Sporting KC Stunned At Home Against Seattle Sounders

Mar 26, 2023 - 5:33 AM

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On a beautiful spring day and with nice weather for the first time in a while in Kansas City, Sporting Kansas City were looking for their first win of the season against the Seattle Sounders. Most were hopeful that the job could be done with Seattle missing six players to international duty (Xavier Arreaga, Reed Baker-Whiting, Alex Roldan, Raul Ruidiaz, Nouhou and Obed Vargas) and missing their second striker Heber with an injury.

Sporting came out in the 5th minute with Willy Agada scoring his first goal of the season! Agada scored after Daniel Salloi’s low effort was saved by Frei, but Agada was first to the rebound and poked it home.

Spirits were high until Jordan Morris equalized in the 23rd minute from a passing sequence and Zusi got burned out wide by Leo Chu whose low driven cross was found by an unmarked Morris.

Sporting got to halftime with the score all squared at one a piece. Seattle came out with more aggression and Jordan Morris scored three more goals (four total...) with his second goal coming in the 54th minute after his low shot bounced under Pulskamp after he tried to make himself big against Morris (Editor: Ben Sweat keeps him onside).

Ben Sweat was sent off just before Morris’ hat trick after coming in late with a shoulder against Leo Chu and received his second yellow and had an early shower.

Morris scored his hat trick in the 69th minute with bad coverage from the whole backline. Leo Chu again whipping in another cross which was tapped in by Morris.

Morris ended the game in the 77th minute with... you guessed it. Another cross into the box for Morris to head it in the bottom corner.

Bright side was that captain Johnny Russell made his first appearance of the season after recovering from a hamstring issue which kept him out for the first four games of the season. Kansas City will have to wait until next weekend to find their first win of the season as they travel to last season's Eastern Conference champions, the Philadelphia Union, who also are somewhat on a weird start to their season winning twice and losing three times.

Key moments from Sporting Kansas City

• Willy Agada scored
• Johnny Russell returned to the pitch
• That’s about it

Man of the match

If I had to choose a player from Sporting as a man of the match, I’d say Agada, but really no one was outstanding in anyway. Morris and Chu were absolutely lethal together tonight and one of them deserve the award.

What to look for next weekend

Fighting spirit. This team looked great in their first three games of the season. The lack of finishing is killing the confidence on the field unfortunately. With Russell back and Pulido was on the bench hopefully one or both of them can get this team going this season. Philadelphia are a very good team and favorites to win trophies this season. It’s a big task at hand, but the players have to go in with confidence to get a good result. Let's also hope Leibold or Ndenbe (Editor: Ndenbe is out probably another six weeks) are back and healthy to play next weekend along with Nemanja Radoja.

Sweat will also be gone per his red card, but Vermes hinted that a player who has kept making mistakes will be changed out from the group for a while during the postgame press conference.