Sporting Kansas City netted both of their goals in stoppage time to defeat Charlotte FC 2-1 on Wednesday, June 25 at Children’s Mercy Park.
After Charlotte had taken a 1-0 lead into the locker room at half, Santiago Munoz nearly had an equalizer in the 89th minute, but it was deflected across the end line for a corner kick. The comeback would take foot five minutes later, when Mason Toye took a longball from Manu Garcia that went over the Charlotte defense, then bagged his first goal in Sporting blue to knot the game up. Garcia then set up the game winner in the 96th minute, when he launched a pass to Munoz, who then slid the ball to an undefended Dejan Joveljic, who comfortably netted the game-winner. It’s the third time in franchise history that Sporting scored the game-tying and game-winning goals in stoppage time.
St Louis City SC was not as successful in their comeback effort, as they couldn’t keep the momentum going from pair of goals late in the first half, falling to Orlando City 4-2 on Wednesday night at Energizer Park. City fell behind early with goals from Orlando’s Ramiro Enrique and Marco Pasalic in the first ten minutes. Enrique added another goal in the 22nd minute to further drain the energy of the home crowd.
The crowd would receive a jolt in the 40th minute, when Simon Becher scored with his left-footed shot into the bottom right corner of goal. City would close the gap to one goal just before the halftime whistle, when João Klauss sent his shot into the bottom left corner of goal. However, the second half would not prove as productive for either team, with the only goal coming in the 82nd minute to Marco Pasalic to seal the game for the Lions.
After Wednesday’s games, Sporting KC advance to 12th in the Western Conference with 19 points, still trailing Colorado by six points for the ninth and final playoff spot. St Louis City remain in 14th on 15 points.
Both sides are in action Saturday evening. Sporting KC will host Real Salt Lake, while St Louis City travel to the Houston Dynamo. Both games kick off at 7:30 p.m.