Controversy at Sporting KC: St. Louis player avoids 2nd yellow card & scores key goal

Sporting KC and St. Louis City played to a draw for the second time in 2024.

A 1-1 tie on a rainy July night at Children’s Mercy Park sent each team home with a point. The match may be remembered, however, for something that didn’t happen.

Nokkvi Thorisson scored the opening goal for St. Louis in the 42nd minute. His weaving run on a counterattack was finished with a shot into the top corner.

Sporting was irate that Thorisson was even still on the field.

After picking up a yellow card in the 34th minute for a tackle on Willy Agada to stop a break, Thorisson put in a challenge for a ball that was bouncing off the ground. With his cleats exposed, he missed, went over the ball and landed on Nemanja Radoja’s ankle.

“It’s a second yellow at minimum,” manager Peter Vermes said. “I mean, it’s not even a question.”

Via the pool reporting process, referee Rubiel Vazquez said, “The challenge was committed in a careless manner and did not rise to the level of serious foul play due to the negligible force.”

Those on the Sporting KC side disagreed.

In fact, it was a play similar to one in which Johnny Russell was sent off in 2023, and one that often results in some kind of booking, yet no card was shown.

“When you see it again, the contact starts just below Radoja’s knee (and) there’s very little contact in the ball,” Russell said. “I think it’s a red card, definitely a second yellow if you don’t want to give it the straight red. And he has been let away with it.”

Still, that challenge was not why Thorisson scored, and Sporting could’ve defended that play better.

“We have to do better on the play defensively, especially from our own set piece, our own corner,” Russell said. “We have to get back quicker.”

Down at halftime, Vermes’ message to the team was that there would be plenty of chances and that an opportunity would come.

“We just need to stay patient to it,” Vermes told the team.

Indeed it did.

Russell subbed out for Alan Pulido, and Sporting tweaked its formation to a 4-2-3-1. The changes paid off.

With 15 minutes to go, Agada got Sporting back in the game with an equalizer. Pulido’s chipped cross found Agada, whose run and leap were timed perfectly for a slam-dunk header at the back post.

Sporting, playing its seventh game in 22 days and flying back from Vancouver just days earlier, was unable to find the energy for a winning goal.

After the match, Vermes praised the atmosphere at Children’s Mercy Park.

“These are the kind of games that you want to watch as a spectator,” Vermes said. “As a coach, these are the kind of games that I want to coach in.”

Up next: Sporting KC will shift its focus to Leagues Cup play. The summer tournament between MLS and Liga MX begins next weekend. Sporting KC will play the Chicago Fire next Sunday.

Before the Leagues Cup gets underway, the two leagues will pit their respective All-Star teams against one another on Thursday night in Columbus, Ohio.

Daniel Sperry covers soccer for The Star. He can be reached at sperry .danielkc@gmail.com .