Krisztian Nemeth picked up a hat trick and Johnny Russell added a brace as Sporting Kansas City rolled to a 7-1 victory over the Montreal Impact at Children's Mercy Park on Saturday afternoon.
Russell got the scoring started early in the 10th minute, swooping in after Nemeth was blocked on a shot attempt and firing into the corner from past the 18th. Gerso skilfully assisted on the next two goals, feeding Nemeth for his first goal in the 43rd and finding Felipe Gutierrez for a dagger right before the halftime whistle.
SKC didn't let up after halftime, with Russell getting his second in the 50th minute and Nemeth getting his second in the 68th. Sixteen-year-old sub Gianluca Busio scored in the 73rd minute shortly after coming on, and Nemeth added a goal for his hat trick to round out the SKC scoring. Saphir Taider, saving a bit of face for the Impact, scored his third goal of the season near the match's end to spoil the clean sheet.
Goals
- 10' – SKC – Johnny Russell | WATCH
- 43' – SKC – Krisztian Nemeth | WATCH
- 45' + 2' – SKC – Felipe Gutierrez | WATCH
- 50' – SKC – Johnny Russell | WATCH
- 68' – SKC – Krisztian Nemeth | WATCH
- 78' – SKC – Gianluca Busio | WATCH
- 84' – SKC – Krisztian Nemeth | WATCH
- 89' – MTL – Saphir Taider | WATCH
Three Things
- THE BIG PICTURE: SKC, with their second home win in as many tries in 2019, look like one of the West's most formidable squads, go to Monterrey on Thursday looking like they could keep the MLS Concacaf Champions League dream alive. Montreal, on the other hand, sorely missed Ignacio Piatti and won't get their first home match in Stade Saputo until April 13. Two wins in their first four matches, all away, gives this obviously bad loss some perspective.
- MOMENT OF THE MATCH: SKC's team goal right before halftime, which included expert play out of the back, a pinpoint Roger Espinoza pass that led a streaking Gerso down the right channel, and Gerso's well-weighted assist to Gutierrez, indicated that they wouldn't be content to just sit on a two-goal lead.
- MAN OF THE MATCH: Though it was a true Gershow for much of the 71 minutes Gerso was on the pitch, Nemeth became the first Hungarian-born player with a hat trick in MLS history, and gets the slight nod here over the speedster with two critical assists.
Next Up
- SKC: Thursday, April 4 at Monterrey (10 pm ET | UDN, YahooSports.com)
- MTL: Saturday, April 6 vs. NYCFC (1 pm ET | MLS LIVE on ESPN+, TVAS in Canada)
