St. Louis hammers Sporting Kansas City in year’s final installment of MLS I-70 series

Sporting Kansas City matched their hosts blow for blow through 72 minutes of Saturday night’s match at CityPark in St. Louis.

All it took was one gut-punch, however, and Sporting collapsed.

St. Louis City SC put four goals in the back of Sporting’s net during an 11-minute span, winning 4-1 and taking the first-year edition of Major League Soccer’s I-70 series 2-1.

“It was poor decisions at the end of the day,” Sporting manager Peter Vermes said after the loss.

Sporting KC was without team captain Johnny Russell — he drew a red card last week and was forced to sit out. Yet Kansas City seemed to bring the right kind of fight for the first hour-plus. The halftime score was 0-0, and both goalkeepers, Tim Melia for Sporting and St. Louis’ Roman Bürki, made some spectacular saves.

“I would say up until (the St. Louis goal), we had the best chances of the game,” Vermes said. “Their goalkeeper was outstanding.”

Indeed, something clicked after St. Louis got that first goal. Samuel Adeniran found space for a free header in the box after Sporting’s Alan Pulido whiffed an attempted clearance in the 73rd minute.

“They had three guys at the first post, and we’ve got to be able to be with them,” Vermes said. “Simple as can be.”

What ensued was a complete and utter collapse. Andreu Fontas failed to clear a ball properly, and St. Louis capitalized on the turnover. Then, with numbers forward, Sporting allowed back-to-back goals by St. Louis’ Joao Klauss.

“They took their opportunity on a set piece, and then we kind of just started opening the door for them a little bit,” Melia said. “They have quality where they’re gonna take advantage of it, and that’s pretty much the story of the game.”

It was 4-0 by the 84th minute. The way St. Louis plays can grind a team down, and Melia acknowledged that played a huge part in Saturday’s result.

“Are they avoidable goals? One-hundred percent,” Melia said. “I think when you’re under that much pressure and then all of a sudden you drop the curtain for a second, a quality team is going to take advantage of it.”

When asked if he felt the team dropped its head after the first goal, leading to the snowball effect of St. Louis’ scores, Vermes didn’t exactly dispel the idea.

“Obviously, we’ve got to get back into the game at that point,” Vermes said. “I think we went away from what we were doing for the majority of the game.”

When asked if there was anything Vermes wished he could do over, his response was: “No.”

“All the guys that went into the game were more than capable,” he added. “So, unfortunately, what happened happened. We’ve got to get over it quickly.”

Sporting KC’s Willy Agada halted the shutout with a header at the back post during stoppage time.

In two trips east to play first-year MLS side St. Louis, Sporting KC was outscored 8-1. And now, with a record of 10-14-8 (38 points), Sporting sits three points back of the playoff line. And the team they must catch, FC Dallas, has played one fewer match.

Sporting KC next travels west to Utah to face Real Salt Lake in their penultimate match of the 2023 season. That game is scheduled for Saturday night.

This story was originally published September 30, 2023 at 9:35 PM.