Connect with us

Sporting KC

Recap: Sporting KC falls 4-1 at Galaxy

A Paintsil hat trick and SKC bad habits sink SKC

Published

5 months ago

on

Dejan Joveljić | Credit: Thad Bell

Sporting Kansas City traveled to the West Coast to take on the LA Galaxy in a battle of the Western Conference basement. Sporting KC fell into an all-too-familiar pattern of allowing an early goal and another one late in the half. Joseph Paintsil scored a hat trick in the first half and Diego Fagundez added a fourth in the second half.

Paintsil scored just four minutes into the match, and then another in the 25th before former Galaxy striker Dejan Joveljić scored. His tally in the 28th minute pulled Sporting KC back with one to give SKC some hope and momentum in a back-and-forth open match. Paintsil scored his third of the match in the 43rd minute, sending a demoralizing dagger through the visitors.

“I think when you look at the concentration and the discipline of the group to play every roll of the ball and to start the game on the front foot, which I’ve seen time and time again this year that from the kickoff it looks like we’re coming out with energy and it looks somewhat promising where we end up in their end very, very quickly only to give up a very easy play that results in a goal for them. I think that’s happened too many times this year,” interim head coach Kerry Zavagnin explained. “Certainly, when you get to the 35th or 40th minute of the first half, the lack of awareness within the group to understand that there are only five minutes left in the half and you’re down 2-1 away from home. It’s not the best position, but certainly one that you can overcome. Once again, we lacked our concentration and focus, and 3-1 is a lot different than 2-1 going into halftime.”

Sporting KC’s starting lineup to face the reigning MLS Cup champions for Zavagnin saw a few changes. Stephen Afrifa made his first start in almost a year and Memo Rodriguez returned to a starting spot. Alan Montes started again alongside Ian James.

Galaxy starting lineup.

Part of SKC’s defense moved up but one left Paintsil on. He received a pass from Mauricio Cuevas before slicing a low and curling shot just out of reach of John Pulskamp.

The Galaxy’s Harbor Miller drove the ball to the end line just outside of SKC ‘s box before crossing it back into the middle. The play caught SKC off balance, and a deflection allowed Paintsil to tap it in for his second goal.

The visitors clawed one back a few minutes later. Mason Toye deftly controlled the ball before threading a pass back to Joveljic running into the box. SKC’s number 9 made no mistake and placed his shot just past fellow Serbian Novak Micovic in LA’s goal.

Paintsil completed his hat trick in the 43rd minute, assisted by Mauricio Cuevas and Gabriel Pec. This time, the ball was driven on the other side of the box before being passed to Paintsil for the easy goal.

“With the third goal three minutes before halftime, we weren’t able to see out the half. And certainly, when you come in 3-1 at halftime after having so many promising ideas in the attack, but giving up way too much defensively, I think that led to our downfall,” Zavagnin stated. “The second half was a little bit more of the same, where there seemed to be moments where we looked promising and dangerous. Unfortunately, we were just too soft and weak and vulnerable defensively, which has been most of our issues this year. But again tonight, certainly that was the reason for the result.”

Shapi Suleymanov subbed into the match in the 70th but was not in for long. A tough challenge led to an unexpected red card from referee Fotis Bazakos. The gathering of players and shoves did not result in another card but the resulting aniosity led to later reactions and a pair of yellows.

With the result, the Galaxy closed within three points of Sporting KC with a game in hand in the battle to avoid the Wooden Spoon.

Score 1 2 F
Sporting Kansas City (7-19-6, 27 points) 1 0 1
LA Galaxy (5-17-9, 24 points) 3 1 4

Sporting Kansas City: John Pulskamp; Khiry Shelton (Jake Davis 46′), Ian James, Alan Montes (Robert Voloder 70′), Logan Ndenbe; Stephen Afrifa (Santi Munoz 61′), Memo Rodriguez (Jacob Bartlett 61′), Zorhan Bassong, Daniel Salloi (C) (Shapi Suleymanov 70′); Mason Toye, Dejan Joveljic

Subs Not Used: Ryan Schewe, Jansen Miller, Nemanja Radoja

LA Galaxy: Novak Micovic; Mauricio Cuevas (Miki Yamane 77′), Chris Rindov (Emiro Garces 65′), Maya Yoshida (C), John Nelson; Elijah Wynder (Ruben Ramos Jr. 74′), Edwin Cerrillo; Harbor Miller (Julian Aude 65′), Diego Fagundez, Joseph Paintsil (Miguel Berry 65′); Gabriel Pec

Subs Not Used: JT Marcinkowski, Zanka, Eriq Zavaleta, Tucker Lepley

Scoring Summary:
LA — Joseph Paintsil 7 (Mauricio Cuevas 4, Diego Fagundez 3) 4′
LA — Joseph Paintsil 8 (unassisted) 25′
SKC — Dejan Joveljic 18 (Mason Toye 2, Memo Rodriguez 1′) 28′
LA — Joseph Paintsil 9 (Mauricio Cuevas 5, Gabriel Pec 7) 43′
LA — Diego Fagundez 5 (Gabriel Pec 8, Joseph Paintsil 4) 60′

Misconduct Summary:
SKC — Shapi Suleymanov (red card; serious foul play) 83′
LA — Miki Yamane (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 87′
LA — Emiro Garces (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 90+1′

STAT SKC LA
Shots 19 19
Shots on Goal 6 9
Saves 5 5
Fouls 8 10
Offsides 0 0
Corner Kicks 9 7

Referee: Fotis Bazakos
Assistant Referee: Felisha Mariscal
Assistant Referee: Jeffrey Greeson
Fourth Official: Bhavik Dutt
VAR: Alyssa Pennington
AVAR: TJ Zablocki

Related Topics:

Managing Editor

5 Comments
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

5 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Kcwookie

All this shows is that we are spending money on people who don’t fit here. I’ll be glad when this season is over and we can rebuild.

Either give KZ another chance or get rid of everything legacy and PV and start over. No half way. I’m game for either. One thing I do know is that the wiz are dead.

-5
Reply
Howlie2

As adamant as you were about PV being fired, I’m surprised that you are giving KZ so much leeway. Dude’s defensive organization is worse than PV and PV’s defenses were some of the worst in the league over the past couple years.

One thing has become clear to me since KZ has taken over. This team lacks organization, vision, continuity and communication. All things that are a direct result of coaching. Even a superstar roster won’t overcome a lack of those items.

3
Reply
jdkus11

This was one I’m glad I couldn’t watch. Brutal result, but also at least we’re trying different players out to see who should stick around. I know it’s hard to bring in a ton of players in the offseason, but there really shouldn’t be many of our 17 out of contract coming back.

4
Reply
GusMcCrae

“… it looks somewhat promising where we end up in their end very, very quickly only to give up a very easy play that results in a goal for them…”

Herein lies the problem for the last, I don’t know, 5 seasons? Since Opara left? Basically, the transition moments or rest defense structure is terrible, especially after spells of possession that, ahem, peter out in the final third. There has been no one with any defensive nous or athletic ability, or both, to cover this issue. Neither manager has been able to solve it even though KZ has tried different formations and ostensibly different tactics.

3
Reply
jdkus11

I really appreciated the Peter pun; incredibly accurate and tragically funny.

1
Reply

Recent Comments

KC Soccer Journal in your Inbox!

Be the first to know when news breaks, sign up to get all of our posts sent directly to your inbox.

Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

5
0
Make your voice heard. Leave a comment!x
()
x