No late fade for Sporting Kansas City this time. How KC beat visiting Dallas 3-2

Sporting Kansas City coughed up a 2-0 lead but beat FC Dallas anyway thanks to a late goal by midfielder Memo Rodriguez.

With the Sunday evening win at Children’s Mercy Park, Sporting KC manager Peter Vermes recorded his 200th regular-season victory as a head coach in Major League Soccer.

“The guys showed that they still have fight in them,” Vermes said. “Tonight was a good result, but we have got a big game on Wednesday now that we have to get ready for.”

Sunday’s match was the first of two for Sporting KC against FC Dallas in a 72-hour span at Children’s Mercy Park. The two sides will meet again there on Wednesday in a Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal that’s set to kick off at 8 p.m. Central Time.

Sporting KC took a two-goal lead Sunday thanks to Willy Agada’s sixth and seventh goals of the season. The first came 12 minutes into the match via a back-post header off a corner kick served up by Rodriguez — the latter player’s sixth assist of the year.

“Shout out to my boy Memo,” Agada said. “That was a sweet cross from him. I saw the ball flying, so I just tried to position myself there. I knew once I touched the ball that I was in a dangerous position there.”

Agada bagged his second goal 11 minutes after his first when Alenis Vargas used his speed to get around the edge of the Dallas back line. From there, Vargas chipped a cross to the back post, where Agada had an easy header into an empty net.

Dallas had no life in the game, but Sporting KC lent the visitors some with unforced errors. The first Dallas goal came in the 30th minute when Agada misplayed a backward pass into the path of an opposing attacker.

“The first one … it’s a mistake,” Vermes said. “The unfortunate thing is it’s a mistake at a time when we don’t need that mistake.”

Bernard Kamungo’s diving attempt off a blocked shot pushed the ball into the net. It was last touched by Melia, so he was assessed the own-goal.

Dallas was able to level the match in the 65th minute after Fontas headed the ball into the path of an onrushing attacker. A nifty pass from Paul Arriola to Logan Farrington set up a tap-in for Petar Musa.

That tied the match 2-2 and set the stage for Rodriguez’s stunning volley in the 82nd minute.

Rodriguez has a penchant for long-range strikes, so when the rebound from Agada’s blocked shot flew out to him at the top of the box, he let it rip first-time.

Rodriguez spent the majority of his MLS career playing for FC Dallas’ Texas rival, the Houston Dynamo.

“I’ve scored a few goals against them,” he said. “Obviously, Houston and Dallas and Sporting always had a history when they played each other.”

Sporting KC’s Zorhan Bassong earned a red card during extra time for throwing a retaliatory chest/shoulder into Paul Arriola, knocking the FC Dallas player to the ground. Arriola had drawn Bassong’s ire by tossing a throw-in directly at his face.

Vermes argued that Arriola should’ve been sent off, too.

“I don’t care if you’re jumping up and down, you don’t throw the ball into somebody’s face,” Vermes said. “You don’t do it. It’s a red card … I don’t know why that didn’t happen.”

On the bright side, Sporting KC didn’t allow Dallas a single shot after retaking the lead on Rodriguez’s goal.

“There were some things that they had to deal with late in the game with different balls into the box and set pieces,” Vermes said. “We were much better at those in this game than we were, especially in our last game.”

Daniel Sperry covers soccer for The Star. He can be reached at sperry.danielkc@gmail.com.

This story was originally published July 7, 2024 at 9:36 PM.