September 4, 2021 – Major League Soccer (MLS) – Sporting Kansas City News Release
Sporting Kansas City (11-5-7, 40 points) suffered a 4-0 loss to Los Angeles FC (7-9-6, 27 points) on Friday at Banc of California Stadium, conceding three second half goals after a 58th minute red card left Sporting a man down for the second straight road match.
Manager Peter Vermes saw his team suffer only its second league loss of the summer, a span that includes 13 regular season games, and it came with midfielder Gadi Kinda and forward Daniel Salloi away on international duty. Newly signed midfielder Jose Mauri started in his Sporting KC debut, playing 68 minutes in his first action since arriving from Argentina.
Sporting Kansas City threatened to open the scoring in the 17th minute as club captain Johnny Russell cut inside from the right flank and curled a shot from the edge of the penalty area just beyond the far post, but it was the home side — shorthanded themselves with international absences and key players out due to injury — that delivered the first dagger moments later.
Eighteen-year-old rookie Mamadou Fall came forward for a corner kick in the 18th minute and the 6’2 defender headed home the delivery from LAFC playmaker Eduard Atuesta, who featured alongside Salloi in last week’s MLS All-Star Game on his home field. The goal was the first of Fall’s professional career, and his first of two on the night.
Boosted by the early lead, LAFC would twice come close to doubling their advantage in the 10 minutes following Fall’s opener. Tim Melia made a superb save to deny Cal Jennings in the 23rd minute, dropping low to his right to get a hand on the attempt. Six minutes later, Bryce Duke lined up a long-range effort that was strongly struck from 30 yards out but whistled wide of the target.
Despite controlling nearly 62 percent of the possession away from home in the first half and outshooting LAFC 5-3 in the opening 45 minutes, Sporting was put into an all too familiar position with a 1-0 deficit for a 12th time in 2021 and matters were made worse in a controversial three-minute span early in the second stanza.
In the 58th minute, Sporting KC were reduced to 10 men as Roger Espinoza was ejected by referee Drew Fischer after video review. Espinoza was whistled for a foul on Cristian Arango which, after warranting no card from Fischer initially, was subjected to review by Video Assistant Referee Ramy Touchan and was deemed worthy of a straight red card.
LAFC capitalized immediately and found a second goal in the same fashion as the first, albeit this time via a free kick dubiously awarded by Fischer. Atuesta once again provided a pinpoint pass onto the head of Fall at the back post for a well-placed finish from close range. Atuesta earned his team-leading sixth assist of the 2021 season with the set-piece service.
Down a player and down two goals, Sporting Kansas City nearly found a lifeline in the 65th minute. Russell did brilliantly to beat his man on the dribble only to be thwarted on the doorstep as LAFC goalkeeper Tomas Romero came off his line to make a sliding save.
Melia made two impressive saves of his own – first with his foot in the 66th minute on an attempt by Arango and then in the 74th minute to deny Danny Musovski — however LAFC ultimately put the game out of reach with a goal from Arango in the 71st minute before the hosts capped off the performance with a penalty from Atuesta in the 87th minute.
Sporting refused to go quietly despite the scoreline and circumstances. After having a goal disallowed in the 80th minute when Ilie was flagged for offside prior to volleying Russell’s free kick into the back of the net, Alan Pulido nearly provided a late consolation goal in the 90th minute and Graham Zusi forced a final save from Romero in the 94th minute.
Still second in the West, Sporting will return home to host Chicago Fire FC at 7:30 p.m. CT on Saturday, Sept. 11 at Children’s Mercy Park. Tickets for the cross-conference clash are available online at SeatGeek.com.
QUOTES
Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes
On the red card…
It’s profiling, simple as can be. It’s profiling. That’s all I can tell you. Because it’s Roger Espinoza, he gets a red card. I’ve watched it. If you watch and you know the game, you understand that it’s accidental contact. He is stepping his foot and he actually goes underneath the other foot and when his foot comes down, it steps on the back of his leg. He doesn’t mean to do it. He’s not even looking. He’s getting his feet under him. He just ran 60 yards to return into the play and was slowing down. It’s not a red card.
But it is a red card because, when it comes to us, it is a red card. Just like when we were here last time and Khiry (Shelton) gets hit by their goalkeeper where he has to go to the hospital the next day (and the discipline) winds up being nothing . It’s looked at the next day and everybody is okay with it. Everybody thinks it’s fine. I’ve come to the conclusion that, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. Last game, our guy is pulling his leg away from a guy. He gets a red card. Our guy gets clotheslined around the neck in (Alan) Pulido and what happens? Not a red card. It’s okay to do what you want to our guys, just like what happens on the second goal. Check the film at 59:25. After they have their free kick, we block it out. Khiry goes up for a header. Latif Blessing jumps all over him. (Khiry) heads the ball. He wins it. He goes for the next ball, wins it. The other guy falls down and we get called for a foul. If there’s anything, it’s a foul against them. Consequently, they then score on the free kick. Do we have to defend better on the free kick? Sure we do. But that (should) never happen.
…We’re down a man and all those other things happen thereafter. Okay, we lost the game. They played well. I can accept that. I can accept that we’re going to get beat sometimes. But in these circumstances week after week, it’s just incredibly frustrating. The players every week have to deal with the same thing. I don’t have any words anymore.
…The fact that Roger gets the red card and then the foul comes thereafter, I’m amazed. We go through this week in and week out. Our guys get looked at and then there’s no foul. And then I get the ceremonial, ‘Yeah, we agree with the call.’ Then this week, ‘We agree with the call.’ And then next week, ‘We agree with the call.’ But when you compare all these calls, they’re all different. There’s no consistency. I’m incredibly, incredibly, incredibly frustrated for the team and for the players for the work that they do every day. That’s what frustrates me the most.
Congratulates to LA. They played well. They had good energy. At the end, that’s what it was.
On the team’s play in the first half…
I thought we could have been a lot faster with the ball. I think at times we were slow. There’s different things. I would never put someone like Jose (Mauri) in his first game like that with such little time but right now we’re down so many players we had to. He actually did okay in the game. I think he has good ideas. He’s got a good understanding of the position. It’s just a shame the game had to be the way it was for many reasons. At the end, we didn’t have enough.
Sporting Kansas City defender Graham Zusi
Thoughts on the match…
I thought we were a bit sloppy in the first half in moving the ball. I thought, in the second half, we came out and we had a better start to the half. I hate talking about refs but, to me, that is not even close to being a red card. Roger (Espinoza) accidentally falls on the guy and gets a red card. The ref even told me that was an accident. It’s crazy to me that’s a red card. The foul on Khiry (Shelton) is absolutely not a foul. He’s standing his own ground. Latif (Blessing) comes barreling into him. It’s absolutely not a foul for me. It’s very frustrating to be out of control in a situation like that. I’m flustered right now because it’s not about how we played but outside factors that lost that game for us.
On the team facing adversity…
We had to push, obviously, which ended up spreading us out and they got a lot of chances there in the second half. That’s the way the game goes when you’re down a man.
On the team’s mentality in those situations…
It takes a strong one. I thought we were maybe a little bit out of our normal mentality in terms of coming together as a group and grinding it out. But I think that’s a bit in reaction to some of the calls that were made.
Sporting Kansas City midfielder Ilie Sanchez
On the team’s frustration…
I don’t have words to describe the behavior of a few referees with this team. I would like to say that this wasn’t, by far, our best game. It was our biggest defeat this season. But if you ask me about the red cards and some of the calls from this game and this referee, it’s very frustrating to fight against this with a few of them. Every time, no matter if they call us here on the road or at home, it’s always harder because we don’t know what to expect from them. Also, we can learn from this and try to stay away from those calls. But, believe me, when you’re on the field and you don’t understand one call and another one and the next one and the next one, it makes it very, very hard to overcome from those calls.
On the play of Jose Mauri…
Well, it was tough. I think that Jose did a very good job. It’s not easy to come into a new team from a different country and not speaking the language and try to perform right away. Also, (after) being quarantined for so many days until tonight. I think he was calm. Obviously, physically he will get better with training and with games. For us, we tried to stay together next to him but the game that we played didn’t allow him and us to do a better job. I think he can help the team going forward. Unfortunately, tonight, we were not able to help him much.
On the team bouncing back after the loss…
The best thing that we know and the fastest way to change this is in the next training session. Come with the right attitude and try to be better. There is no secret. I think this team has a very clear game model. We have very good players for this league. We’re not happy. This is our worst stretch in the season, four games without a win. It’s not acceptable for this team. At least, we don’t accept this happening and I guarantee you that we will change this from our next training session and looking forward to our next game at home against Chicago.
2021 MLS Regular Season | Match 23
Banc of California Stadium | Los Angeles, California
Attendance: 22,018
Weather: 69 degrees and partly cloudy
Score 1 2 F
Sporting Kansas City (11-5-7, 40 points) 0 0 0
Los Angeles FC (7-9-6, 27 points) 1 3 4
Sporting Kansas City: Tim Melia; Graham Zusi, Ilie Sanchez, Andreu Fontas, Luis Martins; Jose Mauri (Cam Duke 68′), Roger Espinoza, Remi Walter; Johnny Russell (C), Alan Pulido, Khiry Shelton
Subs Not Used: John Pulskamp, Amadou Dia, Roberto Puncec, Kaveh Rad, Jake Davis, Grayson Barber, Wilson Harris
Los Angeles FC: Tomas Romero; Mamadou Fall, Sebastian Ibeagha, Raheem Edwards, Jesus Murillo (Jordan Harvey 88′); Latif Blessing, Francisco Ginella, Bryce Duke ( Marco Farfan 88′), Eduard Atuesta (C), Cristian Arango (Daniel Crisostomo 80′); Cal Jennings (Danny Musovski 46′)
Subs Not Used: Pablo Sisniega
Scoring Summary:
LAFC – Mamadou Fall 1 (Eduard Atuesta 5) 18′
LAFC – Mamadou Fall 2 (Eduard Atuesta 6) 61′
LAFC – Cristian Arango 2 (Danny Musovski 2, Bryce Duke 1) 71′
LAFC – Eduard Atuesta 2 (penalty kick) 87′
Misconduct Summary:
LAFC – Sebastian Ibeagha (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 41′
SKC – Roger Espinoza (red card; serious foul play) 58′
LAFC – Bryce Duke (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 77′
LAFC – Danny Musovski (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 79′
SKC – Tim Melia (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 85′
Stat SKC LAFC
Shots 9 15
Shots on Goal 4 8
Saves 4 4
Fouls 5 15
Offsides 2 3
Corner Kicks 1 3
Referee: Drew Fischer
Assistant Referee: Frank Anderson
Assistant Referee: Eduardo Mariscal
Fourth Official: Brandon Stevis
VAR: Ramy Touchan
AVAR: Fabio Tovar
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