Ndenbe, Sallói help Sporting KC oust top-seed St Louis City with 2-1 victory
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Defender Logan Ndenbe scored his second career goal with both coming this postseason and Dániel Sallói had an assist and delivered an insurance goal in the second half as Sporting Kansas City eliminated St. Louis City, the top seed in the Western Conference, with a 2-1 victory on Sunday.
Sporting KC (13-14-8) grabbed a 1-0 lead at halftime when Ndenbe used assists from Alan Pulido and Sallói to score in the first minute of stoppage time. Ndenbe has one assist and has never scored during the regular season in 37 starts and 43 appearances over the past two seasons.
Sallói stretched the lead to 2-0 in the 73rd minute with assists from Gadi Kinda and Johnny Russell. It was the fifth postseason goal for Sallói, tying him with Miklos Molnar for second most in club history. Predrag ‘Preki’ Radosavljević set the record at eight in two separate stints with the club from 1996-2000 and 2002-03.
Rookie Célio Pompeu scored his first career playoff goal when took a pass from Njabulo Blom in the 86th minute and found the net to get St. Louis City (17-13-5) within a goal. Pompeu had one goal and two assists in nine starts and 26 appearances during the regular season.
Sporting KC's Tim Melia, who finished with one save, did not allow the equalizer through the final four minutes of regulation and 15 minutes of stoppage time. Roman Bürki saved two shots for St. Louis City.
Ndenbe scored the first goal in Sporting KC's 4-1 victory in St. Louis in the opener. It was the eighth time in league history that a road team won a playoff match by three or more goals and the sixth time the road team scored four goals.
Sporting KC is now 2-3-2 in its last seven postseason matches at home. The club posted a 14-1-3 record at home in the playoffs from 2000-2018.
St. Louis City became the first expansion team to win its first five matches and the first to earn its conference's top seed. Just two expansion teams have earned a postseason victory on the road — the 1998 Chicago Fire and Nashville SC in 2020.
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