Sporting KC vs. Sounders: Highlights, stats and quotes

The Seattle Sounders scored first, quickly gave up the equalizer, spent the next 50-odd minutes on the backfoot, picked up a red card and then gave up a late-winner on a defensive mistake. They did all of this against a team who came into the game on a 10-game winless run and losers of seven straight. The 2-1 loss to Sporting KC goes in the books as another frustrating result in a season full of them.

Highlights

Stats

MATCH SUMMARY 

Seattle Sounders FC 1 – Sporting Kansas City 2

Saturday, June 8, 2024

Venue: Children’s Mercy Park

Referee: Guido Gonzales, Jr.

Assistants: Cameron Blanchard, Andrew Bigelow

Fourth Official: Malik Badawi

VAR: Timothy Ford

Attendance: 18,177

Weather: 79 degrees and clear 

SCORING SUMMARY

SEA – Jordan Morris (João Paulo) 12’

SKC – Johnny Russell 19’

SKC – Alenis Vargas (Khiry Shelton) 85’

MISCONDUCT SUMMARY 

SKC – J Davis (caution) 45’+2’

SEA – Reed Baker-Whiting (caution) 61’

SEA – Yeimar (caution) 71’

SKC – Johnny Russell (caution) 71’

SEA – Reed Baker-Whiting (ejection) 73’

SKC – Khiry Shelton (caution) 90’+4’

LINEUPS & STATS

Seattle Sounders FC – Stefan Frei; Alex Roldan, Yeimar, Jackson Ragen, Reed Baker-Whiting; Obed Vargas, João Paulo (Josh Atencio 81’), Cristian Roldan, Albert Rusnák (Antino Lopez* 84’), Jordan Morris (Danny Musovski 85’); Raúl Ruidíaz (Cody Baker 74’)

Substitutes not used: Andrew Thomas, Danny Leyva, Dylan Teves, Léo Chú, Paul Rothrock 

*Tacoma Defiance player on Short-Term Agreement

Total shots: 10

Shots on goal: 1

Fouls: 16

Offside: 1

Corner-Kicks: 1

Saves: 2 

Sporting Kansas City – Tim Melia; Andreu Fontas, Tim Leibold (Zorhan Bassong 89’), Jake Davis (Khiry Shelton 72’), Robert Castellanos; Nemanja Radoja, Memo Rodriguez (Felipe Hernandez 72’), Erik Thommy; Johnny Russell, Alan Pulido (Willy Agada 90’+6’), Daniel Salloi (Alenis Vargas 72’)

Substitutes not used: John Pulskamp, Robert Voloder, Kayden Pierre, Marinos Tzionis 

Total shots: 15

Shots on goal: 4

Fouls: 13

Offside: 0

Corner-kicks: 9

Saves: 0

Quotes

Brian Schmetzer

On the game plan: “We missed Jordan in the first half 3-4 times where we should have played him in.”

On keeping Reed Baker-Whiting on field with a yellow card: “What changed the game was a red card. Reed is young but I have faith in him. He was on a time limit and a VHID [which measures biometrics] limit which he hadn’t hit yet. I thought he was OK. But he makes a choice and the second yellow comes out. … It’s learning curves for those kids. Unfortunately … it hurts right now in real time. He was pretty dejected after the game, we had to build him up a little bit.”

On Stefan Frie’s mood: “He was dejected as well. It’s a save he can make. Soccer is a team sport. When we changed to back line of five they got split. That can’t happen. It’s a tight angle, Stef is going to normally make that save.”

On choosing Baker-Whiting over Cody Baker: “We feel he gives us a little more in attack. He had some 1v1 duels he did well at. He has some high potential.”

On his assessment of his game management: “Reed was on a time limit. He was still under his VHID. He was going to come off at 75. It is what it is. I have a process after games. I’ll see what I can do better. We’ll go through that process.”

On what role conditions played: “It was a beautiful night here. It had nothing to do with elements. The rhythm we established in the first 10-15 was good. We talked about being more direct. But could we bypass their pressure? In that first spell it was good. That goal seemed to give them life. It got into a 50/50 battle. We gave the ball away more than my liking. It’s just kind of the storyline of the season. We can’t put teams away.”

On his assessment of Raúl Ruidíaz’s performance: “He wasn’t as involved as much as I liked. On the penalty shout, maybe he went down too easy. I don’t know what the final outcome is going to be. We’re going to have to think of changes. My gut feeling is we needed more from him, we need more out of all our top players.”

On his feelings after a couple tough results: “It hurts. They all hurt. It’s been a tough go.”

On his team’s spirit: “They don’t quit. But we need guys to make plays. We need guys to make plays earlier to really dictate tempo. It’s not effort.”

On the tactical choices at the end of the match: “We were trying to keep some belief. Then you want to just steal a point. We just didn’t accomplish that.”

Jordan Morris

On if how Sporting defended him changed after his goal: “I don’t think so. They were still playing a high line. We just weren’t sharp enough. When they scored, they shifted the momentum. We started the second half well but need to be sharper. They needed to push for a win.”

On what needs to change: “We’re just shooting ourselves in the foot. It’s on us. I thought the second half things were fine before the red card. We created some decent chances. It’s frustrating. Not putting that on Reed in any way. I thought he played really well.”

“We’re all frustrated as a group for sure.”

On what went well: “We came out well. We’ve been lacking being direct in the final third. JP’s ball was incredible. We need to try that stuff more. We’ve gotten stale in that part of the game. It’s frustrating for fans, for us, we need to score more goals. I thought we were playing free-flowing, transitioning well and creating chances. That’s what we want to get back to. We have to keep building on that. It felt good going into halftime because we were trying things. The result is difficult and we’re really frustrated but we have to keep building.”

On giving Sporting their first win since March: “We’ve had a good run of games. It’s frustrating. We turned their season around last year and did it again this year. We just have to keep going. We’re halfway through the year. Maybe we build off some of the attacking movements. We know we’re a good team. The belief is there, the effort is there, we’re going to get ourselves out of this.”

João Paulo

On when he felt momentum shift: “Hard to say when the game started to shift. Right after we scored we tried to keep playing and find our spots. But we missed some looks, some passes. … To be honest, we need to be better in these moments. The truth is it’s more our fault than their ability to score. We need to be better in those moments.”

On how Sporting defended: “Our shape was decent. It’s a tough place to play. They press a lot in this areas. They tried to press every time we got the ball. The first half we had good momentum, good composure. It’s just lack of focus. We need to be sharper in those plays. At the end of the day, those moments make the difference.”