Sporting KC Suffers 1-0 Loss at Real Salt Lake

May 4, 2024 – Major League Soccer (MLS)
Sporting Kansas City News Release

Sporting Kansas City (2-4-5, 11 points) suffered a 1-0 loss on the road at Western Conference leaders Real Salt Lake (6-2-3, 18 points) on Saturday. Former MLS Newcomer of the Year Cristian Arango headed home his ninth goal of the season on a free kick from Brayan Vera in the 81st minute to extend RSL’s unbeaten run to seven straight matches.

Continuing a three-game road trip, Manager Peter Vermes was without four key contributors – Logan Ndenbe (ACL), Dany Rosero (quad), Remi Walter (knee) and Nemanja Radoja (illness) – and made six changes to Sporting Kansas City’s starting lineup from last week’s away match in Minnesota as John Pulskamp and Marinos Tzionis each made their first appearances of the year on Saturday.

The opening 45 minutes ended in a scoreless stalemate despite both sides threatening throughout the first half. Real Salt Lake nearly grabbed an early lead from a corner kick in the second minute however Justen Glad’s header was directed narrowly wide of the target.

Johnny Russell, who returned to the XI after recovering from a hamstring injury that kept the Scottish winger out of the starting lineup for the past six matches, responded with a chance of his own in the 18th minute. The club captain dribbled dangerously into the penalty area and skipped past one defender before flashing a shot just beyond the far post.

Russell would come close again in the 34th minute on a Sporting KC counter attack. Daniel Salloi carried the ball forward on the left flank and did well to pick out Russell’s run down the opposite channel, but the veteran’s sliding shot carried over the crossbar.

Making his first MLS appearance since March 25, 2023, Pulskamp recorded two saves in the first half with the second coming moments before the intermission when the 23-year-old palmed away a well-struck shot taken by 21-year-old Andres Gomez from the corner of the penalty area.

Pulskamp would be called into action again less than 10 minutes into the second half and produced a superb foot save in the 54th minute to deny Gomez once more. The Colombian winger continued to assert himself in the 78th minute — 10 minutes after Tim Leibold had come to the rescue with a goal-saving intervention to deflect a point-blank attempt from Diego Luna — and was inches from opening the scoring if not for a phenomenal fingertip save from Pulskamp to push the shot into the post.

Real Salt Lake would ultimately break the…