Sporting Kansas City aggressive in 3-1 victory over the Seattle Sounders FC

Sporting Kansas City notched a solid win over the Seattle Sounders FC in a monumental match up Sunday evening.

Going into the road match against the Seattle Sounders FC, Sporting Kansas City was missing its head coach after Peter Vermes acquired COVID-19.  SKC also happened to be without a few players due to the pandemic, along with key contributors Pulido and Busio getting the call up to the Gold Cup.

But, helping to level the playing field, the Seattle Sounders FC was also missing a few players.

As soon as this match started, Sporting Kansas City demonstrated an aggressive team effort.  This was such a big matchup going in due to Seattle being in 1st place and Sporting Kansas City being in 2nd.  Only 5 points dividing these two teams.

In the 25′ minute Goalkeeper Tim Melia had an epic save on a scissor kick attempt from Danny Leyva.  Tim Melia with a full extension goal save attempt.  He would have several of these throughout the match.

In the 31′ minute the Captain Johnny Russell was lead by a tremendous ball in which he was tripped up leading to a free kick.  Russell took the free kick, and could not have placed the ball any more beautifully in the left corner out of the reach of Goalkeeper Stefan Cleveland.

Sporting Kansas City aggressive in solid victory over Seattle Sounders FC while on the road

On another breakaway in the 42′ minute the “Hungarian Assassin” Dániel Sallói hits a laser to the right corner of the goal putting Sporting Kansas City up 2-0.  The crowd at Lumen Field which is a staple of Seattle, was in shock as their first place Sounders went down 2-0.

Coming out of halftime Seattle’s Fredy Montero would score a goal in the 51′ minute making the score 2-1 in Sporting Kansas City’s favor.

A significant substitution would come for Sporting Kansas City in the 70′ minute when Cameron Duke would replace Gadi Kinda. Duke would get position himself on the defender well in the box after receiving a perfectly place cross from Graham Zusi.

Duke would fire a strike on goal in 72′ minute putting Sporting Kansas City up 3-1.  This was Cam Duke’s first career MLS goal.

This would end up being the final score.  This was such a significant win snapping Seattle Sounders FC home winning streak.  Sporting Kansas City gains 3 points putting them within 2 points of 1st place in the Western Conference.

My Player of the Game was Tim Melia.

He had some clutch goal saving moments that could have easily changed the outcome of this game.  It shows his leadership in the goal and why he is such a significant piece to the success of this Sporting Kansas City team.