Recap: Sporting KC suffers late 2-1 loss on road at Seattle Sounders

Sporting Kansas City suffered a late 2-1 loss on the road at the Seattle Sounders on Thursday night on the Emerald Queen Casino Pitch at Lumen Field.

Andre Luiz continued his red-hot run of form with his fifth goal in the past four games on the cusp of halftime before the home side rallied with a 52nd-minute equalizer from Sebastian Gomez and a 90th-minute game-winner from Cristian Roldan.

Sporting Kansas City registered 11 shots on goal -- marking only the second time in the Sporting era (2011-present) that the club has logged 11 attempts on target in a regular season road game -- as SKC forced Sounders goalkeeper Andrew Thomas into a season-high nine saves in addition to a goalline clearance from Alex Roldan in the 19th minute.

Sporting opened the scoring in the 44th minute as Andre struck for a fourth consecutive match. Stephen Afrifa did well to create the chance as he blocked a Seattle clearance deep in the Sounders' end. Andre collected the loose ball inside the penalty area and fired into the top corner, giving the Brazilian forward six goal contributions (five goals, one assist) in his last four appearances.

​​​​​​​The 24-year-old Designated Player, acquired in a club-record transfer from Olympiacos FC this summer, becomes the fourth player in club history to score five goals in his first five regular season starts with the club and the fourth SKC player all-time to record six goal contributions in his first six regular season appearances.

Seattle mounted a second-half comeback to stretch their unbeaten run to eight straight games (3-0-5) and move up to seventh place in the Western Conference standings as Gomez came off the bench at halftime and leveled the match at 1-1 seven minutes later. The 20-year-old Homegrown Player tallied his first career MLS goal on an assist from Jordan Morris, who held off his defender and laid the ball back for Gomez's first-time strike in front of the Sounders supporters.

Thursday's tilt looked headed for a 1-1 draw -- matching the scoreline from the previous match-up in May -- until Seattle captain Cristian Roldan scored on a fortuitous touch just seconds before second-half stoppage time. Morris, who has nine goals and four assists in 14 regular season appearances against SKC, was involved again as his pass was intercepted by Sporting KC centerback Wyatt Meyer only to see the ball immediately deflect off Roldan and past Sporting KC goalkeeper Stefan Cleveland

Sporting Kansas City returns home to host the Portland Timbers at 7:30 p.m. CT on Saturday, Oct. 10 at Sporting Park as the club celebrates National Hispanic Heritage Month. Tickets are available on SeatGeek, including a special Latino Heritage Night ticket pack featuring an exclusive luchador mask/hat and a Corona or Coca-Cola product.

2026 MLS Regular Season | Game 27
Lumen Field | Seattle, Washington
Attendance: 28,587
Weather: 63 degrees and partly cloudy

Sporting Kansas City: Stefan Cleveland; Justin Reynolds, Jansen Miller, Wyatt Meyer, Emir Karic; Andre Luiz (Shapi Suleymanov 76'), Lasse Berg Johnsen (C) (Jacob Bartlett 79'), Kwaku Agyabeng, Calvin Harris (Zorhan Bassong 76'); Taylor Calheira, Stephen Afrifa (Seymour Reid 76')

Subs Not Used: John Pulskamp, Ethan Bartlow, Alex Cunningham, Ian James, Jayden Reid

Seattle Sounders FC: Andrew Thomas; Alex Roldan, Stuart Hawkins (Kalani Kossa-Rienzi 63'), Jackson Ragen, Nouhou; Peter Kingston (Mark Bronnik 89'), Cristian Roldan (C), Jordan Morris, Albert Rusnak (Yeimar 90+3'), Paul Arriola (Caden Clark 63'); Danny Musovski (Sebastien Gomez 46')

Subs Not Used: Stefan Frei, Antino Lopez, Ryan Sailor

Scoring Summary: 
SKC - Andre Luiz 5 (Stephen Afrifa 3) 44'
SEA - Sebastian Gomez 1 (Jordan Morris 4, Cristian Roldan 5) 51'
SEA - Cristian Roldan 5 (unassisted) 90'

Misconduct Summary:
SEA - Nouhou (yellow card; unsporting behavior) 61'
SKC - Jacob Bartlett (yeloow card; unsporting behavior) 90+1'

Referee: Jair Marrufo
Assistant Referee: Stefan Tanaka-Freundt
Assistant Referee: Walt Heatherly
Fourth Official: Ramy Touchan
VAR: Filip Dujic
AVAR: Lorenzo Hernandez