Sporting KC, back in action with fans in the stands, coughs up 5-2 home loss to Houston

“You’re still whining, you, you piece of ...”

We’re confident you can finish the rest, and it could sure be heard echoing across Children’s Mercy Park from a fan in the South Stand Tuesday night.

“Obviously you can hear a little more of the shouts but it’s usually all good stuff,” Sporting KC midfielder Gianluca Busio said with a laugh. “Especially with our fans — we have great fans, so it’s never anything negative.”

Not toward the hometown players, at least. To be fair, a lot of things could be heard Tuesday as Sporting Kansas City welcomed 2,300 spectators back into the stands for the first time since March ... only to lose 5-2 to the Houston Dynamo.

That particular comment was directed toward Houston Dynamo winger Alberth Elis after yet another battle with Sporting KC right back Jaylin Lindsey. Lindsey endured a horrid night against Elis and Elis’ eventual substitute, Niko Hansen. The young outside back was at fault in some fashion on three of Houston’s goals.

“I think that Elis is a tough mark for anybody in this league. He’s an important player for them,” Sporting KC manager Peter Vermes said. “I have a lot of faith in (Lindsey). I think he has a lot of room to grow in. This is one of those experiences for him tonight.”

The win was the Dynamo’s first at Children’s Mercy Park since 2014 and stood in stark contrast to Sporting KC’s March home opener — a 4-0 victory over the team from Houston.

Houston opened the scoring in 17th minute before Sporting KC winger Johnny Russell tied it nine minutes later. The Dynamo then scored a pair of goals either side of halftime, both coming down Lindsey’s left, before midfielder Gadi Kinda pulled one back for Kansas City.

Kinda’s score provided a semblance of hope, but a quickfire double from Houston’s Darwin Quintero put the game out of reach.

Western Conference-leading Sporting KC was caught repeatedly on the counter-attack Tuesday against the cellar-dwelling Dynamo. Houston attacked Lindsey’s left side of the field relentlessly, breaking through in the 17th minute when Elis slipped completely unnoticed past Lindsey to tap the ball home at the back post.

Russell netted an equalizer in the 26th minute, eliciting the first cheers in five months at Children’s Mercy Park, but Elis soon struck again. Once again unnoticed by Lindsey, Elis received the ball on a quick switch. Unmarked, he had ample time to send a low shot into the box, where it was redirected into the goal by Christian Ramirez.

The attack on Lindsey’s side continued after the break. But this time it came through Hansen, who replaced Elis at halftime. The Danish winger left Lindsey for dead after latching onto a quick through-ball down the wing as Lindsey pressed too high for Hansen’s speed and Hansen fired past goalkeeper Tim Melia uncontested.

“(Lindsey) gets a little man-oriented in that situation and maybe over-commits a little bit,” Vermes said. “But there are some learning curves that go with opportunities. That’s the way it goes sometimes.”

Kinda responded less than two minutes later to make it 3-2, but instead of mounting a comeback, the Sporting KC defense shut down. Center-back Winston Reid was the next to cause havoc in the back. Making his second start for the club since arriving from West Ham, Reid shifted right on a Houston attack down the right-hand side.

That allowed Houston to play into an open gap through the middle of the Sporting defense, and Quintero dispatched the visitors’ fourth goal past Melia from 20 yards out.

Reid’s shift across the field whilst trying to man-mark was another example of Kansas City’s over-commitment man-marking, similar to how Lindsey was caught for the third goal.

“That’s not the way we play; that’s not the way this club is about,” midfielder Roger Espinoza said of the suggestion Sporting had been too man-oriented. “There was definitely something wrong there — we were late to everything. Maybe not the beginning, but as the game went on we did things that we just don’t do as a team here.”

Quintero scored four minutes after that on a counter-attack that exposed left-back Graham Zusi: Quintero was left wide open to tap home a through-ball at the left post.

Despite the loss, Sporting KC remains atop the conference. But questions about the left side of Sporting’s defense will linger ahead of Saturday’s game against the Colorado Rapids in Denver.

This story was originally published August 25, 2020 at 10:39 PM with the headline "Sporting KC, back in action with fans in the stands, coughs up 5-2 home loss to Houston."