Winless Sporting Kansas City held scoreless again in 1-0 home loss to Colorado Rapids

Sporting Kansas City is now winless in its first seven matches of the season and has scored just two goals.

In what turned into another frustrating outing for Sporting KC on Saturday night at Children’s Mercy Park, an old friend was Sporting’s undoing.

Diego Rubio’s goal in the 68th minute was the winner for the visiting Colorado Rapids as Sporting went scoreless for the fifth time this season.

Sporting KC was the more dominant side in the attack but didn’t create enough clearcut chances. The frustration at the scoreline was palpable during postgame interviews with manager Peter Vermes and his players.“I’d like to score some goals,” was how Vermes put it early in his postgame news conference.

“Second half, we were all over them, but not enough high-quality chances. So, at the end, we don’t get the result.”Despite getting healthier and being able to start its first-choice frontline, Sporting still hasn’t cracked the code. Sporting KC on Saturday became just the second team in MLS history to score only two goals in its first seven games. (The other: the 1999 Kansas City Wizards.)

Forward Alan Pulido made his first start for Sporting KC (0-4-3) since 2021 and looked good in the limited touches he saw. But that was the problem for Sporting KC in the first half: Pulido didn’t get on the ball enough, and as a team Sporting just didn’t possess it well against Colorado (1-3-3).

When Sporting did turn it on in the second half, it was too late, as Pulido had only another 15 minutes in the tank.

The Rapids had been pretty successful in the press during the first half, and eventually, that earned the visitors their goal.

During a set piece, the ball was cleared out harmlessly right in front of the Sporting KC bench. Rubio pressured Sporting’s Remi Walter along the sideline and ultimately won the ball, turning upfield for a breakaway. Rubio let his teammate run, and Sporting KC goalkeeper Tim Melia’s positioning left a wide-open gap inside the near post.

Sporting KC had its chances Saturday night, taking 18 shots. But none was particularly threatening. Just two were on target, and ten were blocked.

“Every time, there’s like one foot, one head between the goalkeeper,” Sporting’s Erik Thommy said. “The luck at the moment is not on our side.”

Luck or not, the chances haven’t been good enough, either. While Vermes attributes this to a combination of things, on Saturday he pointed directly to decisions made in the final third.

“When (we’ve got) a guy that’s wide open, we wind up taking a shot or making an extra pass when we don’t need to,” he said.

He pointed to a few instances in the first half when he felt Russell was clear on goal if someone could have just gotten him the ball.

“Some of it’s recognition,” Vermes said. “One of these balls has got to drop, (and) we have got to keep staying determined to try to do it.”

Russell, too, put the onus on the players, saying that it’s up to them “to find a different way to create an opportunity for someone else.

“It’s not really frustrating anymore,” Russell added. “I can’t really use the word that I’m thinking right now, but it’s not good enough, and it has to change.”

Sporting KC will head west to take on the San Jose Earthquakes on April 15.

This story was originally published April 8, 2023 at 10:11 PM.