A stunning free kick by Gianluca Busio sparked a stretch of three goals in a 14-minute span in the second half for Sporting Kansas City, which celebrated a come-from-behind 3-2 win over Houston Dynamo FC in front of a full capacity crowd at Children’s Mercy Park Saturday night.
Busio buried a free kick from 28 yards out past a rooted Marko Maric in the 51st minute, cancelling out an early goal by Matias Vera, who scored his first MLS goal against the run of play after the Dynamo punished Sporting trying to build from the back.
Fafa Picault stripped Luis Martins by the corner flag and served a ball into the box. Maxi Urruti quickly laid off to a cutting Vera, who beat Tim Melia with a first-time left-footed blast from 16 yards out.
The Busio strike sent a charge into an already electric atmosphere, which went to a different level with a pair of goals four minutes apart past the hour mark. It started with an Alan Pulido penalty kick which sent Maric the wrong way after Boniek Garcia tripped the Mexican talisman in the box.
Four minutes later, Pulido received a pass from Roger Espinoza to ignite a quick counter which ended with Busio turning and feeding Gadi Kinda, who finished clinically to extend Sporting’s lead to 3-1 in the 65th minute.
Busio nearly had a free kick brace, but was denied by a Maric diving save in the 83rd minute. Melia was equally impressive six minutes later, swatting away a Tim Parker set piece header with his left hand.
Urruti scored his fourth goal of the season on a counter deep in second half stoppage time, but it was a cosmetic strike as SKC claimed their fourth win after falling behind 1-0 this season.
Goals
Three Things
- THE BIG PICTURE: Conceding early won’t make Peter Vermes smile, but Sporting’s come-from-behind mentality surely will. SKC have won four games after falling behind 1-0 already this season. That’s far and away a league-best 12 points from a trailing position in 2021. The Dynamo, meanwhile, will rue costly fouls for set piece goals and will continue to search for consistency after the FIFA international break.
- MOMENT OF THE MATCH: if you missed it live, enjoy it for the first time. If you’ve already seen it, put this Busio strike — a perfect free kick if there ever was one — on loop.
- MAN OF THE MATCH: A day after celebrating his 19th birthday, Busio was celebrated by The Cauldron and everyone else at Children’s Mercy Park for a MOTM performance. In addition to making history with his golazo — he's the youngest player to score a direct free kick goal in the Opta era (2010-present) — Busio set up Kinda for what proved to be the winning goal, completed 91.1 percent of his passes, won 13 duels and played three key passes.
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