KANSAS CITY – Sporting Kansas City’s 2024 Leagues Cup campaign starts with a come-from-behind win over the Chicago Fire. These two struggling teams battled for ninety minutes but Sporting KC came out on top!
Sporting and Chicago rarely face off despite their proximity to each other on a map as they are in different conferences. This game was fun to see something different and out of the ordinary.
Sporting Kansas City had nearly sixty percent possession for the first twenty minutes or so and had a perfect look from Willy Agada but the shot went off the woodwork and over the goal. However, around the 23rd minute, Georgios Koutsias found a ball played over the top of the SKC back line. He then finished it clinically and put Chicago ahead. This goal was completely against the run of play as it was their only shot on goal at that point.
Sporting KC went right back to retaining possession following the goal but, they were unable to test Spencer Richey very much. A decent chance came from a through ball into Salloi who played the ball across to Agada but Agada’s shot went directly to Richey.
In the 40th minute, SKC was awarded a free kick on Chicago’s goal line just outside the box. Remi Walter stepped up to take this free kick with his left foot. He whipped in a perfect ball headed to the back post. Robert Castellanos found this ball with his head and redirected it home to level the match right before halftime! The first half ended 1-1.
The second half started with chances on each end. Daniel Salloi forced a save from Richey and Thommy sent a dipping ball just barely over the crossbar hitting the top of the net. Tim Melia didn’t have much action; it was just a lone shot on the ground straight to him. Stephen Afrifa had a perfect chance in the 74th minute but his shot went off the crossbar.
In the 76th minute, Willy Agada sent Sporting KC ahead off a diving header! Stephen Afrifa found Willy Agada flying through the air like Superman on a cross right over the penalty spot. Willy gave a shoutout to Afrifa for such a good cross in the post-game press conference. This was Willy’s eleventh goal across all competitions for 2024. He just keeps scoring. Many of these goals have come off his head which should be noted.
Chicago picked up a little momentum in the last 10 minutes forcing a few solid saves from Tim Melia but none of these chances led to a goal. Although the big news before the game was Logan Ndembe being back on the roster, he unfortunately did not enter the game. Vermes said Ndmebe was ready to go mentally but Vermes wants him to get more contact training under Ndembe’s belt before he gets into a game. He said we will almost definitely see him against Toluca.
The game ended 2-1 in favor of SKC. They grab three points to put them ahead in Group D. They face off against Toluca on August 5 for the last game of group play!
