SKC blanks FC Dallas to move into first place

[October 22, 2018]  Daniel Salloi found the net at the end of the first half, and Roger Espinoza and Johnny Russell added insurance goals in the second half as visiting Sporting Kansas City made all the right moves during a 3-0 victory over FC Dallas on Sunday afternoon in Frisco, Texas.

The win allowed Sporting Kansas City (17-8-8, 59 points) to leapfrog FC Dallas into first place in the Western Conference with one match remaining in the regular season. Sporting K.C. can win the West, and earn one of the conference's two first-round playoff byes, with a home win next week against Los Angeles FC.

FC Dallas (16-8-9, 57 points), who started Sunday atop the Western Conference by one point, can no longer win the conference title barring an enormous swing in goal difference. FCD and Los Angeles FC, which played to a 2-2 draw against Vancouver on Sunday, are tied for second place, two points in arrears of Sporting K.C.

FC Dallas ends the regular season next Sunday in Colorado against the Rapids. A win in that match would allow Dallas to earn one of the conference's first-round byes.

Sporting K.C.'s Tim Melia stopped five shots, including two in each half from point-blank range, in earning his 13th shutout of the season and the 39th clean sheet of his nine-season MLS career.

Salloi was in the right place at the right time to corral a rebound off a save from FC Dallas goalkeeper Jesse Gonzalez after a blistering shot from Felipe Gutierrez. The bouncing ball landed at Salloi's feet with no defenders in proximity, and Salloi ripped it into the net at the 45-minute mark to give SKC a 1-0 lead.

Sporting Kansas City added to its lead in the 64th minute when Ike Opara beat two FCD defenders to nod Russell's free kick from the right wing to a waiting Espinoza. Espinoza then volleyed the ball into the net to put the visitors in front 2-0. Espinoza's tally was Sporting K.C.'s 62nd of the season, granting the team a club record for goals in a season, supplanting the 61 the side scored in 1996.

Russell converted from the spot on a penalty-kick goal in the 87th minute to cap SKC's huge road win.

Gonzalez came up big in the 17th minute when he denied Sporting K.C.'s Ilie Sanchez's penalty kick after a foul in the box on Felipe Gutierrez by FCD's Matt Hedges. Gonzalez dived low and to his right to knock away Sanchez's try from the spot and keep the match scoreless.

FCD has been held without a goal in four of its past six outings and has beaten just one team that has qualified for the playoffs over the second half of the season -- a 3-2 win at Sporting Kansas City on July 28.

--Field Level Media

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