LAFC holds hosts scoreless in Sporting KC’s penultimate MLS match of 2024 season
Sporting KC’s second-to-last match of 2024 — an MLS season that will end without a playoff appearance for just the third time in 14 years — trudged one step closer to its foregone conclusion Saturday night at Children’s Mercy Park.
LAFC, the team that beat Sporting KC in the recent U.S. Open Cup final, found all the scoring it needed before halftime, winning 3-0 in Sporting’s home finale in Kansas City, Kan.
The loss puts Sporting’s record at eight wins, 18 losses, and seven draws. Even if Sporting wins its final match of the season, it will be the club’s worst 34-game record. With a draw, Sporting will tie its second-lowest point total ever, regardless of season length.
Sporting KC didn’t put up much of a fight in this one. And Peter Vermes put things very plainly after the match.
“They’re a better team than we are,” Vermes said. “You have to admit it. … They’re a better team than we are.”
LAFC scored 14 minutes into the game after Denis Bouanga took a penalty kick following a foul by Jake Davis inside the area.
Bouanga’s shot from the penalty spot was saved by KC goalkeeper Tim Melia, who was able to read that the LAFC talisman was going right down the middle. But nobody reacted to scoop up the miss.
No one, that is, but LAFC forward David Martinez, who put Melia’s rebound into the top corner.
LAFC added its second goal just before halftime via a tap-in finish by Cristian Olivera at the back post. Aaron Long scored LAFC’s third goal in the 69th minute.
“They (LAFC) are very hungry when they go to goal,” Vermes said. “They have an intensity and a relentlessness to get to the goal, and they get numbers. And then the other side, from a defensive perspective, they defend with everything. They’re up kicking you, they’re all over you. … That’s how I see the game.”
In 2018, LAFC and Sporting KC battled in the season’s final match, with the winner claiming first place in the Western Conference.
“We were competing with these teams, and now we’re quite a bit off it,” Sporting captain Johnny Russell said.
And certainly questions have been — and will be — asked why Sporting KC has ended up so far off the mark it long held in MLS. Equally pressing: the question of how Sporting can return to meeting those expectations.
Several changes should be coming: Sixteen of the 28 players on Sporting’s roster could be moving on after the season. It’s unlikely Sporting will let all 16 walk, but even half of that total would see drastic roster turnover in KC.
Still, the way back won’t simply be by changing out players. It starts with a changed mentality, which Vermes believes his teams have always had.
“Look, I’m being honest: … I would say some of that is because they know we’re out of the playoffs, and then (the mentality) is not there,” Vermes said. “But I can tell you this: That will not be the case next season.”
Sporting’s final match of the 2024 season is Oct. 19 at FC Dallas.
Daniel Sperry covers soccer for The Star. He can be reached at sperry.danielkc@gmail.com.
This story was originally published October 5, 2024 at 9:35 PM.