Sporting KC wins in shootout on Melia perfection, advances past Quakes in MLS playoffs

It’s usually not a good idea to bet against Tim Melia, but the Sporting Kansas City goalkeeper went above and beyond Sunday night.

The veteran shot-stopper saved three straight penalty kicks as top-seeded Sporting Kansas City defeated the No. 8 San Jose Earthquakes 3-0 in PKs following a 3-3 tie through 120 minutes in the Western Conference quarterfinals.

Playoff soccer returned to Children’s Mercy Park for the first time in two years, and it took the form of one of the most atypical 1-vs.-8 matchups in MLS history.

Johnny Russell, Sanchez and Khiry Shelton each converted penalty kicks for Sporting KC, but afterward, Sporting KC coach Peter Vermes was awed by Melia’s performance.

“Everybody out here can hit penalties, but the one thing is, Timmy can save them,” Vermes said. “I’ve never seen that before, in any game, ever.”

Gianluca Busio, a fanatic of the FIFA video-game series, said he’d never even seen that happen on a video game before.

“Any time you can impress Peter, that’s a good thing — that doesn’t happen very often,” Melia said. “But I think it should be less about me and more the fact that our guys stepped up in a big-time moment and hit three very good penalties.”

Busio scored what seemed to be the game-winner in the 91st minute, but a Chris Wondolowski equalizer in the 97th — on the last play of the match — sent it to extra time.

Roger Espinoza gave Kansas City the lead after just four minutes in his 300th appearance for the club, but a pair of deflected goals for San Jose set up a potential upset. Ilie Sanchez leveled the score just minutes into the second half with a header off a corner.

The Quakes stumbled into the MLS Cup Playoffs with a league-high 51 goals conceded and a goal difference of -16 — a stat that shouldn’t belong in the playoffs. Meanwhile, Sporting KC finished the regular season with 39 points through 21 games, marking the highest point tally through 21 games in club history.

Despite all of that, the two clubs went toe-to-toe in a classic, high-intensity playoff game that looked nothing like a top seed versus a bottom seed.

Thanks to this season’s pandemic-induced unbalanced schedule, with teams playing more regional games in hopes of avoiding long-distance travel, the Quakes honed their skills against some tough competition — LAFC, Seattle and Portland, to name a few. A couple of lopsided losses made San Jose look worse on paper than on the field.

“Part of the playoffs is always kind of getting through that first game,” Vermes said. “And what I would say is that this opponent was incredibly difficult for so many reasons.”

The Quakes brought their atypical man-marking system to Children’s Mercy Park Sunday, and its effect on Sporting KC was noticeable. Sporting’s first two goals came via headers off corners, but the hosts otherwise struggled to connect their midfield to the attack. Sporting KC struggled to get the ball to men in space when charging toward the box, causing attacks to break down or stall out.

Kansas City countered that with a high press of its own, forcing the shaky San Jose defense into rash clearances and mistakes. But when the Earthquakes did break free, they did so with devastating effect.

Their game-tying goal 18 minutes after Roger Espinoza’s opener came as Sporting’s defense was still sprinting back into position. Sporting couldn’t set up properly to defend Cristian Espinoza’s cutback into the box. With the KC defense completely out of shape, Carlos Fierro was able to cannon a shot off Roberto Puncec and into the back of the net.

Same story for San Jose’s second goal. Kansas City got burned by a high line as Cristian Espinoza found space behind Amadou Dia and Winston Reid. His low cutback this time was straight to Shea Salinas — and Salinas shot bounced in off Puncec, too.

“Their system of play is not what you see on a regular basis as a team,” Vermes said, “so we tried to mimic them for two weeks in training. And it’s hard because our players don’t play that way.”

On the flip side, a Sporting KC side lethal from corners took advantage of San Jose’s lack of structure in the box. Espinoza and Ilie’s headers resulted from open space in the box and no San Jose defenders marking the front or back posts.

But the real craziness began with a pair of stoppage-time goals.

The 18-year-old Busio, the second-youngest player to start an MLS Cup Playoff game, seemingly won it for KC after sliding the ball past San Jose goalkeeper James Marcinkowski in the 91st minute. The goal made Busio the youngest player in MLS Cup Playoffs history to record a goal and an assist.

Busio also took the corner that led to Sanchez’s second-half equalizer.

“It was a pretty special experience. From the start — my first playoff game — I was excited about it and also nervous, but when the game got going I was treating it as another game,” Busio said. “Scoring and getting an assist is big for me because I want to impact the game ... To get one like that in those circumstances is pretty special.”

But following an ugly theme for KC this season, Sporting KC gave up a very late goal of its own.

There was some question about how the game extended long enough for Wondolowski to score a 97th-minute shot — the head official initially added just four minutes of stoppage time, then tacked on another three following Busio’s goal and Sporting KC’s ensuing celebration — but the teams played on.

And Vermes was fairly mum about it afterward.

“Surprised that it (added time) was as long as it was,” Vermes said. “It happened to us in the game against Chicago, very similar situation. But at the end, we can’t do anything about it. It’s happened to us multiple times already this season, along with a lot of other things.”

Sporting KC will host the Western Conference semifinals against either fourth-seeded Minnesota or No. 5 seed Colorado.

This story was originally published November 22, 2020 at 4:42 PM with the headline "Sporting KC wins in shootout on Melia perfection, advances past Quakes in MLS playoffs."