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Sporting KC Lose Their Last Home Game of 2024 to LAFC

Sporting Kansas City hosted LAFC in the final home match of 2024. The results did not go as they would have wanted.

Published

8 months ago

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Credit: Thad Bell

Sporting Kansas City played for their final time at home in the 2024 season, having already been eliminated from the playoffs. They hosted visiting Los Angeles Football Club, who they were looking for revenge against having lost the US Open Cup final to them just 10 days ago.

Sporting KC rolled out yet another new lineup with Joaquin Fernandez getting his first start since joining the team in the secondary transfer window this summer. The plan was to play him at right center back with Khiry Shelton next to him, but Shelton was a late scratch with a calf injury in warmups. That shifted Jake Davis back to right back and Remi Walter was inserted into the starting lineup. The team lined up in a 4-3-3 with Memo Rodriguez as the single pivot defensive midfielder with Walter and Zorhan Bassong ahead of him. The front trio saw one change from the team that played LAFC in the Open Cup, with Stephen Afrifa replacing Daniel Salloi.

Johnny Russell, Tim Melia and Walter all are out of contract after the season and made what could be their final starts in Sporting Blue.

LAFC came out in their 3-4-3 shape with a few changes to the team that won the Open Cup last week, including starting David Martinez, a $3.5 million transfer who has yet to catch fire at forward.

First Half

LAFC had a few dangerous chances early, but Walter had the first dangerous effort for Sporting KC. He received the ball outside the box and just missed the near post after a deflection. Bassong was called for a soft foul a few minutes later, but then gave up a penalty kick on the subsequent restart. It was pretty clearly a PK, though the initial foul was nonsense. The first of many on the night.

Tim Melia did what he does and saved the penalty, but Sporting KC were beaten to the rebound and David Martinez puts it home. 1-0 LAFC.

LAFC would keep their foot on the gas but fail to get another goal for a bit. Then the game started to get chippy. Marcos DeOliveira kept his cards in his pocket for a heavy challenge from Cristian Oliveira that led to an LAFC goal kick.

Then in the 25th minute, simultaneous yellow cards were given to Timothy Tillman (LA) and Memo Rodriguez. The broadcast didn’t immediately show the Rodriguez yellow, which must have come earlier in the sequence of play, but Tillman had a rough tackle in the midfield to earn his. Around this time, Sporting KC flipped their midfield triangle and put Walter and Bassong in a double pivot with Rodriguez at the 10.

The physicality started to turn the game towards Kansas City, at least for a brief spell. They had a series of dangerous half chances and free kicks in and around the LAFC box. Jake Davis hit a nice cross that Hugo Lloris had to get his juggled catch just right to stop an onrushing Alan Pulido.

In the 31st and 32nd minutes, respectively, KC has to make two goal saving tackles. First, Walter was the only person back on a corner kick counterattack and he successfully took the ball off Bouanga’s foot. Then Fernandez did the same on the endline to stop another attack. Near the 40th minute, Fernandez did it again with another tackle in a dangerous area to stop an LAFC attack in the box.

In between, LAFC were auditioning for their respective countries diving teams. Most egregiously, Sergi Palencia’s dive against Afrifa. And the ref was calling nearly all of them.

The counterattacking finally caught up with SKC as Bouanga crossed the ball through the box, on the ground, to Oliviera for a tap in. 2-0 LAFC. It looked like a bit of a miscommunication in the back, which can be expected with another new CB pairing. Voloder is marking Giroud and Ndenbe is caught way up the field off the turnover. Perhaps Fernandez should have taken Giroud and Voloder stuck with Oliveira. Frankly, I don’t know!

The halftime whistle came a minute later with LAFC up 2-0.

Second Half

Sporting KC made three changes coming out at the half. Off came Afrifa, Ndenbe and Fernandez who were replaced by Salloi, Tim Leibold and Robert Castellanos respectively.

Despite the changes, it was LAFC who would have the first chance of the half. Olivera played a nice cross that Giroud, who stretched to get a shot off, but it skied over the bar. From here, Sporting KC would gain a large chunk of possession, much of it on the edge of the box. But they just couldn’t find the final pass.

In the 60th minute, SKC made their fourth change. Erik Thommy returned from a brief injury spell to replace Walter. It could be his last time in a Sporting KC uniform.

LAFC would add a third goal in the 69th minute. Center back Aaron Long with a curler… that’s a weird sentence to write. There was a couple LAFC players in an offside position, but upon review they didn’t interfere with the play.

In the 77th minute Sporting KC made their final sub of the night bringing on William Agada in replacement of Pulido. LAFC made a series of subs you don’t care about, but they also brought on former KC players Kei Kamara and Ilie Sanchez.

In the 81st, SKC had possibly their best chance of the night off a nice counterattack. Salloi, knowing he wouldn’t win for pace, cut the ball back onto his right and found a surging Thommy who dinked it off the post! Still 3-0 LA.

LAFC looked like they had added a fourth, but the offside flag was up to take away the Lewis O’Brien tap in.

After three minutes of stoppage time the final whistle blew. Sporting KC lose 3-0 to LAFC.

Sporting KC will play their final match of the season, on the road, against the already eliminated FC Dallas in two weeks on October 19th. There is an international break next weekend, where KC’s Bassong has been called up to the Canadian National Team.

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I've been covering Kansas City soccer since 2014, including Sporting Kansas City, the KC Current, SKC II and more. I'm based out of Kansas City, MO, but got my start covering SKC while writing from Phoenix, AZ.

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