Sporting Kansas City is headed to MLS Cup Playoffs after win at Cincinnati

It wasn’t pretty, but Sporting Kansas City clinched a spot in the MLS Cup Playoffs Wednesday night, defeating FC Cincinnati 1-0 at Nippert Stadium.

The playoff berth signifies the ninth time that Sporting KC coach Peter Vermes has guided SKC to the playoffs, the most in Major League Soccer history by one coach for one team.

Ironically, Vermes thought the team had already clinched with Sporting’s 4-0 win over Colorado on Saturday.

“It’s a job well done by the guys in accomplishing that aspect but now we’ve got to keep fighting here with the last couple games of the season and get ourselves to a place where we have a home playoff game, and maybe some home-field advantage, if we can keep going on,” Vermes said.

Spectators around the country have come to expect three points whenever Sporting KC faces Major League Soccer bottom-feeder Cincinnati, but in FC Cincinnati’s final game at historic Nippert before the club moves to newly built West End Stadium in 2021, the home team put up a good fight.

“Sometimes you have to be able to stick your nose on the end of a ball to block it for a goal not to be scored and vice-versa,” Vermes said. “You’ve got to stick your nose on the end of the ball to score.

“You’re going to have to scrape and scrap and fight and bite for everything in the game today. At the end, we got a really good result on the road.”

It took Sporting 57 minutes to break the deadlock through substitute Roger Espinoza, who tucked home Alan Pulido’s cutback for his second goal of the season. A missed penalty from Cincinnati’s Siem de Jong just minutes later compounded the Orange and Blue’s misery — Cinci has yet to earn a come-from-behind MLS victory.

In every game for Cincinnati this season, the opening goal of the game has decided the final result. That’s netted four wins for Cincinnati against 13 losses — included Wednesday night’s — and four scoreless ties. Cinci is now 0-30-1 in MLS when falling behind.

Sporting knew the turf field at Nippert, a rarity now in professional soccer, could play a factor in this one.

“We’ve trained during the week in our facility, and I guess our turf is too good,” Sporting KC midfielder Ilie Sanchez said. “You all know we have a great facility — it’s a brand new one. ... (T)he field (at Nippert) was very, very difficult for us to be able to play our regular game, and I think that we realized that in the first half.”

Cincinnati outshot Sporting Kansas City 7-2 in the first half and had multiple goal-scoring opportunities. The first came just 8 minutes into the game when de Jong fired an effort over the crossbar from 8 yards out. Jürgen Locadia ended the first half with an excellent chance that was denied by Sporting goalkeeper Tim Melia.

That save, the 508th of Melia’s career with Sporting, moved him past Tony Meola for most saves in a KC jersey.

“Tim has one of those careers that you could write a short little film around. He came into the league and bounced between two teams and was a league pool goalkeeper,” Vermes said. “He’s become one of the best goalkeepers in this league. He’s had obviously a great career thus far — and he still has a lot ahead of him.”

Vermes substituted in Gerso Fernandes and Roger Espinoza at halftime. KC has often responded well to Espinoza as a substitute this season, and the Honduran opened the scoring just 12 minutes into the second half.

“When you’re on the bench, you get to see a little bit of how the other team is playing, the way your teammates are located on the field and the other team, too, so I think it gives me an advantage when I come off the bench,” Espinoza said. “Obviously, I have a little more energy too.”

A slick ball down the left wing by Gadi Kinda to Pulido set up the Mexican forward’s fifth assist of the season. Espinoza’s hard, low shot was only partially saved by Cincinnati goalkeeper Spencer Richey.

“Usually I hit those way far out there to the moon,” Espinoza said with a laugh. “But today for some reason I tried to concentrate and thought, ‘I’m going to hit it low,’ and I over-concentrated because it was turf, just trying to place it more than trying to overpower it.”

It looked like Cinci might’ve found a way back into the game just moments later when Roberto Puncec conceded a penalty on Frankie Amaya, but just as he’d wasted a chance at the start of the game, de Jong’s penalty bounced off the post.

This story was originally published October 28, 2020 at 8:47 PM with the headline "Sporting Kansas City is headed to MLS Cup Playoffs after win at Cincinnati."