August 14, 2021 – Major League Soccer (MLS) – Sporting Kansas City News Release
Forwards Alan Pulido and Daniel Salloi struck on both sides of halftime and goalkeeper Tim Melia claimed his second straight shutout as first-place Sporting Kansas City (11-4-4, 37 points) handed FC Dallas (5-8-6, 21 points) their first home loss in 12 months with a 2-0 victory on Saturday night at Toyota Stadium.
Dallas entered the evening with an 18-game home undefeated streak and a six-game unbeaten run against Sporting, but Manager Peter Vermes’ men delivered a spirited performance to keep their two-point lead atop the Western Conference table and improve to 4-0-1 in their last five road matches since the start of July.
Sporting will continue their daunting stretch of seven competitive matches in 22 days when they return to Children’s Mercy Park on Wednesday for a compelling showdown against the sixth-place Portland Timbers (7-8-2, 23 points). Kickoff is slated for 7:30 p.m. CT with tickets available on SeatGeek.com and live coverage on Bally Sports Midwest Plus, Bally Sports Kansas City Plus, BallySports.com and the Bally Sports app.
Vermes fielded a formidable Sporting Kansas City lineup on Saturday as seven players who were rested in a Leagues Cup quarterfinal loss to Club Leon at midweek — namely Pulido, goalkeeper Tim Melia, midfielder Roger Espinoza, captain Johnny Russell and defenders Andreu Fontas, Luis Martins and Graham Zusi — earned starts in Frisco, Texas.
The hosts threatened inside two minutes, pressing high to create a turnover in Sporting’s defensive third, but a lunging effort from Hungarian winger Szabolcs Schon off Jesus Ferreira’s diagonal pass was smothered impressively by Melia. Sporting responded with an agonizingly close scoring chance of their own in the seventh minute, as Pulido’s sweetly struck free kick near the left edge of the penalty area curled past Dallas goalkeeper Jimmy Maurer and skimmed the post before fizzing out of play.
Pulido would not be denied a second time, however, as the Mexican fired Sporting ahead in the 12th minute. Salloi created a pocket of space by turning away from a defender and feeding Gadi Kinda, who accelerated goalward and slipped a delightful through ball in the path of Pulido. The 30-year-old made no mistake from 12 yards, finishing low across Maurer at a tight angle for his third goal in as many starts and his eighth of the MLS campaign. Kinda tallied his third assist on the play, while Salloi now has assists in three straight MLS appearances and a team-leading six helpers for the season.
Dallas looked for a quick reply as outside back Ryan Hollingshead settled a pass on the left side of the box, cut onto his left foot and hammered his shot inches wide into the side netting in the 20th minute. Another Dallas defender saw his bid at an equalizer narrowly miss the mark on 35 minutes when captain Matt Hedges rose to nod Ferreira’s free kick a yard beyond Melia’s left-hand post.
Sporting breathed a massive sigh of relief eight minutes after the restart. Schon embarked on a solo run into the penalty box, and although he was crowded out by a host of Sporting defenders, 18-year-old striker Ricardo Pepi scooped up the loose ball amid traffic and rifled a shot off the woodwork from 10 yards. Shortly thereafter, Facundo Quignon dragged his attempt marginally wide as the visitors survived unscathed.
Head coach Luchi Gonzalez’s men continued to pressure near the hour mark and Schon almost drew Dallas level when his close-range blast caromed off the underside of the crossbar and came within an inch of crossing the goalline. Not long later, the right-hand post thwarted substitute Jader Obrian, who had beaten Melia with a shot on the right side of the box.
Salloi made Dallas pay for their missed chances with a predatory strike in the 63rd minute. Russell was afforded time to curl a low cross into the mixer, where Salloi outmaneuvered his marker and sent a right-footed piledriver into the roof of the net to double his team’s advantage. The clinical finish gave Salloi his 11th goal of the season, one behind New England’s Gustavo Bou in the MLS Golden Boot race, and his 17 combined goals (11) and assists (six) are tied for the league lead. Russell, meanwhile, has scored or assisted in four of his last five appearances.
Having regained momentum, Sporting pushed forward once more in the 74th minute when Pulido forced a reflex save from Maurer. It proved to be the final major scoring opportunity for either team, even with referee Armando Villarreal allowing 10 minutes of stoppage time.
QUOTES
Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes
Thoughts on the match…
I thought from the opening whistle all the way to the very end – and I’m blown away by 10 minutes of extra time – we managed the game as a team in a good way. I’m proud of the guys. They played. They were good with the ball. Two great goals. Defended and fought for everything. Sacrificed bodies to block stuff and didn’t give up. I’m very, very happy with the guys and happy for them and proud of them because I know that they want it. They’re fighting for it. Obviously, there’s a lot of good teams in this league and we’re just trying to compete with them. I appreciate the effort of the guys. I appreciate the mentality. It was big time.
On the play of Daniel Salloi and the front six…
There’s no doubt that he’s in form, for sure. You’re also feeling good and you’re confident in your areas of the field that you’re trying to get into. For him, it’s in and around the box. He feels good around there.
You can also talk about the first goal and the build up to that. The slip by Gadi Kinda. Alan (Pulido), what a great run of play to score with his left foot. Johnny (Russell) in his first game back, he’s not 90 minutes fit but he fought all the way through to 100 minutes. A good performance by those guys. It really was. Those guys all worked really hard. Gadi was a monster. I thought Roger (Espinoza) was (too). Remi (Walter) did a great job and was really disciplined in the middle of the park. He won and broke up a lot of plays. A really good all-around performance by the guys.
On ending Dallas’ home unbeaten run…
From the opening whistle to the final whistle, we didn’t let anything bother us. We played how we can play. I thought we were really good on the ball. I thought the ball was our best friend today. The guys took a lot of pride and discipline in keeping it. We were pragmatic at times, but in a good way. The final piece is that we scored the chances that we needed to at the right times. I also think we did a really good job on set pieces and we sacrificed our bodies to stop anything from going in the goal. Tim (Melia) was his usual self. He was good around the goal. He was brave. He picked the right moments to do things. He was good on the ball with his feet. All of that helped immensely in us keeping the ball as well.
On the key to team’s road results this year…
A good mentality and I think we can compete. Everybody talks about the teams that are better than us. We’re just trying to get close to them and trying to compete with them. That’s what we’re trying to do and we’ve got to keep getting better and keep working. That’s what we’ve got to do.
Sporting Kansas City forward Johnny Russell
Thoughts on the match…
It’s a difficult place to come. We’ve not had the best of luck here recently. We knew it was going to have to be a spirited performance, probably similar to the LA Galaxy game. We were not quite our best at times, but we’ve shown time and time again that we can win games ugly. That being said, I thought we played really well at times. We controlled the ball well. We controlled the tempo of the game. It’s massive today to come here and get another three points on the road and keep the train going.
On Daniel Salloi’s form…
I’m delighted as his teammate – and me and Daniel are really close – to see him back to what we all know he’s capable of. He got a lot of stick for the last couple years. Just look at what he’s doing right now. Quite honestly, he’s a little bit untouchable right now. Everything he’s hitting is going in. That’s what we knew was there. Obviously, he was disappointed with how things went but he’s put all of that behind him now. He’s absolutely flying and producing for us. Hopefully that continues until the end of the season. I’m sure that it will. He’s loving it right now. He’s loving playing and scoring goals. Hopefully he keeps that going and if he does, we’re going to be right up there.
On the challenge of playing away…
We’ve got a team who, in my opinion, when we’re on our top of our game, we play the best stuff in the league and the most attractive stuff in the league. We’ve shown that we can do the other side of it as well. If it has to turn into a fight and scrappy game, we’re more than capable. We have so much experience throughout our team. Guys who have been there and done it. That’s infectious throughout your team. When we see one guy go, the next guy goes and we all follow suit. It’s great to be a part of that. Everyone wants to play the nice stuff that we play, but it’s not always going to be like that. Coming to places like this, we knew we were going to have to grind it out. We showed in our game tonight what we’ve shown in previous away games: that we’re up for any challenge. That’s probably the most pleasing thing as well.
Sporting Kansas City forward Daniel Salloi
On his goal…
I figured Johnny was going to cross the ball so I made the movement towards the ball and the defender couldn’t clear it out. I was aware so I was on my toes and just tried to get it out of his legs. It felt really good hitting that ball. I’m very happy that gave us a two-goal lead. Honestly, I think we needed it.
On the rematch with Dallas…
It’s always nice to win. It’s always nice to win against teams who beat us before in the season or in the year before. But obviously every game is different. We try not to lose points anywhere so we don’t play for revenge. It’s nice to look at it after the game that you could get three points against a team who stole three from you.
On the team’s road results this year…
It shows our strength. Teams winning on the road is always very important. Long term, I think that’s what makes teams champions. We are on the right track. Tactically, I think it’s nice to play away because teams want to control the game in their own stadium and they actually come us at a little bit more so spaces open up. We can get our chances and play more around them. Obviously the game changes when we go away and we’ve been very good at playing our own game at home and away as well.
2021 MLS Regular Season | Match 19
Toyota Stadium | Frisco, Texas
Attendance: 14,133
Weather: 85 degrees and cloudy
Score 1 2 F
Sporting Kansas City (11-4-4, 37 points) 1 1 2
FC Dallas (5-8-6, 21 points) 0 0 0
Sporting Kansas City: Tim Melia; Graham Zusi, Ilie Sanchez, Andreu Fontas, Luis Martins; Remi Walter, Roger Espinoza, Gadi Kinda; Johnny Russell (C), Alan Pulido, Daniel Salloi (Grayson Barber 90+3′)
Subs Not Used: John Pulskamp, Amadou Dia, Kayden Pierre, Roberto Puncec, Kaveh Rad, Cam Duke, Wilson Harris
FC Dallas: Jimmy Maurer; Ema Twumasi, Nkosi Tafari, Matt Hedges (C), Ryan Hollingshead; Edwin Cerrillo (Bryan Acosta 46′), Facundo Quignon (Andres Ricaurte 83′); Paxton Pomykal (Jader Obrian 62′), Jesus Ferreira (Franco Jara 73′), Szabolcs Schon (Freddy Vargas 73′); Ricardo Pepi
Subs Not Used: Phelipe, Jose Martinez, Eddie Munjoma, Brandon Servania
Scoring Summary:
SKC — Alan Pulido 8 (Gadi Kinda 3, Daniel Salloi 6) 12′
SKC — Daniel Salloi 11 (Johnny Russell 5, Alan Pulido 2) 63′
Misconduct Summary:
DAL — Jesus Ferreira (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 38′
DAL — Matt Hedges (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 49′
DAL — Jader Obrian (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 67′
DAL — Szabolcs Schon (yellow card; dissent) 68′
DAL — Freddy Vargas (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 76′
DAL — Ema Twumasi (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 89′
SKC — Gadi Kinda (yellow card; time wasting) 91′
Stat SKC DAL
Shots 11 16
Shots on Goal 6 2
Saves 2 4
Fouls 9 14
Offsides 1 1
Corner Kicks 6 5
Referee: Armando Villarreal
Assistant Referee: Jeffrey Greeson
Assistant Referee: Eric Weisbrod
Fourth Official: JC Griggs
VAR: Alejandro Mariscal
AVAR: Jonathan Johnson
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