Daniel Salloi and Lucas Esteves got their respective teams on the board before halftime, and then Salloi scored the decisive goal to deliver a 2-1 Sporting Kansas City win over Colorado Rapids at Children's Mercy Park on Wednesday night.
The hosts opened the scoring a little more than midway through the first half, with Salloi knifing between three Rapids players after a quick free-kick to set himself up for an incisive near-post shot in the 24th minute. Colorado got back into the match five minutes later, with Esteves taking advantage of some chaos in the box to notch his first goal of the season.
It got a little worse for SKC before half, with starting center forward Nikola Vujnovic needing to sub out with a non-contact calf injury in the 34th minute.
But Salloi came through for the hosts again five minutes after the restart, pouncing on a Lalas Abubakar giveaway and finding himself with time and space to score. The Rapids had to shift their plans when their starting center forward, Gyasi Zardes, came off with his own non-contact leg injury in the 64th minute.
A hard-luck night for the Rapids came to an end with Auston Trusty getting sent off with a second yellow in stoppage time before a full-on, match-ending kerfuffle saw Esteves, Andreu Fontas and Salloi all get sent off.
Goals
Three Things
- THE BIG PICTURE: SKC got a badly-needed home win, though both teams’ rosters got a little thinner throughout the match between injuries and red cards. The result also pulled the Rapids down below the playoff line with SKC, which might be of concern to the Colorado faithful even with their recent win over LAFC.
- MOMENT OF THE MATCH: The second Salloi goal was the match-winning moment, though the pile-up of red cards at the very end of the match was fascinating in its own way, so we'll also show that here.
- MAN OF THE MATCH: Even with the sendoff at the end marring his night, Salloi was excellent, with two goals and lots of pressure on a Rapids backline who will be looking for a rematch to change the narrative.
Next Up
- SKC: Sunday, May 22 at San Jose Earthquakes | 7:30 pm ET (MLS LIVE on ESPN+)
- COL: Sunday, May 22 vs. Seattle Sounders FC | 8 pm ET (MLS LIVE on ESPN+)
