By Kurt Austin – Sporting Kansas City
Sporting Kansas City earned a 1-1 road result at the New York Red Bulls on Saturday as Alan Pulido struck for his sixth goal of the season in all competitions.
Missing six players — including leading scorer William Agada (suspension) and Designated Player Nemanja Radoja (injury) — Sporting Kansas City took the pitch at Red Bull Arena for the first time in more than three years for the club’s last of six matches against Eastern Conference foes during the MLS regular season campaign.
A scoreless first half produced a single major moment, which came in the 33rd minute when the hosts threatened to break the deadlock. Cory Burke raced behind the Sporting backline and attempted to round Tim Melia. His heavy touch inside fell into the path of Elias Manoel however the Brazilian striker failed to hit the empty net with his first-time shot from 12 yards out.
Instead, it was Sporting Kansas City that opened the scoring 10 minutes into the second half when Pulido superbly settled the ball with his first touch and buried a shot past Ryan Meara with his second touch. The World Cup veteran now has 36 career goals for the club across all competitions — passing Benny Feilhaber and Graham Zusi for ninth most in team history — and has tallied goal contributions in three straight MLS matches.
Sporting KC Academy product Jake Davis earned the assist with a clever chip and the 22-year-old now has nine goal contributions (three goals, six assists) on the season, including five goal contributions (one goal, four assists) in Sporting’s last three matches.
The Sporting Kansas City defense would hold New York without a shot on goal until a corner kick in the 70th minute when Tim Melia did well to tip Dylan Nealis’ header over the bar. Melia would be called into action again following a long throw in the 84th minute with a diving save to deny Dante Vanzeir.
The Red Bulls pressure would pay off in the 89th minute as 16-year-old substitute Julian Hall struck for the equalizer to level the cross-conference clash and leave the all-time series between the MLS charter clubs level with 15 draws and 22 victories apiece in the 59 all-time regular season meetings.
The late goal was exacerbated by two late yellow cards to Davis in a five-minute span which left Sporting down a man for the final five minutes of second half stoppage time and will result in a two-match suspension for Davis, who entered the match on caution accumulation warning.
Sporting Kansas City will remain on the road next weekend as the team travels to take on the Seattle Sounders at 6:25 p.m. CT on Sunday, Sept. 15 at Lumen Field in the Pacific Northwest. The Western Conference clash will be free to watch on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV and will also be nationally televised on FS1 and FOX Deportes.
2024 MLS Regular Season | Match 28
Red Bull Arena | Harrison, New Jersey
Attendance: 17,708
Weather: 63 degrees and rainy
Sporting Kansas City 1-1 New York Red Bulls
| Score | 1 | 2 | F |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sporting Kansas City (7-14-7, 28 points) | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| New York Red Bulls (10-5-13, 43 points) | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Sporting Kansas City: Tim Melia; Khiry Shelton, Dany Rosero (Robert Castellanos 45+1′), Robert Voloder, Tim Leibold; Jake Davis, Zorhan Bassong, Johnny Russell (C) (Remi Walter 83′), Erik Thommy (Memo Rodriguez 90+7′), Daniel Salloi; Alan Pulido
Subs Not Used: John Pulskamp, Andreu Fontas, Alenis Vargas
New York Red Bulls: Ryan Meara; Andres Reyes, Dylan Nealis, Sean Nealis (C), John Tolkin; Peter Stroud (Dennis Gjengaar 58′), Cameron Harper (Serge Ngoma 74′), Ronald Donkor (Felipe Carballo 46′), Daniel Edelman; Cory Burke (Dante Vanzeir 58′), Elias Manoel (Julian Hall 81′)
Subs Not Used: Aidan O’Connor, Dallas Odle, Mohammed Sofo, Tanner Rosborough
Scoring Summary:
SKC — Alan Pulido 5 (Jake Davis 4) 55′
RBNY — Julian Hall 2 (unassisted) 89′
Misconduct Summary:
RBNY — Ronald Donkor (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 22′
RBNY — Felipe Carballo (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 66′
SKC — Jake Davis (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 87′
SKC — Jake Davis (red card; second yellow card) 90+2′
Match Statistics
| Stat | SKC | RBNY |
|---|---|---|
| Fouls | 18 | 15 |
| Offsides | 3 | 1 |
| Corner Kicks | 2 | 4 |
Referee: Ramy Touchan
Assistant Referee: Oscar Mitchell-Carvalho
Assistant Referee: Matthew Nelson
Fourth Official: Sergii Boiko
VAR: Kevin Terry Jr.
AVAR: TJ Zablocki
