Sporting KC Come from Behind and St. Louis have Still Never Won in KC

Sporting Kansas City returned home looking to break a three-match losing streak with cross-state rivals St. Louis City SC in town. It was a tale of two teams as STL entered with a 10-match unbeaten streak. One of those wins was the last meeting with Sporting KC in the first game back from the World Cup break where PRO referees admitted a mistake that gave St. Louis the game winning penalty kick.

But form apparently played no part. Sporting KC mostly dominated the game and earned a draw to break their losing streak. Let’s get to the action.

Sporting KC looked to be rolling out the strongest lineup available considering injuries and suspensions (and DPs overseas getting their visa) until the team announced that center back Or Blorian aggravated his back in warm-ups and was removed from the lineup and replaced by Jansen Miller. A St. Louis native, Miller started his second straight game against St. Louis. He was also a late replacement last time for Wyatt Meyer who missed for illness. Taylor Calheira got his first start since return from injury and the aforementioned Meyer started for the suspended Moises Mosquera.

St. Louis City’s new Designated Player, Carlo Holse, starts the night on the bench. Fellow DP, goalkeeper Roman Burki, was healthy after missing the previous meeting between these teams.

The teams took the field, Sporting KC in their home blue and St. Louis City in their… stained yellow?

Kansas City kept St. Louis under pressure for most of the first 10 minutes of the match, earning four corner kicks in relatively rapid succession. After a brief push from St. Louis, KC were back in the final third of STL for a run of chances. Capita slipped a nice ball into Dejan who had his shot saved but it almost fell to Calvin Harris.

Harris was called for a foul and St. Louis took the free kick and quickly lost the ball. Unfortunately, Zorhan Bassong accidently stole the ball from Dejan Joveljic, but some chances still came. Lasse Berg Johnsen had his shot blocked, but Jake Davis hit a laser with eyes for the goal if not a deflection out for a corner kick.

Off the corner, KC overcooked the ball and started a St. Louis counter. Jake Davis dove in for a challenge and missed and forced Bassong to take the night’s first yellow card to stop the counter in the 15th minute. After a few minutes of back and forth, Chris Durkin picked up the first St. Louis yellow card for dragging down Harris from behind.

Despite the small crowd (midweek, worst team in the league, we get it…) the Cauldron were loud. The whole crowd got super loud in the 27th minute when Calheira touched a ball around Timo Baumgartl who then crashed into Calheira who was inexplicably called for the foul. A “you don’t know what you’re doing” chant rightfully broke out for referee Victor Rivas.

The bizarre officiating continued shortly after. San Bin Jeong crashed into Bassong off the ball and tried to draw a second yellow or red with his acting. Play was stopped for a head injury, then Rivas got mad that everyone was getting a drink and he forced KC to stop, but not St. Louis. The fourth official tried to intervene to no avail. Weird.

In the 40th, out of absolutely nothing, St. Louis floated in a shross from Daniel Edelman that crashed off the crossbar. KC kept the foot off the gas, generating eight first half shots, but they couldn’t find the back of the net.

Despite SKC absolutely dominating the first half, they forgot to show dominance on the scoreboard. In the 45the minute, Jansen Miller picked up a yellow just outside the box. Eduard Lowen stepped up to a free kick that would be hard to get up and down over the wall. So, he shot it at a different angle, and it deflected off the back of Berg Johnsen and into his own net. 1-0 St. Louis at halftime.

Sporting KC and St. Louis came out of the half and made no changes.

The half didn’t start quick, but 10 minutes in, Sporting KC found life. Joveljic dropped very deep and fought hard to win the ball and ended a St. Louis attack. A quick sequence of passes through the midfield found Taylor Calheira who waited until the perfect moment to slip the ball to Calvin Harris who shot it hard near post and pinged it into the goal! The celebration was short-lived as the Assistant Referee raised his flag for offside. But VAR intervened and Victor Rivas was called to the monitor. After review, they reversed the call and the crowd exploded! 1-1!

That goal was the 1,000th in Sporting Kansas City history in all competitions at home.

The lead was nearly incredibly short lived. A ball intended for Meyer was very short and Bin Jeong slipped between him and Emir Karic to be all alone on goal. Luckily, his shot was off the mark and hit the crossbar to keep it level. A sigh of relief fell over the crowd.

After that, Sporting KC went quickly through the midfield. Capita was fouled, but the ref played advantage. Zo kept the attack going before Conrad Wallem pulled him down to go into the book with a yellow card. Another scary moment came when St. Louis worked into the attack and Meyer tried to clear it in the box, but he kicked it off his own arm, which thankfully is no longer a penalty.

In the 62nd minute, Shapi Suleymanov replaced Calheira on his first start back from injury. In the 75th, SKC made a double sub. They brought off Harris and Bassong for Stephen Afrifa and Jacob Bartlett.

After the first round of subs, St. Louis rarely got out of their own half. Sporting had sustained, if mostly ineffective, possession. When they did finally get out past the 80th minute, they had some sustained possession and nearly slipped a ball in behind that Stefan Cleveland gobbled up. Right after, Karic went down and needed to sub off and was replaced by Jayden Reid.

Shortly after, the fourth official put five minutes on the board for stoppage time. Immediately in stoppage time, Rivas bought back-to-back dives from St. Louis to earn two free kicks. Neither were attacking and came to nothing. The rest of stoppage time ticked away, with Sporting KC mostly maintaining possession, but failing to make that final pass. The game ended in a 1-1 draw and Sporting KC can still say they’ve never lost to St. Louis in Sporting Park.

SKC are back on the road Sunday with a trip to Atlanta United on the line. A win in Georgia would be a nice boost in the race not to end up with the Wooden Spoon.