Three goals & big save lead Sporting KC to a win vs. San Jose. Here’s how they did it

Sporting KC got started early and never stopped in a decisive win on Saturday.

Daniel Salloi, Johnny Russell and Erik Thommy all scored, and Tim Melia made a late penalty kick save to preserve a 3-0 victory over the San Jose Earthquakes at Children’s Mercy Park.

Leading up to Saturday’s match, manager Peter Vermes spoke to media members about his club’s playoff push. With the season winding down, Sporting is short on time to climb back into the postseason picture.

The approach, Vermes said, was for Sporting to take things 45 minutes at a time.

“We talked about wanting to start fast and (trying) to get it going early to open up the game a little bit,” Vermes said on Saturday. “The guys did that. I thought they were relentless in their attack, which put a lot of pressure on San Jose.”

It showed in the score.

Sporting struck first when a cross by Russell found Salloi, whose soft touch put the ball in the back of the net. The match broadcast caught Russell telling Salloi he thought it was his own (Russell’s) goal, but replays showed Salloi got the slightest of touches to it.

Just minutes later, Sporting went on another attack, but as Russell tried to cut inside to shoot, he lost his balance and awkwardly landed on his ankle. Sporting played down a man for a short while, but Russell returned and made his mark.

In fact, just before halftime, Russell gave Sporting a 2-0 lead. He skillfully breezed past Earthquakes defender Rodrigues one-on-one, then scored a left-footed shot that a trailing defender could not stop.

In the second half, Sporting KC withstood some early flurries from San Jose before unleashing a 39-pass sequence that spanned nearly two minutes of play and culminated in a rocket of a shot from Thommy.

“I think that’s the kind of football we want to play,” Thommy said. “It’s important to have possession at home.”

Nearing the end of the match, the Earthquakes got a late chance. Sporting’s Logan Ndenbe was called for a foul against Jack Skahan in the box, giving the Earthquakes a penalty kick.

Melia saved the attempt from Carlos Gruezo, keeping the score at 3-0.

It was the 15th penalty kick save in MLS regular-season play (not including shootouts). That save preserved the shutout, which Vermes said was “very important.”

“We needed to win, that’s the most important thing,” Melia said. “But I think the fact that we can have the confidence of keeping a clean sheet — and in a game that we truly deserved one — ... it would’ve been unfortunate to give a goal on the penalty.”

Next, Sporting KC welcomes St. Louis to Kansas City for the first time next Saturday. Sporting will look to avenge an embarrassing 4-0 loss to their I-70 rivals in the first-ever matchup between the two teams.

Russell said the team has a point to prove after the way things went last time.

“That one hurt, the first one between us,” Russell said. “We didn’t do ourselves or our fans any justice in that game.

“We had to get (tonight’s game) out the way. We’ve done that. Now, the focus shifts to (St. Louis) and we’ve got a point to prove.”

This story was originally published August 26, 2023 at 9:58 PM.