Whitecaps FC fall to Sporting Kansas City at Children’s Mercy Park

KANSAS CITY, KS: Vancouver Whitecaps FC (3-4-1) fell 6-0 on the road to Western Conference leading Sporting Kansas City (5-1-2) at Children’s Mercy Park on Friday.

Head coach Carl Robinson made four personnel changes to his lineup as he shifted to a three at the back formation. Aly Ghazal, Yordy Reyna, Brek Shea, and Anthony Blondell came in, replacing Jake Nerwinski, Russell Teibert, Cristian Techera, and Erik Hurtado.

Reyna and Blondell combined for two quality first half chances, but two goals from Johnny Russell and a long distance strike from Jimmy Medranda put Kansas City up 3-0 in the first half.

After a mass confrontation before halftime, Video Review resulted in red cards shown to both Reyna and Juarez, reducing the ‘Caps to nine men for the remainder of the match.

There could have been a fourth goal before the break, but Stefan Marinovic came up with a penalty kick stop on Sánchez. However, Russell would complete his hat-trick in the second half with Cristian Lobato Yohan Croizet adding the others for a 6-0 final score.

Next up for Whitecaps FC is a return home to BC Place to face Real Salt Lake this coming Friday, April 27. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. PT. Ticket information is available at whitecapsfc.com/tickets.

MATCH DETAILS
Referee: Kevin Stott
Attendance: 19,690

Scoring Summary
10′ – SKC – Johnny Russell (Roger Espinoza, Graham Zusi)
16′ – SKC – Johnny Russell (Roger Espinoza)
30′ – SKC – Jimmy Medranda (Dániel Sallói)
48′ – SKC – Johnny Russell (Matt Besler)
54′ – SKC – Cristian Lobato (Yohan Croizet)
77′ – SKC – Yohan Croizet (Illie Sánchez)

Statistics
Possession: Sporting KC 79.5% – Vancouver 20.5%
Shots: Sporting KC 34 – Vancouver 5
Shots on Goal: Sporting KC 14 – Vancouver 1
Saves: Sporting KC 1 – Vancouver 7
Fouls: Sporting KC 3 – Vancouver 8
Offsides: Sporting KC 2 – Vancouver 1
Corners: Sporting KC 8 – Vancouver 1

Cautions
36′ – VAN – Kendall Waston
40′ – SKC – Johnny Russell

Ejections
40′ – VAN – Efraín Juárez
40′ – VAN – Yordy Reyna

Sporting Kansas City
29.Tim Melia; 8.Graham Zusi, 22.Emiliano Anor, 5.Matt Besler, 94.Jimmy Medranda; 17.Roger Espinoza (21.Felipe Gutiérrez 76′), 6.Illie Sánchez, 10.Yohan Croizet; 7.Johnny Russell (19.Cristian Lobato 52′), 14.Khiry Shelton (11.Diego Rubio 71′), 20.Dániel Sallói

Substitutes not used
18.Eric Dick, 4.Brad Evans, 15.Seth Sinovic, 26.Jaylin Lindsey

Vancouver Whitecaps FC
1.Stefan Marinovic;18.José Aja, 4.Kendall Waston ©, 17.Marcel de Jong; 6.Efraín Juárez, 8.Felipe, 66.Aly Ghazal, 67.Alphonso Davies (31.Russell Teibert 55′); 29.Yordy Reyna; 9.Anthony Blondell (3.Sean Franklin 45′), 20.Brek Shea (7.Bernie Ibini 72′)

Substitutes not used
12.Brian Rowe, 11.Nicolás Mezquida, 13.Cristian Techera, 19.Erik Hurtado