Two-goal comeback earns Sporting draw versus Portland

Sporting Kansas City fell two goals behind the Portland Timbers twice on Saturday, Oct. 10. Both times, Sporting found an answer.

Justin Reynolds scored his first goal for Sporting in the 70th minute. André Luiz added the tying goal in the 73rd minute, and the teams finished 3-3 before 14,825 fans at Sporting Park.

André scored twice and now has seven goals this season. He has scored in five straight regular-season matches. Only two other players in club history have done that: Preki in 1996 and Johnny Russell, who scored in eight straight in 2021.

“I think, in the end, we deserved this point,” said Sporting head coach Raphael Wicky. He pointed to Calvin Harris’s late breakaway. “We could have won this game with the big chance of Calvin.”

The draw leaves Sporting at 6-18-4 with 22 points, still last in the Western Conference. Portland moved to 9-13-6 with 33 points. The Timbers beat Sporting 6-0 in May in Portland, but they have not won a game outside the Pacific Time Zone this season.

A first half to forget

André nearly opened the scoring in the sixth minute. His shot hit the post and rolled along the goal line, and Portland cleared the corner that followed.

Portland struck first. In the 10th minute, Ariel Lassiter worked down the right side and set up David Da Costa, who scored for a 1-0 lead.

Sporting had chances to respond. Taylor Calheira stole the ball and forced a save in the 21st minute. Jansen Miller headed a free kick off target a minute later, and Harris pushed a shot past the far post in the 42nd.

At the end of regulation time in the half, Miller went to ground with a sliding challenge on Kristoffer Velde in the penalty area. After video review, referee Pierre-Luc Lauziere gave Portland a penalty. Vincent Janssen converted it for a 2-0 lead.

Sporting struck back before the break. Diego Chara caught Calheira as he tried to shoot, and Sporting had its first penalty kick of the season. James Pantemis stopped André’s attempt, but the ball came straight back to André, and he knocked in the rebound. Portland led 2-1 at halftime.

Wicky said his team had given up “pretty silly goals, goals out of nowhere.”

Nine minutes to erase a deficit

Sporting pressed early in the second half. Miller’s header off a 52nd-minute corner drew a save, and Andre earned a free kick 25 yards out three minutes later.

Portland restored its two-goal lead in the 64th minute when Jimer Fory crossed and Lassiter scored. Wicky said the goal came too easily, off a throw-in.

Six minutes later, Calheira held the ball up in the Portland box and passed back to Reynolds, who beat Pantemis. It was the 22-year-old’s second MLS goal. His first came for Chicago against Inter Miami last season.

“I trust Taylor,” Reynolds said. He said he looked for a dangerous spot and gave Calheira an option, “and then he gave it to me and I just took a shot.”

Wicky then made three changes at once. Ian James replaced Reynolds, Seymour Reid replaced Calheira, and Ruben Ramos Jr. replaced Stephen Afrifa.

Two of those substitutes set up the tying goal. Reid and Ramos each earned an assist as Sporting broke quickly, and Andre ran through the middle and finished.

Reynolds said André’s presence helps him on the right side. “It definitely opens up space for me because he draws so many defenders towards him,” he said.

Wicky called André “obviously the engine of this team.”

Late chances and a scare

André went down with an apparent calf cramp in the 81st minute. Trainers stretched his leg before helping him off, and Shapi Suleymanov came on in his place. Wicky played Suleymanov at left back.

“Hopefully it’s nothing bad other than cramps,” Wicky said. He added that André is still building fitness. “Physically still, I don’t think he’s at 100 percent where he should be.”

Wicky said Suleymanov has earned his trust. “Shapi has proven this since I’m here that I can trust him 100 percent in any position I play him,” he said.

Sporting had the best chance to win. In the 90th minute, Harris broke in alone on Pantemis but missed. Neither team scored in seven minutes of stoppage time.

Sporting outshot Portland 12-9 and won six corners to Portland’s one, with Emir Karić taking all six. Each team put five shots on goal. Portland held 51.9 percent of possession and completed 569 passes to Sporting’s 451. Sporting still created the better looks, with a 2.1-1.7 edge in expected goals.

André carried much of that attack. He took five shots, put three on target, and accounted for 1.73 of Sporting’s expected goals, a figure that includes his penalty. In the back, Wyatt Meyer was solid, completing 66 of his 68 passes.

A young team learning

Saturday’s lineup was short on experience. “Young is not always the age,” Wicky said.

He listed Calheira, who came from the USL, along with Afrifa, Meyer, and Reynolds as players with few MLS games behind them. Substitutes James, Reid, Ramos, and Jacob Bartlett, a product of the club’s academy, added more youth.

“Young players need to go into something which works and then it’s easier for them,” Wicky said.

Earlier this season, Wicky said, a 3-1 deficit would have led to players “losing their shape, losing their heads, and then you get the fourth one.”

“Maybe it’s learning,” he said.

Reynolds said the team should not settle. “Of course, you can be happy with the comeback, but you have got to be hungry for more because we want three points, not one,” he said.

Zorhan Bassong returned to the lineup in place of Lasse Berg Johnsen, who has a hamstring injury. Bassong remains on a minutes restriction. When Bartlett replaced him in the 79th minute, Bassong passed the captain’s armband to Miller. Wicky said several of the team’s captains have either left or are injured.

Reynolds has fought injuries this year. “He needs to stay healthy. That’s the only question mark,” Wicky said. Reynolds said he has used his down days for stretching, ice baths, and saunas, because “my body is my business.”

Up next

Sporting visits Nashville, the Supporters’ Shield leader, on Wednesday, Oct. 14. Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m. Sporting’s next home game is Saturday, Oct. 17, to host Real Salt Lake.