Sporting Earns 1-1 Road Result at New York Red Bulls

September 7, 2024 – Major League Soccer (MLS)
Sporting Kansas City News Release

Sporting Kansas City earned a 1-1 road result at the New York Red Bulls on Saturday as Alan Pulido struck for his sixth goal of the season in all competitions.

Missing six players – including leading scorer William Agada (suspension) and Designated Player Nemanja Radoja (injury) – Sporting Kansas City took the pitch at Red Bull Arena for the first time in more than three years for the club’s last of six matches against Eastern Conference foes during the MLS regular season campaign.

A scoreless first half produced a single major moment, which came in the 33rd minute when the hosts threatened to break the deadlock. Cory Burke raced behind the Sporting backline and attempted to round Tim Melia. His heavy touch inside fell into the path of Elias Manoel however the Brazilian striker failed to hit the empty net with his first-time shot from 12 yards out.

Instead, it was Sporting Kansas City that opened the scoring 10 minutes into the second half when Pulido superbly settled the ball with his first touch and buried a shot past Ryan Meara with his second touch. The World Cup veteran now has 36 career goals for the club across all competitions – passing Benny Feilhaber and Graham Zusi for ninth most in team history – and has tallied goal contributions in three straight MLS matches.

Sporting KC Academy product Jake Davis earned the assist with a clever chip and the 22-year-old now has nine goal contributions (three goals, six assists) on the season, including five goal contributions (one goal, four assists) in Sporting’s last three matches.

The Sporting Kansas City defense would hold New York without a shot on goal until a corner kick in the 70th minute when Tim Melia did well to tip Dylan Nealis’ header over the bar. Melia would be called into action again following a long throw in the 84th minute with a diving save to deny Dante Vanzeir.

The Red Bulls pressure would pay off in the 89th minute as 16-year-old substitute Julian Hall struck for the equalizer to level the cross-conference clash and leave the all-time series between the MLS charter clubs level with 15 draws and 22 victories apiece in the 59 all-time regular season meetings.

The late goal was exacerbated by two late yellow cards to Davis in a five-minute span which left Sporting down a man for the final five minutes of second half stoppage time and will result in a two-match suspension for Davis, who entered the match on caution…