Sporting flounders in 3-1 loss to Real Salt Lake in Kansas City

In its previous tour of Children's Mercy Park, Sporting Kansas City successfully enacted a drive-the-game mentality. It resulted in one of the club's most dominant performances in the history of the venue, when it unleashed a franchise-record 34 shots.

The encore was a dud.

On the heels of snapping a seven-game winless streak, Sporting KC failed in its quest to string together wins, falling to rival Real Salt Lake 3-1 in front of a crowd of 20,618 on Saturday.

"I think this was a game that we kind of fell apart in bad areas," goalkeeper Tim Melia said. "We weren't helping each other.

"We have to regroup (and) look within ourselves."

Sporting KC is winless over its past six matches against Real Salt Lake, which missed the playoffs last season.

The latest loss had the tenor of a missed opportunity. Sporting KC, 5-7-2, thoroughly controlled Orlando City SC on Sunday, and in the initial half hour Saturday, it appeared poised for a similar result.

A turnover in the back end flipped the momentum. Matt Besler slid a pass toward Nuno Coelho, but Joao Plata picked it off, igniting a tic-tac-toe string that Burrito Martinez finished off with the game's first goal in the 32nd minute.

Real Salt Lake, 6-3-2, arrived in Kansas City in the midst of a 200-minute scoreless streak. It departed with a flurry of scores, all three of them sandwiched into a 21-minute segment. Sporting KC aided each of the three.

"I think we made a few mistakes, and we got punished for them," forward Dom Dwyer said. "The pressure of the game maybe got to us. We were forcing it a little bit, and we were chasing the game, so it was difficult. The mistakes really hurt us tonight."

Real Salt Lake extended the margin to two in the final sequence of the first half. Yura Movsisyan sent a ball toward the middle of the penalty area, and it deflected off Sporting KC winger Brad Davis' back for an own goal.

After Dwyer pulled one back for Sporting KC, Movsisyan used the counter to push the advantage back to 3-1 — a play that started on a turnover in the midfield from Benny Feilhaber.

"It's not about scoring goals. It's about giving away silly goals," Sporting KC coach Peter Vermes said. "We're giving away too many silly goals. The players that are making those mistakes — it's a little bit hard to understand because it's not normal for them."

A deflating goal for Sporting KC's hopes Saturday.

And a deflating loss for a club that floundered in its chances to grab an early lead. In the 28th minute Saturday, Dwyer sprung Graham Zusi in front of goalkeeper Nick Rimando, but Zusi couldn't corral the pass.

And five minutes after Real Salt Lake grabbed the lead, Benny Feilhaber unleashed a rocket volley that had eyes for the back of the net. Instead, Rimando made a sprawling save. Rimando denied Davis on another diving save in the second half.

Using an identical lineup as it did in last week's victory, Sporting KC outshot Real Salt Lake 15-6. But RSL owned the scoring column.

"The stats show how we've dominated most games this year," Dwyer said. "But we gotta get the result."

This story was originally published May 21, 2016 at 10:19 PM with the headline "Sporting flounders in 3-1 loss to Real Salt Lake in Kansas City."