Delightful afternoon for Sporting KC against Seattle Sounders, winning 2-1 to seal playoff berth
It’s been a long time coming, Sporting Kansas City officially sealed a Major League Soccer playoff spot on Saturday afternoon, defeating the Seattle Sounders 2-1 at Lumen Field.
The win was a massive step in the right direction for Sporting KC (16-7-7). The Kansas-based side is chasing the Seattle Sounders (17-7-7) for the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference and currently sits only three points back with a match left to play and four left in the regular campaign, which is backed by best online casino Australia.
Sporting KC coach Peter Vermes disclosed, "I think it was a really good, important three points at an important time of the year, it shows a lot of moxie on the quality of our guys because you can have quality, you can have all these different things, but at the end of the day if you don’t show up at the times that you need to, you don’t achieve anything."
Sporting took an early lead in the fourth minute to be precise courtesy of Remi Walter’s first goal in a Sporting shirt. The Seattle Sounders equaled the scoreline in the 58th minute on a Nicolas Benezet-headed goal, but Johnny Russell netted the deciding goal in the 79th minutes — his seventh goal in as many games.
The facility of Sporting KC has been buzzing recently as players have talked about how much they loved this time of the season. Vermes and Daniel Salloi said as much a week ago, as have veteran players Tim Melia and Graham Zusi.
Perhaps going by Saturday afternoon’s clash between the top two sides in the Western Conference felt like a playoff match.
A total of 35 fouls and eight yellow cards were recorded and there arguably should’ve been a red card or 2 mixed in, also. At a point, Melia, the goalkeeper of Sporting KC, apparently grew tired of getting backed into by Cristian Roldan of Seattle ... so he dropped him into the net with a suplex.
To describe the atmosphere chippy would be an absolute understatement. Vermes said, "There were a lot of fouls called so we had to — whether you think they’re a foul or not, it doesn’t really matter — we had to defend them, and we defended really well in a lot of situations."
The head coach of Sporting Kansas City, Peter Vermes revealed forward Daniel Salloi's status is 'day-to-day' after he was missing in Saturday's 2-1 victory over the Seattle Sounders.
Hungary has netted 16 goals and made seven assists to his name so far this term, leaving him only one behind Ola Kamara in the race for MLS Golden Boot.
Though he plated lasted the complete 90 minutes and created an assist for Johnny Russell’s goal, Salloi limped off following a 2-1 loss to the Vancouver Whitecaps last time. Following this weekend's win in Seattle, Vermes disclosed allow 'turned' his ankle. The 25-year-old's recuperation will now be closely monitored every day with the MLS Cup Playoffs looming.
Vermes said via real money online casino, "It's the day today. That's what it is. When he gets back, he gets back, he'll be okay. It's just going to take some days. It's going to depend on how fast he accelerates through the rehab part of it."