Shorthanded Sporting Kansas City eliminated from Leagues Cup with 6-1 loss to Leon

A little over 24 hours before Sporting Kansas City was set to host its first Leagues Cup game at Children’s Mercy Park against Mexico’s Club Leon, KC coach Peter Vermes stated his intention was to win the competition.

“I think as an organization we always try to put front and center winning as our No. 1 objective,” Vermes said. “Obviously this is a competition that we are participating in and we’re going to try and give everything we have.”

Of course, if Vermes gave an answer any less than that, then he would be scrutinized for not taking seriously a chance for Sporting Kansas City to win its first international trophy.

But Tuesday night’s lineup did not match his words come game time, as Sporting KC was steamrolled 6-1 with a game-day roster that featured 10 players who have played five games or less this season.

Eight saw some playing time in the loss.

“It was tough, especially with us not getting much time to train with a bunch of games going on right now,” said Grayson Barber, who was making his second-ever appearance for Sporting KC.

“We went out there and did the best that we could do,” he continued.

A trio of goals from Leon in the first half — one from Santiago Colombatto and two from Omar Fernandez — put the game out of sight by halftime. Substitute Cam Duke scored for KC on the hour mark but three more goals from Leon condemned Kansas City to one of the worst home losses in franchise history.

The loss matches a 5-0 home loss to San Jose in August 2015 for greatest goal deficit and is only outdone by a 7-0 home loss to the Chicago Fire on July 4, 2001.

Sporting KC is in the middle of a four-game stretch that sees the club play in four different cities in 11 games. It’s the type of run that’s heavy on both the legs and mind and requires rotation among the squad.

But even then, the inexperience that was on display for Sporting was staggering.

Despite having not played in Saturday’s 0-0 tie at Colorado, captain Johnny Russell once again did not see the field. Both Graham Zusi and Alan Pulido played a half hour or less in the Colorado game, yet neither made an appearance against Leon.

All-Star winger Daniel Salloi made the start on the front line alongside youngsters Wilson Harris and Grayson Barber but made little impact and was understandably pulled from the game at halftime.

Vermes held no regrets about the lineup he put out on the field, referencing the 2019 season that saw Sporting KC struggle all season with injuries gained in the CONCACAF Champions League.

“The reality is that I’m not going to risk guys that have high loads, I’m not going to risk them,” Vermes said. “I’m just not going to.

“Does anybody want to lose like we did today? No, we don’t want to. But I’m not going to put the team in jeopardy.”

Kansas City’s long night started in the 16th minute when Leon’s Colombatto pounced on a fortunate bounce to open the scoring.

The midfielder’s header bounced off the chest of KC’s 18-year-old left back Kayden Pierre’s before falling right back to Colombatto’s feet for him to slot home. The bounce off Pierre’s chest was the first touch of his professional career after coming on for the injured Jaylin Lindsey a few minutes earlier.

Fernandez doubled the score from distance in the 27th minute, beating 20-year-old goalkeeper John Pulskamp at his near post. The Colombian midfielder bagged his second of the game just before halftime on an incisive counterattack that tore apart KC’s defense.

Fernandez’s pair of goals were a microcosm of the glaring open space given to Leon’s players throughout the course of the game. Homegrown centerback Kaveh Rad and veteran Roberto Puncec — who endured a torrid 45 minutes against Colorado on Saturday, too — were unable to deal with the movement of Leon’s forwards.

All of this isn’t to say that the youngsters on the field played poorly. They simply were not ready and outmatched by a full-strength Liga MX team.

“It’s an experience. And for some of them it’s not a good experience, right?” Vermes said. “They got it handed to them and they’re going to have to bounce back from it, it’s just the way it is.”

Midfielder Ozzie Cisneros, 17, had several good spells throughout his 90-minute professional debut. He sometimes struggled physically with his larger opponents, but at other times showed some good composure to elongate some spells of possession for KC.

Harris also showed some smart movement to fire off a couple of shots in the first half that could have changed the course of the game if not for a little more composure.

Kansas City’s Barber took some time to get into the game but enjoyed good spells down the right side of the field for KC. It was the 21-year-old’s deft movement in the 61st minute that led to him sliding a ball inside toward substitute Duke who scored Kansas City’s sole goal of the game.

“My first half wasn’t the best but going into halftime I couldn’t let that affect me going into the second half,” Barber said. “I just had to keep the same mentality and go out there and work as hard as I could and thankfully I was able to get the assist to Cam.”

But the celebrations were short-lived as Leon extended its lead back to three just a minute later. Two more goals from the visitors condemned Kansas City to a humiliating loss and an early exit from the Leagues Cup.

“If anybody wants to make a criticism to the team they can make it at me,” Vermes said. “I’ll take the blame on it, I’m the coach, no problem, bring it on and I’ll take it.”

This story was originally published August 10, 2021 at 9:13 PM with the headline "Shorthanded Sporting Kansas City eliminated from Leagues Cup with 6-1 loss to Leon."