Sporting KC dominates FC Dallas in 4-0 victory

Red-faced with veins popping from his neck, former Sporting Kansas City goalkeeper Jimmy Nielsen whipped the 60th consecutive sellout crowd for an MLS game at Sporting Park into a frenzy Friday with his “I believe that we will win” chant before the opening kickoff.

Midfielder Graham Zusi said the cheer fired him up, too.

“Heck, yeah,” he said. “Are you kidding me? When the White Puma got up there on the screen, I noticed that even the ref (David Gantar) let him finish before he blew the whistle, which was pretty cool. But it gave me chills. It was good to have him back.”

FC Dallas should have known it was in trouble from that moment, which set a raucous tone for Sporting KC’s ensuing 4-0 beatdown.

Less than three months ago, it was Sporting KC that got rocked 3-1 at FC Dallas, but in the rematch coach Peter Vermes’ squad rocketed into a tie for second place in the Western Conference with an equally decisive win.

“We definitely owed those guys one,” said defender Matt Besler, who missed the first FC Dallas game while with the U.S. national team. “That was one of the two games that we’ve lost this season, so we wanted to make sure we took advantage of being at home.”

Sporting KC, 5-2-6, and FC Dallas, 6-4-3, are tied with 21 points and trail first-place Seattle Sounders FC by two points.

Three players — Krisztian Nemeth, Kevin Ellis and Zusi — each had at least a goal and an assist for Sporting KC, which owns a six-game unbeaten streak (3-0-3) and hasn’t lost since April 18.

Nemeth dominated FC Dallas’ back line from the opening whistle. He turned defenders at will and created dangerous chances practically on command.

“We were very good at finding, his movement was good, but our runs off of him were excellent as well,” Vermes said. “That’s why you’re able to see the opportunities that he was able to make.”

Nemeth’s 19th-minute header was the first nail in FC Dallas’ coffin and his team-leading sixth goal.

It started when Ellis outmuscled Zach Loyd at the left post — meeting a lofted, 30-yard free kick from Zusi and nodding the ball back across the face of Dan Kennedy’s goal.

Uncontested, Nemeth tapped in Ellis’ pass at the right post with his own header and the 20,172 on hand roared as confetti rained.

It was the start of a short (yet somehow very long) evening for Loyd, who picked up yellow cards in the 33rd and 43rd minutes and hit the showers early.

Benny Feilhaber and Nemeth narrowly missed extending Sporting KC’s lead before halftime with shots just wide of the post, but FC Dallas was helpless to stop the onslaught down a man in the second half.

Feilhaber’s fourth goal of the season made it 2-0 in the 51st minute.

Jalil Anibaba whipped a cross from the right flank into Nemeth at the near post. He quickly turned on Matt Hedges and centered a pass in front of the net for an easy put away by Feilhaber.

“Krisztian has been — not only very good tonight, but he’s been very good since he came back from his knee injury,” Feilhaber said. “He’s really one-of-a-kind on a lot of levels, not only for our team but for the league. I’d be hard-pressed to find any kind of striker that’s playing as well as he is right now in our league.”

The beautiful game got more picturesque from there for Sporting KC, which went in front 3-0 six minutes later when Ellis slipped away from Tesho Akindele in the box and headed home a Zusi corner kick.

Zusi added his first goal in the 64th minute when rookie Connor Hallisey, who made his first MLS start with Dom Dwyer (neck) unavailable, teed him up with a back-heel pass inside the box.

“That second goal kind of broke their back,” said Zusi, whose finished with two assists and has four on the season. “From then, the third and fourth (goals) were just icing on the cake.”

The win was Vermes’ 100 as Sporting KC’s coach across all competitions, and it all started with a bellowing Nielsen.

“He’s coming in every game to do that from now on,” Vermes joked.

DALLAS: Dan Kennedy, Moises Hernandez, Matt Hedges, Zach Loyd, Mauro Diaz (Michel, 72nd), Victor Ulloa, Ryan Hollingshead, Je-Vaughn Watson, Kyle Bekker, Blas Perez (Rolando Escobar, 46th), Tesho Akindele (David Texeira, 74th).

KANSAS CITY: Tim Melia, Jalil Anibaba, Amadou Dia, Kevin Ellis, Matt Besler, Soni Mustivar, Roger Espinoza (Servando Carrasco, 71st), Benny Feilhaber, Graham Zusi (Saad Abdul-Salaam, 83rd), Connor Hallisey (Marcel De Jong, 65th), Krisztian Nemeth.

GOAL SCORING

Dallas: None. Kansas City: 1, Nemeth 6 (Ellis, Zusi), 19th minute. 2, Feilhaber 4 (Nemeth, Anibaba), 51st. 3, Ellis 1 (Zusi), 57th. 4, Zusi 1 (Hallisey), 64th.

CAUTIONS

Dallas: Loyd (foul), 33rd.

Kansas City: None.

RED CARDS

Dallas: Loyd (foul, second yellow card), 43rd.

Kansas City: None.

OFFICIALS

Referee: David Gantar.

Assistant referee: George Gansner.

Assistant referee: Danny Thornberry.

4th official: Nima Saghafi.

Announced attendance: 20,172.

This story was originally published May 29, 2015 at 10:04 PM with the headline "Sporting KC dominates FC Dallas in 4-0 victory."