KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Sporting Kansas City’s2-0 defeat at the hands of NYCFC on Sunday night came with a familiar theme: no goals scored.
After the team vowed to address the issue in the offseason, the first run at it with some new faces together wasn’t ultimately productive. Even so, Sporting KC manager Peter Vermes didn’t think his team's performance was as bad as some might say.
“Tonight wasn’t bad. [NYCFC] were good,” Vermes said. “They were on top of their game. They played really well. You have to give them credit. That’s the way it goes sometimes.”
Sporting KC started three new faces in the match, in midfielder Felipe Gutierrez and attackers Yohan Croizet and Johnny Russell. And while they looked a little disjointed collectively in their MLS debuts, Vermes wasn’t quite buying that as an excuse.
“I might agree with you in the first half,” the SKC manager said. “In the second half, I thought there was good combination play, great service into the box, great runs. We had at times five or six guys in the box.”
Sporting KC did push on hard in the second half. With 10 shots, and 60 percent of the possession, Sporting KC nearly flipped the script on NYCFC after the second goal. But NYCFC ultimately held serve.
“They were good defensively too,” Vermes said. “You know sometimes things go your way. You get in the right place, the ball hits you, deflection.”
To boost the case that Sporting's scoring woes on the night weren't for a lack of trying, NYCFC tallied eight blocked shots on the night, six of them coming in the second half.
After Sporting KC went down 2-0, the insertion of forward Daniel Salloi into the game saw Sporting’s attack come to life. Nine of Sporting KC’s ten shot attempts in the second half came from that point on, with two coming from Salloi himself.
“I think right before that [Salloi’s introduction] we were going at them a little bit," Vermes said. "But he definitely came in and had great movement off the ball, which changed things a little bit."
With the new faces in the Sporting KC squad, Vermes preached patience in getting the best out of his team.
“For us, we’re trying to get to a certain place. It will take time,” said Vermes. “You’ve got new players, and you have to bring them into the fold. But I feel confident with the guys we have.”
