Sporting Kansas City takes advantage of Rapids’ long layoff on way to 4-0 home victory

The Colorado Rapids looked like a team that hadn’t played in a month when they visited Children’s Mercy Park Saturday night.

That’s probably because they literally had not played in a month because of a COVID-19 outbreak within the club.

And Kansas City took advantage of that Rocky Mountain rust, cruising to a 4-0 victory in which three points in the MLS standings were never in doubt.

“It’s not as if we went into this game thinking this was going to be an easy game,” Sporting KC coach Peter Vermes said. “I was a little bit cautious.

“I told the guys that our approach has to be one in which we come out with everything because they have players in their team that can change the outcome of a game with one play.”

It took Sporting KC 54 minutes to finally break the deadlock through Alan Pulido, but KC controlled all aspects of the game. Andreu Fontas, Gadi Kinda and Gerso Fernandes also scored second-half goals to put an exclamation mark on the victory.

The Rapids’ previous game was Sept. 23, before an outbreak shut down team activities for several weeks. That ultimately forced the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to postpone Rapids games for another 10 days.

It was apparent the Rapids hadn’t played a competitive game in over a month. Slow reactions, sloppy passing and a lack of fluidity were abundant.

All that was missing for Kansas City in the first 54 minutes was the final finish.

A sloppy start to the game saw Colorado commit several early fouls, both unneeded and in dangerous positions. And the Rapids’ backline was stretched thin as KC’s wingers made deep runs into space on the far side of play.

And if it wasn’t the Kansas City offense pulling Colorado’s defense apart, it was the Rapids’ players themselves.

Receiving the ball in seemingly little danger, Colorado centerback Lalas Abubakar played a lazy pass across the edge of his box to teammate Danny Wilson.

The pass was so poor it allowed Pulido to not only latch onto it with no one but the goalkeeper to beat, but Pulido himself seemed surprised to have the ball at his feet. And so in the most uncharacteristic fashion for the star forward, a heavy touch gave Colorado goalkeeper William Yarbrough time and space to close down Pulido and make the save.

“I think in the first half, as a team, we lacked sharpness and we were a little bit off in being alert in the game because a lot of balls were squeaking through or squeaking by,” Vermes said. “We weren’t ready for them.”

The difference between the two teams was so stark that Kansas City finished the first half outshooting Colorado 9-0. By the full-time whistle, Sporting KC led that category 23-5, with 12 of those shots on target.

Colorado’s first shot came in the 82nd minute.

But Sporting KC’s fortunes changed in the second half. Pulido finally found the breakthrough after another couple of chances that were a little too easy for Yarbrough.

Playing in his first game since Oct. 3 due to international duty, Pulido returned to the lineup with a team-leading seven shots on goal. During that break, Pulido played just 13 of an available 180 minutes for the Mexican National Team.

When given another chance to strike, he did. Picking up the ball on the edge of the box with several defenders on his back, Pulido cut inside before firing a shot across his body and into Colorado’s net.

“He made that goal that he scored — probably a little bit of disappointment, a little bit of anger, a little bit of everything because he knows he should have had one in the first half — so he made that goal happen,” Vermes said.

While a goal from Pulido is almost an expectation, a goal from defender Fontas is not.

The Spanish centerback was approached by Joey Harty, Sporting KC’s director of sports performance and science, ahead of kickoff to prepare for a potential start. Winston Reid, named initially to the starting lineup, was soon after ruled out with tightness in his groin.

“You’re always ready, you know that things can happen, and we were ready for everything and today was the case,” Fontas said. “It’s not usual but it happened. It’s not the best because you are in for the injury of a teammate, it’s not always the best. But you have to be ready and we were ready, me and (Matt) Besler both, and at the end, they said for me to go in.”

Fontas scored Kansas City’s second goal and also completed a team-high 68 passes.

Kinda and Fernandes each scored on their last kicks to put the game to bed — Kinda with an 87th-minute goal before being substituted off and Fernandes with the last kick of the game.

The victory moves Kansas City into first place in the Western Conference by a point, with the Seattle Sounders holding a game in hand.

“It’s a big confidence boost,” right back Jaylin Lindsey said. “We’ve been wanting to have performances like these all season, and we come in today with a 4-0 win and it gives us a huge boost of confidence. Also being top of the West is another confidence booster as well.”

“We’ve just got to build off this performance and we’ve just got to bring it to the next couple of games and close out the season really well to get that top spot and go into the playoffs with all the home games.”

This story was originally published October 24, 2020 at 10:28 PM with the headline "Sporting Kansas City takes advantage of Rapids’ long layoff on way to 4-0 home victory."