play him against Miami. I feel like SKC got in trouble for something similar with Espinoza a few years back.
I saw on Kinda’s Instagram yesterday that he posted a photo at JFK so I am assuming that means he is flying out of the country.
I saw that same post. I can’t imagine he’s in JFK and not headed overseas.