Sporting Kansas City concluded the Desert Diamond Cup group stage Wednesday night with a 2-1 loss to Real Salt Lake at Kino North Stadium in Tucson, Arizona. Dom Dwyer scored Sporting KC's lone goal during a frantic second half, as the club finished the group stage in third place with a 1-1-1 record. Sporting KC will conclude the tournament Saturday evening against Seattle Sounders FC at 6 p.m. CT.
Peter Vermes chose to switch up his lineups on Wednesday, starting 11 different players from last Saturday's match. Wednesday's starting lineup also featured three of Sporting KC's 2015 SuperDraft picks including recently signed James Ansu Rogers.
Real Salt Lake jumped out to a two-goal advantage behind goals from trialist Emery Welshman and third-year striker Devon Sandoval. Welshman, a former Toronto FC draft pick, curled a Luke Mulholland pass around goalkeeper Tim Melia in the 12th minute to give Salt Lake an early advantage. Sandoval doubled the club's lead minutes after halftime, intercepting a back pass to Melia and beating the Sporting KC goalkeeper to put Salt Lake ahead 2-0 in the 47th minute.
Vermes made wholesale changes in the 61st minute, bringing on 11 new players. For the final 30 minutes, Sporting KC controlled the game, putting immense pressure on the Salt Lake back line.
That pressure paid off, however, as Sporting KC cut the deficit in half in the 66th minute. Dwyer, who set the club's single season scoring record in 2014, beat his mark to the near post and flicked a Benny Feilhaber corner kick past goalkeeper Jeff Attinella for his first goal of the preseason.
The fourth-year striker found himself on the end of another scoring opportunity moments later. In the 70th minute, Erik Palmer-Brown won a header from an Attinella goal kick and found and open Roger Espinoza. The Honduras international headed the ball to Krisztian Nemeth who one-timed it into space. Dwyer beat his defender and struck the ball from the top of the penalty box, but Attinella managed to tip the ball over the crossbar for a corner kick.
The Real Salt Lake goalkeeper was called in to duty again in the 76th minute. U.S. Men's National Team winger Graham Zusi played a perfectly weighted ball over the top of the Salt Lake defense to Bernardo Añor. The Venezuelan midfielder volleyed the strike on target, but Attinella's kick save kept him off the scoresheet.
Dwyer found himself with an opportunity to tie the match in the 87th minute when Canadian trialist Marcel de Jong got to the endline and curled a cross to the six-yard box. Dwyer rose above his defender and won the header, but he was unable to keep his attempt on frame. Sporting KC had a pair of stoppage-time corner kicks, but were unable to find the equalizer in their first loss of this year's Desert Diamond Cup.
Sporting KC will finish preseason with two matches on Saturday. Their first match will be against NASL club Minnesota United at 11:30am CT in a closed-door scrimmage. The second match will be against Seattle at 6 p.m. CT in the Desert Diamond Cup. Sporting KC's match against Seattle will be streamed live on SportingKC.com
2015 MLS Preseason
Desert Diamond Cup
Kino North Stadium | Tucson, Arizona
Attendance: 1,768
Misconduct Summary:
RSL — Fito Ovalle (caution; reckless foul) 38
SKC — Jimmy Medranda (caution; delaying a restart) 43
SKC — Seth Sinovic (caution; unsporting behavior) 59
RSL — Emery Welshman (caution; unsporting behavior) 59
SKC — Krisztian Nemeth (caution; unsporting behavior) 72
SKC — Bernardo Añor (caution; reckless tackle) 83
RSL — Ricardo Velazco (caution; delaying a restart) 85
Scoring Summary:
RSL — Emery Welshman (Luke Mulholland) 12
RSL — Devon Sandoval (unassisted) 47
SKC — Dom Dwyer (Benny Feilhaber) 66
Sporting Kansas City: Tim Melia (Luis Marin 61); Seth Sinovic (Amadou Dia 61), Jalil Anibaba (Erik Palmer-Brown 61), Kevin Ellis (Matt Besler 61), Saad Abdul-Salaam (Marcel De Jong* 61); Servando Carrasco (Mikey Lopez 46, Roger Espinoza 61), Paulo Nagamura (Benny Feilhaber 61), Jimmy Medranda (Krisztian Nemeth 61); Connor Hallisey (Graham Zusi 61), Jacob Peterson (Dom Dwyer 61), James Ansu Rogers (Bernardo Añor 61).
*Non-roster invitee
