'This is crazy': Sporting KC flips script on MLS power St. Louis
Major League Soccer's Sporting Kansas City and St. Louis City SC may share a home state of Missouri, but beyond that, the clubs couldn't be more different.
Sporting Kansas City is a legacy team known for its measured, conservative approach; it qualified for the playoffs as the lowest possible seed after beating San Jose in a closely run wild-card match. St. Louis is an expansion franchise with a quick and aggressive style; it rode early-season momentum all the way to the top seed in the West.
When the Missouri clubs drew each other in the first round of the MLS Playoffs, everything — from home-field advantage to regular-season performance to tactical preferences — was in St. Louis' favor.
Sporting Kansas City, however, wasn't interested in letting its local rival run away with all that leverage. On Sunday, it won Game 1 of its best-of-three playoff, 4-1, before stunned fans in St. Louis.
"We've punched teams in the face like this a few times, and now we know what it feels like," St. Louis coach Bradley Carnell admitted after the game. "Tonight, we got knocked in the face."
Kansas City looked remarkable all game, capitalizing on St. Louis' defensive errors with speed and purpose. Whenever St. Louis turned over the ball needlessly, Kansas City switched on — and wreaked havoc upon St. Louis' stretched back line.
Its strongest goal of the game came from Gadi Kinda, who stole the ball in the middle of the field, slalomed through its defense and lasered a perfect shot into the top corner of the net.
For Kansas City — a team that was winless in its first 10 MLS games this season, scoring only three goals during that period — this role reversal with the traditionally free-scoring St. Louis team was especially sweet.
"That was a difficult time for us," Kansas City striker Dániel Sallói said of his team's early season doldrums. "But the way we recovered as a team and started to collect points, believed in each other... I think it's remarkable. We don't forget that [St. Louis] dominated this conference this whole year and there's a reason for that."
With one win under its belt, Kansas City can seal its spot in the MLS Cup quarterfinals with a win at home against St. Louis on Sunday.
"We have to finish the job because I don't want to come back here [to St. Louis]," Sallói continued.
Kansas City's shock demolition of top-seeded St. Louis speaks to the season-long insanity of MLS' Western Conference. While the East has been relatively predictable, the West has vacillated wildly, with strong teams falling off the pace and weak teams finding their footing as the season progressed.
"This is crazy," Sallói said. "Honestly, I don't know what to think of this year because for 10 games we couldn't win a game. Now we're playing St. Louis in the playoffs and this is insane.
"We shouldn't be there in terms of the way we started. We shouldn't be there, but we're there."
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