Sporting 7, Montreal 1
2019 MLS Regular Season: In front of 18,632 thrilled fans, Sporting Kansas City enjoys a record-breaking 7-1 win over Montreal Impact.
It is a great day for Sporting Kansas City soccer fans.
There are 16 teams in Major League Soccer that have scored fewer goals this season than Sporting Kansas City scored just today. Yes, this was the celebratory message Sporting KC sent to their fans today after the masterful 7-1 victory over Montreal.
It is an amazing thought.
The reality is that Sporting scored more goals today than the LA Galaxy, Houston Dynamo, FC Dallas, Orlando City, Philadelphia Union, New York Red Bulls, Portland Timbers, Chicago Fire, Vancouver Whitecaps FC, New England, Real Salt Lake, Colorado Rapids, New York City FC, San Jose Earthquakes and Atlanta United have scored individually so far in the 2019 season. Just check the MLS Standing.
To say that Sporting thrashed Montreal might not be very sporting but it is accurate — although there was a lot of great back and forth action, the scoring was exclusively — until the 89th minute — accomplished by the men in blue.
This is just the sixth time in MLS’s 24-year history that a team scored seven or more goals in a single match.
Johnny Russell broke the ice when he scored first in the 10th minute, the goal was a beauty fired from 20 yards out. After a few missed shots, the onslaught started. By the halftime whistle, Sporting was ahead 3-0 and the stadium was a buzz of happy but cold fans who were weathering the 35-degree temperatures and gusts of wind.
Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes said, “From the opening whistle until the very end, the commitment of the group with the ball and without the ball, the desire to get into the box if we were getting ready to serve it, the desire to win the ball back when we lost it — it was fantastic.”
“When you play like that and you play with that kind of intensity, you always give yourself a really good chance to get a great result,” said Vermes.
“Today, we got a great result. That’s a really good team.”
The crowd and team were both equally ecstatic when Sporting KC’s teenage midfielder Gianluca Busio scored his first goal at Children’s Mercy Park.
Busio became the youngest MLS goal scorer in stadium history. “It’s a great feeling,” said Busio.
“Just scoring goals is always a great feeling and especially doing it front of your home fans. It’s a really big thing for me,” added Busio. “I’m just so happy I could put it in.”
Vermes was proud of 16-year-old Busio scoring and said, “I was very happy for him. Our last game here at home, we played against Philadelphia and he was really close. He’s got great qualities and good instincts. He read that situation well. For him to be as composed as he is at 16 years old, it says a lot about that kid.”
It was a great match also for Krisztian Nemeth who became the eighth hat-trick hero in club history.
Montreal Impact goalkeeper Evan Bush summed up the match and giving up seven goals when he said, “Usually, you would think that the locker room would be bad after a game like that, and certainly we weren’t happy, but I think that it was such a bad beating that we are kind of in shock right now. Nothing we did today was good.”
“I think that in the first half, if you get out of there 1-0 then you can kind of regroup but then the two goals right at the end (of the first half) come from just being undisciplined and not being on the same page,” said Bush.
Here is a recap of the soccer action from Sporting Kansas City:
Krisztian Nemeth bagged a hat-trick, Johnny Russell struck twice and Sporting Kansas City cruised to a record-breaking 7-1 win over the Montreal Impact on Saturday afternoon at Children’s Mercy Park.
The scintillating performance saw Sporting (2-1-1, 7 points) reach the seven-goal milestone for the first time in club history, equaling the team’s largest margin of victory in a competitive match. Felipe Gutierrez and 16-year-old Gianluca Busio also got in on the scoring act, the latter becoming the youngest player to score an MLS goal at Children’s Mercy Park, as Manager Peter Vermes’ men handed the Impact (2-2-0, 6 points) their heaviest all-time defeat.
The result keeps Sporting perfect at home this year—where they have rattled off four wins while outscoring opponents 15-1—and gives the side plenty of momentum heading into a crucial Concacaf Champions League semifinal series against Mexican giants Monterrey next week.
On the heels of a restful international break, Sporting returned to action Saturday for the first of five matches in a busy 16-day period.
Vermes deployed a strong lineup for the cross-conference clash as Spanish defender Andreu Fontas returned from injury to join Matt Besler, Seth Sinovic and Graham Zusi in defense.
Further up the field, Nemeth made his 50th appearance for the club in all competitions, flanked in a three-man attack by Russell and Gerso Fernandes, who finished the day with two assists.
Montreal goalkeeper Evan Bush was under threat for extended periods and conceded his first of a career-high seven goals in the 10th minute.
Shortly after Gerso’s headed goal was overturned for offside in a VAR review, Russell landed the first of many hammer blows on the helpless Impact. Nemeth’s effort near the top of the box was blocked through traffic, but Russell’s first-time curler on the rebound nestled into the far left corner.
Gerso continued his menacing ways during a rampant first half, forcing Bush into a near-post save in the 24th minute and nearly teeing up Russell five minutes later. Montreal had stayed close up to that point, but the floodgates opened on the brink of intermission.
Two minutes before halftime, Gerso raced onto a clever Gutierrez through ball and marauded goalward before unselfishly laying the ball on a plate for Nemeth to slot into a gaping net.
The mesmerizing play offered a fine example of attacking soccer, and it was not to be outdone by Gutierrez’s goal four minutes later.
Gerso was once again the provider, chasing a lead pass from Espinoza and crossing from the right wing for the Chilean to make the score 3-0.
Unfortunately for the Impact, Sporting was far from finished.
Russell tallied his second goal and the team’s fourth in the 50th minute, receiving a pass from Espinoza and cutting past defender Rudy Camacho and side-footing a shot beyond Bush to ignite further celebrations inside the stadium.
Sporting goalkeeper Tim Melia was a spectator for most of the match but produced a stunning stop near the hour mark. Saphir Taider’s long-range piledriver was destined for the top corner, but Melia sprung at full extension to push the ball aside and keep Montreal off the scoresheet.
Another wave of Sporting pressure resulted into the ball popping free to Russell, who sped down the left side of the box and pulled it back for Nemeth to poke home on the doorstep in the 68th minute. The hat-trick gives the Hungarian a team-best eight goals in seven matches this season and 25 for his Sporting career.
The record books needed further rewriting in the 78th minute. Busio, a burgeoning U.S. youth international who last year became the league’s second-youngest goal scorer, entered as a substitute and put his fresh legs to use, dispossessing defender Victor Cabrera and firing past Bush to etch his name as the youngest MLS scorer in the nine-year history of Children’s Mercy Park.
Nemeth became Sporting’s eighth hat-trick hero in the MLS regular season with 84 minutes on the clock. Ilie Sanchez played the red-hot Hungarian into acres of space for a simple finish inside the far corner. The hat-trick gives Nemeth a team-best eight goals in seven matches this season and 25 for his Sporting career.
Sporting’s lone blemish of an otherwise perfect afternoon came in the 89th minute when Taider grabbed a consolation goal for the Impact, his third tally of the season. The play denied Sporting its chance to equal the MLS regular season record for largest margin of victory set at seven.
Sporting Kansas City: Tim Melia; Graham Zusi, Andreu Fontas, Matt Besler (C), Seth Sinovic; Ilie Sanchez, Roger Espinoza (Gianluca Busio 62), Felipe Gutierrez (Kelyn Rowe 74); Johnny Russell, Krisztian Nemeth, Gerso Fernandes (Yohan Croizet 71)
Subs Not Used: Adrian Zendejas, Botond Barath, Rodney Wallace, Gedion Zelalem
Montreal Impact: Evan Bush; Bacary Sagna, Victor Cabrera, Rudy Camacho, Daniel Lovitz; Micheal Azira, Samuel Piette (C), Shamit Shome (Clement Bayiha 54); Orji Okwonkwo (Jukka Raitala 76), Maximiliano Urruti (Anthony Jackson-Hamel 91+), Saphir Taider
Subs Not Used: Clement Diop, Zachary Brault-Guillard, Amar Sejdic, Mathieu Choiniere
Sporting Kansas City vs Montreal Impact Scoring Summary:
SKC — Johnny Russell 2 (Krisztian Nemeth 1) 10
SKC — Krisztian Nemeth 2 (Gerso Fernandes 1, Felipe Gutierrez 1) 43
SKC — Felipe Gutierrez 1 (Gerso Fernandes 2, Roger Espinoza 1) 47+
SKC — Johnny Russell 3 (Roger Espinoza 2) 50
SKC — Krisztian Nemeth 3 (Johnny Russell 2) 68
SKC — Gianluca Busio 1 (unassisted) 78
SKC — Krisztian Nemeth 4 (Ilie Sanchez 1) 84
MTL — Saphir Taider 3 (Maximiliano Urruti x, Daniel Lovitz x) 89
Next Stop: Make More History
With seven goals and three valuable points in the bag, Sporting will now shift their attention from the MLS regular season to the Concacaf Champions League Semifinals versus Monterrey.
The first leg of the series is slated for Thursday at world-class Estadio BBVA Bancomer in Guadalupe, Mexico, kicking off at 9 p.m. CT with an English-language live stream on YahooSports.com and a Spanish-language broadcast on Univision Deportes. To buy tickets, click here.
Photo Credit: Diane Scavuzzo
Source: Recap from Sporting KC Release