Sporting Kansas City falls in Seattle

Sporting Kansas City fell to the Seattle Sounders on Sunday evening. The Sounders took advantage of a few mistakes and runners not tracked to win in front of their home crowd. Despite a goal called back and a stopped penalty attempt, goals by Jackson Ragen and Paul Rothrock in the first half sealed the win for Seattle. This was the first of five matches in just 14 days for Kansas City.

Sporting KC’s head man Peter Vermes managed his 500th regular season match but did not get the result he would have wanted. Vermes was forced to make one change from the previous lineup with Jake Davis suspended for a red card in their last match.

SKC came out strong, creating better chances early in the match and came close to a goal but Christian Roldan cleared the ball out of the air just before it crossed the line in the 16th minute. The heroics by one of the brothers Roldan kicked the Sounders into another gear and the attacks be Seattle increased in speed and danger throughout the rest of the half.

“I actually think we started off the game really well,” Vermes stated ibn the post-game press conference. “We had maybe three or four corners in a row, we were keeping them in their end, and we really didn’t give them anything in our end. They got their goal off us being in a position to play forward but we play backwards. (Robert) Voloder gets kind of stuck, plays a ball out for a throw-in and off the throw-in they get the corner. Off the corner, Tim (Melia) makes a great save and we’re not there to protect and defend the goal.”

“I think they were the better team today overall,” Vermes continued. “In the first 25 or 30 minutes, I thought we were actually really good. We were for sure the better team at the time, but when they scored, I don’t know if it put us back on our heels a little bit or what. But I don’t think that we played with the same confidence in possession that we did prior to that. Especially in the first half, I thought we had some great opportunities going to goal. We just didn’t have the final knockout blow on a really good chance at goal. We got into great positions and decided not to serve it when we should have. Then we’d knock it around again and we would think about serving it, but then they would get all their guys behind the ball. Our recognition was slow today.”

In Formation 🔵#SEAvSKC | @BlueKC pic.twitter.com/mjwO3TVGLC

— Sporting Kansas City 🎗️ (@SportingKC) September 15, 2024

Sporting KC already had several corners before Seattle earned their first one in the 19th minute. The Sounders striker Jordan Morris put a strong header on goal that was blocked back out into the box. The rebound fell to Jackson Ragen who pounded it into the roof of the goal for to take the 1-0 lead.

Right place, right time for Jackson Ragen! 💯 pic.twitter.com/ttanzZzd3F

— Seattle Sounders FC (@SoundersFC) September 15, 2024

In the 24th minute, the Sounders thought they had doubled their lead. Roldan’s header slides through the box, just out of reach of an offside Morris and Rothrock and into the goal. VAR came into to call the goal back because of Morris affecting the play as Tim Melia attempted to make the save.

Sporting KC battled back and started to get a little momentum, culminating in a good chance in the 35^th. Tim Leibold cross into the box where Johnny Russell received and settled the ball into the path of Erik Thommy.  The German attacker slid a shot through the defense but the Sounders keeper was up to the task.

The Sounders did double the lead in the 40th minute when Paul Rothrock  knocked it past Melia. The goal was the result of an overwhelming attack that saw the ball passed through the box to the goal scorer.

Paul Rothrock: Seattle's Own 🏡 pic.twitter.com/jENP0SqIYU

— Seattle Sounders FC (@SoundersFC) September 16, 2024