Held scoreless in Seattle, Sporting Kansas City falls 2-0 to stingy Sounders

Sporting Kansas City needed to be near perfect in the final stretch of the season to harbor any hope of qualifying for the Major League Soccer playoffs.

The Sounders all but squashed those aspirations Sunday evening in Seattle, defeating Sporting KC 2-0 at Lumen Field.

The loss pushes Sporting KC farther from the playoff line. At 7-15-7, Sporting has accrued just 28 points through 29 matches. The most points with which KC can finish this season is now 43.

The MLS Western Conference playoff line is currently at 39 for Minnesota United — and the Loons have a game in hand on Sporting.

Sporting had the better of play through the first 15 minutes but failed to get a goal from it.

“I really think that we should have gotten rewarded for what we were doing in all that period of time,” Sporting KC manager Peter Vermes said. ”We needed to get rewarded. And the fact that we didn’t, that sometimes changes a game.”

The Sounders got on the scoreboard first in the 19th minute. Tim Melia initially saved Jordan Morris’ header on a corner kick, but the rebound fell into the path of Jackson Ragen, who roofed his shot past the KC keeper.

The Sounders scored again moments later, again on a set piece. But that goal was called back after head referee Drew Fischer ruled Morris offside. The official judged Morris had interfered with Melia’s ability to get to the ball.

After that stretch, Sporting never regained the footing it had in the first 15 minutes.

“When they scored, I don’t know if it put us on our heels a little bit or what,” Vermes said. “But I just don’t think that we played with the same confidence in possession that we did prior to that.”

Vermes said his team made poor decisions with the ball, either shooting too early or holding too long for an extra touch.

“We weren’t crisp enough in that final piece of the chance on goal,” he said. “Everything else was actually very good for a while.”

Seattle got its second goal in the 40th minute. A nifty passing move over the top of the Sporting KC back line sprung Albert Rusnak into the penalty area. He passed to Morris, who then passed it Paul Rothrock for the easy finish.

Melia denied the Sounders a third goal when he saved Rusnak’s penalty-kick attempt in the 44th minute. It was Melia’s 17th regular-season PK save.

The league veteran has faced 40 penalty kicks in his career and his save percentage of 42.5% is the highest of any goalkeeper in MLS history (minimum 20 PKs faced).

Melia says his success on penalty kicks derives from his pre-game study.

“There’s so many variables that go into it,” he said. “(The PK taker’s) approach, where they’re looking, which way their plant foot is going, which way their hips are going in that moment. There’s just a lot of things that kind of all come together to give the goalkeeper a potential edge to go the right direction.”

In the second half, Sporting KC made some lineup changes that were likely aimed at managing minutes over the next two weeks. Sunday’s match in Seattle kicked off a run of five matches in 14 days for KC, including the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup final that’s scheduled for Sept. 25.

Sporting KC’s next match is Wednesday night, when the Colorado Rapids come to Children’s Mercy Park for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff. Sporting lost the season’s first matchup against Colorado 2-1 on July 4.

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

This story was originally published September 15, 2024 at 8:23 PM.