Hot off an influential performance that yielded a goal and an assist in Saturday’s 2-2 road draw against Chicago Fire FC, Sporting Kansas City midfielder Gadi Kinda has been selected to the MLS Team of the Week presented by Audi.
Kinda played a leading role in Sporting’s first match at Soldier Field since 2005, helping his side stay within a point of Western Conference co-leaders Seattle Sounders FC and Portland Timbers as the final stretch of the regular season resumes.
With Saturday’s match scoreless in the 35th minute, Kinda won possession in midfield and charged forward before spreading the ball to Erik Hurtado, whose impressive finish past Chicago goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth fired the hosts into a 1-0 lead.
Kinda went from provider to goal scorer in the 83rd minute, heading home his fifth goal of the season after Ilie Sanchez did well to flick on Johnny Russell’s corner kick. The play gave Sporting a 2-1 advantage, and although Chicago would salvage a 95th-minute equalizer, Manager Peter Vermes’ men remain firmly in contention to emerge atop the West come Decision Day on Nov. 8.
In addition to scoring and assisting on Saturday, Kinda finished with a game-high 11 recoveries, won three duels and completed 29 passes. By doing so, he became the first Sporting player this season to record a goal and a primary assist, win three duels and recover 10 balls in a single match. That feat has been achieved just five times by a Sporting player since the dawn of the Opta era in 2010, most recently by Benny Feilhaber in a win at Toronto FC on Aug. 8, 2015.
This marks the third time Kinda has earned MLS Team of the Week recognition in 2020, having done so in each of the first two weeks of the campaign after scoring versus Vancouver Whitecaps FC on Feb. 29 and the Houston Dynamo on March 7.
As detailed in the most recent edition of Beyond the Box Score, presented by Compass Minerals, Kinda is one of just four MLS newcomers—including teammate Alan Pulido—with at least five goals and three assists in the 2020 regular season.
Kinda and Sporting will continue their pursuit of top spot in the West when the Colorado Rapids visit Children’s Mercy Park at 7:30 p.m. CT on Saturday. Tickets for the contest are available at SeatGeek.com with live coverage on FOX Sports Kansas City, FOX Sports Midwest, FOX Sports GO, ESPN 94.5 FM and La Grande 1340 AM.
