BUENA VISTA, Fla. – Kevin Molino hit the target in the second half timeout and Minnesota United FC made up a late game deficit to defeat Kansas City Sporting 2-1 on Sunday night, during the MLS revival tournament.
Molino made a successful strike in the seventh minute of time out and United FC also scored another goal in time out to finally win the first duel between the teams in Group D.
A colorful encounter, in which the wind finally changed drastically in favor of United FC in the second half, after Sporting had largely dominated the first 45 minutes of the meeting, at least.
The Kansas City squad was unable to hold the fort after being reduced to 10 men.
Jan Gregus was the first to reap the benefits of United FC’s efforts. His free kick was first deflected by Khiry Shelton of the opposing team during the second minute of the time out at the end of the game. Five minutes later, in the last minute of downtime, Molino defeated Richard Sanchez with the left shot to seal the win.
The Kansas City squad were forced to grow to 10 men after goalkeeper Tim Melia received a red card for hitting Aaron Schoenfeld in the 74th minute. Before Melia was left behind, United FC had taken matters into their own hands.
Ethan Finlay seemed to have reset the counters in the 64th minute, but the goal was denied after the replay showed that Molino was offside on the streak. Schoenfeld crashed into the horizontal bar moments later and Hassani Dotson’s head in the 90th minute narrowly grazed the crossbar.
The Minnesota squad were banned from star player Ike Opara, midfielder Osvalso Alonso and Luis Amarilla after suffering a groin injury during pre-game warm-ups.
Shelton gave the lead to Sporting in the 43rd minute after an error by goalkeeper Tyler Miller. However, Peter Vermes’ men were unable to capitalize after dominating during the first 60 minutes of play.
Minnesota (3-0-0) remains undefeated this year, having started the season with victories against Portland and San Jose before activities were paused due to the COVID-19 pandemic in March.
The Sporting (2-1-0) had two wins against Vancouver and Houston before suffering a first defeat this season.
RSL clears the Rapids
Summary
In another Group D game, Real Salt Lake shut out the Colorado Rapids 2-0 late in the evening.
Albert Rusnak opened the scoring in the 27th minute and Damir Kreilach doubled the bet in the 76th.
Salt Lake goalkeeper Zac MacMath made four saves, including two in stoppage time.
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