Sporting Kansas City got goals from Remi Walter, Alan Pulido and Erik Thommy in a resounding and much-needed 3-0 victory over the visiting Vancouver Whitecaps on Saturday night.
Sporting KC (6-10-6, 24 points) snapped a three-match winless streak and pulled within one point of the red line in the Western Conference table.
The Whitecaps (6-6-7, 25 points) saw an end to their four-match unbeaten streak. They hadn’t been shut out in their last nine matches.
Sporting seized control in the 53rd minute.
Already leading 2-0 at intermission, Thommy gave the home team a 3-0 lead after picking up a loose ball in the box. Daniel Salloi’s attempt from close range rolled away from Vancouver keeper Yohei Takaoka to Thommy who fired it into the net.
That goal seemed to suck the life out of Vancouver, who managed just two shots in the second half.
Sporting keeper Kendall McIntosh was injured in the eighth minute when he was kicked in the head inadvertently by charging Sergio Cordova, who was trying to split two defenders. Andreu Fontas managed to deflect the ball away from the goal, but Cordova’s trailing foot caught McIntosh.
Taped up with a bandage headband, McIntosh remained in the game and earned his first clean sheet of the season.
After a fairly uneventful first 30 minutes, Sporting got on the board in the 33rd minute on a goal by Walter.
The play built slowly from the back, with Tim Leibold receiving a crossing pass on the left side. He fed it to Gadi Kinda, who worked with Salloi to dupe Ryan Raposo just across midfield. Ginda raced through the defense before finding a charging Walter, who chipped it past Takaoka for the goal.
Sporting picked up the pressure after the goal.
Pulido, the reigning MLS Player of the Month in June, put SKC up 2-0 in the second minute of first-half stoppage time. After another strong build-up, Leibold fed the ball across the goal to Pulido, who was waiting on the right side.
Sporting outshot Vancouver 9-7 in the first half, including all three shots on goal.
–Field Level Media
