Sporting KC 6 Vancouver 0: Johnny Russell crushes nine-man Whitecaps | OneFootball

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Blaise Bourgeois·21 April 2018

Sporting KC 6 Vancouver 0: Johnny Russell crushes nine-man Whitecaps

Article image:Sporting KC 6 Vancouver 0: Johnny Russell crushes nine-man Whitecaps

Sporting Kansas City used the momentum from an early Tim Melia wonder save to demolish a stunned Vancouver Whitecaps side.

Johnny Russell scored a hat-trick and was the center of attention all match long as Vancouver suffered their worst loss in franchise history losing 6-0 on the road. Vancouver have now lost three straight matches after starting the season 3-1-1. Jimmy Medranda, Cristian Lobato, and Yohan Croizet also netted goals in the rout.


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The Whitecaps looked like they were going to set the tone early in the seventh minute when Anthony Blondell put Yordy Reyna in against the keeper. Reyna circled Melia but somehow the goalkeeper recovered in an early candidate for MLS Save of the Week.

After what would be Vancouver’s only shot on goal, it was all Sporting Kansas City from there. Johnny Russell got things started pinging a Roger Espinoza pass into the bottom corner off the post for the 1-0 lead.

Just six minutes later, Russell received the ball out wide, cut in onto his right foot and got a fortunate deflection as his shot beat Stefan Marinović to give SKC a 2-0 lead.

Right before the half-hour mark, Jimmy Medranda kept the SKC train rolling by scoring a thunderbolt from the next area code to make it 3-0 SKC.

As if things weren’t already bad enough for the Whitecaps, Yordy Reyna and Efraín Juárez both get sent off after VAR reviewed an altercation that involved them and Johnny Russell. Reyna threw Russell to the ground and Juárez put his hands in Russell’s face. MLS, however, stated Juárez was sent off for dissent. You be the judge below.

Six minutes into the eight added on (mainly for the video review), Johnny Russell was taken down in the box and he graciously let Ilie Sánchez step up to try to make it four, instead of going for the hat-trick himself. Marinović would win this battle, however, making one of his whopping eight saves on the night.

It wouldn’t take long for Johnny Russell to get his third and get almost immediately taken off by SKC manager Peter Vermes. Kansas City ran a beautifully executed play direct from a short corner that led to Russell chipping the goalkeeper inside the six-yard box once again this season. 4-0 SKC and the only question at this point was how many would Kansas City put in the net.

Just six minutes later SKC made it five as Cristian Lobato would chest home a deflected cross from Yohan Croizet for his second career MLS goal.

Yohan Croizet missed a couple opportunities throughout the match but would be rewarded with a late goal to close out the scoring.

SKC had a whopping 34-5 shot advantage in this one and held 80 per cent possession.

Sporting Kansas City improves to 5-2-1 and has a seven-point lead at the top of the Western Conference. SKC travels to face the New England Revolution next week.

Vancouver fall to 3-1-4 and have given up a league-worst 17 goals this season. They’ll try to reverse their fortunes next week when they host the second-worst defense in MLS, Real Salt Lake (14 goals allowed).