The game in 100 words (or less): Sporting Kansas City avoided the dreaded U.S. Open Cup hangover on Sunday, four short days after lifting the Cup here at Children’s Mercy Park, by beating the LA Galaxy, 2-1, to remain just a point back of the first-place Vancouver Whitecaps in the race for home-field advantage in the Western Conference. Daniel Salloi, scorer of the USOC-winning goal on Wednesday, and Diego Rubio put the exclamation point on a dominant first-performance by putting Sporting KC 2-0 ahead after 35 minutes. LA got a goal back through Romain Alessandrini’s curling free kick just before the hour mark, but that’s as close as Sigi Schmid’s side would get on the afternoon. The victory sets up a top-of-the-table clash between Sporting and Vancouver next Saturday. Also, Gyasi Zardes played 90 minutes at right back. It went about how you’d expect it to go.
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Three Four moments that mattered
1' — Dos Santos should have seen red after 26 seconds — If video review wasn’t implemented to review plays like this, we should just get rid of video review altogether.
This is a 26-second Jonathan dos Santos red card imho. #SportingKC #SKCvLA pic.twitter.com/bplIPb6Ry8
— Andy (@AndyEdMLS) September 24, 2017
18' — Salloi gets to Rubio’s cross, toe-pokes it home — Maybe Peter Vermes knew what he was doing when he traded Dom Dwyer, thus opening a boatload of minutes for Salloi and Rubio.
Wednesday night: goal ☑️
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) September 24, 2017
Sunday afternoon: goal ☑️@danielsalloi just can't stop scoring for @SportingKC! It's 1-0. #SKCvLA pic.twitter.com/Ni4zBhWPcv
35' — Rubio taps it in after Sinovic puts it on a platter — Sporting made this one look really, really easy.
WATCH: This is gorgeous ⚽️ 😍 #SKCvLA https://t.co/dmreZtdFh9
— Sporting Kansas City (@SportingKC) September 24, 2017
58' — Alessandrini curls a beauty past Melia — Not a whole lot Tim Melia could do about that one.
Perfect placement. 🎯 @LAGalaxy cuts the @SportingKC lead in half! #SKCvLA pic.twitter.com/MLUP48Nt3C
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) September 24, 2017
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Man of the match: Diego Rubio
Goalscorers: Salloi (18'), Rubio (35'), Alessandrini (58')
