KANSAS City, Kan. (August 25, 2018) – Diego Rubio scored in his fourth goal of the month as Sporting KC defeated Minnesota United 2-0. Yohan Croizet came off the bench to open the scoring, and Rubio made it 2-0 in the 63rd minute.

Diego Rubio Stays Hot as Sporting KC defeat Minnesota United

Sporting KC came into Saturday night’s matchup looking for their fourth straight win, against a Minnesota United squad looking to just stay afloat in the Western Conference Race. After a rather lifeless first half, Sporting KC broke the deadlock just two minutes into the second half.

Peter Vermes chose to swap out Felipe Gutierrez for Yohan Croizet at the half, as Felipe didn’t look all too mobile in the first 45. It paid instant dividends, as Johnny Russel played him into the box. Croizet took a touch onto his right, and then ripped a shot just underneath the arm of Bobby Shuttleworth.

Rubio got almost the same feed on his goal, and instead finished far post. Rubio’s seventh goal of the season is his fourth in the last four games. A hot month of August from Rubio has now led to his involvement in 5 of Sporting KC’s last 9 goals.

Three Things

1. Prior to the match, I wrote that Sporting KC would man-handle Minnesota if they chose to roll out a 3-5-2, and they didn’t. Minnesota chose to plug in Collen Warner between theor back three and their midfield line, and it worked pretty well into the second half. The off the ball movement from Sporting though is what finally broke them down as their lines compressed. Minnesota did better than I thought they would, but the overall quality from Sporting was just too much for them on the night.
2. Felipe Gutierrez hasn’t looked 100% since he came back from the hernia problem that kept him out for multiple months. Peter Vermes said postgame that his halftime substitution wasn’t necessarily an injury, but out the fact that Felipe “didn’t look himself.” Vermes continued, “When I saw him today, I can tell he’s trying to get there, but still not completely there, and I don’t want to push him anymore and risk something. So it was my decision to pull him off. Not because he was bad, I could just see he wasn’t himself.”
3. Sporting KC now move to second place and in pretty firm position. They’re now just one point behind FC Dallas for first place in the Western Conference. They’re four points in front of Real Salt Lake with two games in hand, and two points ahead of LAFC with a game in hand. They’ve put themselves in position to avoid the knockout round for the first time since 2013. What happened that season? Sporting KC will certainly be hoping to recreate that path to a trophy.

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