A red card. A saved free kick. A corner.
It all happened late in second-half stoppage time for Sporting Kansas City, trailing by a goal. Remi Walter lined up the perfect corner, all Marinos Tzionis needed to do was get a piece of it.
He did. Jimmy Maurer didn’t have a chance in the FC Dallas net. That came in the eighth minute of second half stoppage time.
It was his first goal for his new club.
Sporting Kansas City, in front of 14,922 at Children’s Mercy Park, came back from a two-goal deficit to force extra time before winning 4-2 in Round 4 of the US Open Cup. It was the latest regulation goal in Sporting Kansas City history.
That two-goal deficit after the first half wasn’t for nothing.
Sporting was miserable in the first half and unplayable in the second. The hosts did not have a shot until deep into first-half stoppage time and it was nowhere near challenging Jimmy Maurer in the east-side net. After getting outshot 8-2 in the first half, Sporting outshot Dallas 23-12 by the time the match finished.
SKC looked left for dead after Edwin Munjoma made it 2-0 for Dallas, especially after the visitors’ opening goal came off a wrong-team assist from goalkeeper John Pulskamp to Franco Jara.
After the half-time whistle, though, Dallas’s collapse began.
“The first half was my fault,” Sporting Kansas City manager Peter Vermes said. “I think that we weren’t prepared to play in the system that we put together; we just didn’t feel comfortable.
“We made a change in that first half, we went back to a 4-3-3, then all the sudden the guys started to get a little more comfortable.”
The win comes at an important time for Kansas City, as its last victory in all competitions came March 26 against Real Salt Lake. It also extends the club’s unbeaten run in home matches in the Open Cup to 10, which is tied for the second-longest active streak with Chicago Fire. Philadelphia Union’s 11-match home unbeaten streak is the longest.
It was the fifth time the two clubs have met in the tournament — all SKC wins, all in Kansas City.
Tuesday was the third time in the past four Open Cups that the two had faced each other.
“We’ve been working hard,” SKC forward Khiry Shelton said. “We needed this. We needed to be lifted a little bit because we didn’t have the start we wanted this season, but the effort’s been there … It’s not like a team has actually beat us, it’s been our own mistakes.”
Two-goal comeback wins are not common in US Open Cup play. Tuesday’s rally by Sporting Kansas City was just the 17th time that a team overcame a two-goal deficit in the Modern Era (1995-present). It was the third time that Kansas City were the comeback kids.
Both teams had a completely different starting lineup from their most recent match.
Sporting’s revitalization was clear from the second-half kickoff. Fifteen minutes later, Nikola Vujnovic’s first goal for his new club, a rifle into the roof of the net, set off the comeback. Shelton’s shot deflected off Dallas defender Edwin Cerillo for an own goal to ice the match for the win for Sporting Kansas City.
“That was pretty funny actually,” Shelton said. “Sometimes you need some luck. That’s what happened on the first goal.”
Cerillo’s turnover in his own box in the second half of extra time led to Sporting’s insurance goal from Shelton, who needed to do nothing more than simply pass it into the open net.
“I’m big on energy, and I kinda took a peek over to their bench and everyone’s head is down. They’re kind of exhausted,” Shelton said. “We’re like, ‘Come on, this is ours. This is for us right now.’”
The story of the match lies on one coin — one side showing the comeback, the other showing the collapse.
Leading 2-0, FC Dallas should never have let that lead slip. Sporting Kansas City only made one substitution prior to its opening goal — a forced move in the 18th minute as Ozzie Cisneros made way for Cam Duke after an apparent injury.
“I believe that we’ve been building towards this for a while,” Vermes said. “I think we’ve had really good performances… It has a lot to do with the fight of the guys.”
Dallas’ collapse began long before Jose Martinez’s red card in the 97th minute. The visitors came out flat in the second half, allowing Sporting Kansas City to dictate the match. From there, the chances piled up and the defense began to buckle.
It was only a matter of time.
After Vujnovic scored Sporting’s first, it appeared that there would only be one winner.
“I was so happy for myself and for (the fans),” Vujnovic said. “For a second, I thought I would score a second one but then I got subbed out.”
