Sporting KC played wild, wild match vs. rival St. Louis City. Here are the highlights

Sporting KC took the lead twice against arch-rival St. Louis City SC. But in something that’s becoming a familiar trend in 2024, Sporting coughed up the lead each time and settled for a point.

The sides played to a wild 3-3 draw at Children’s Mercy Park on Saturday night. Sporting closed out a stretch of three straight home matches — including the Miami game at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium — with only two points to show for them.

“Same old story of recent games, especially the home games,” Sporting captain Johnny Russell said after the match. “We have dropped way too many points from winning positions. It’s the same answers the last few weeks as well. It’s not good enough.”

On that first note, Russell is right: Through nine games so far, Sporting has two wins, two losses and five draws.

Sporting is scoring goals in bunches but not finishing the job. The club has scored either 2 or 3 goals in its last six matches, but has allowed an opponent to score three goals four times in that stretch.

Sporting has held a lead in all but two games this season, and the club has dropped 14 points from a winning position in total. Ten of those dropped points have come from goals scored in the final 15 minutes of matches.

It’s now a feature — and not a bug — of this team’s early stretch through the season. But Peter Vermes is clearly not ready to press the panic button.

“You guys are worried about it,” Vermes said after the match. “I’m not.”

While it feels like the same old story, here’s how it went this time around.

Sporting KC went ahead in the 17th minute. Tim Leibold picked up possession in the midfield and passed to Alan Pulido, who combined for a sweet give-and-go that put Pulido in on goal. He tucked his left-footed shot with power inside the far post.

St. Louis answered with goals that came from physical 50/50 challenges. And Joao Klauss, St. Louis’ star man, was at the center of two chances.

First, Klauss won a one-on-one battle in the box with Jake Davis to get on the end of a cross. For the second goal, he won what the referee deemed a 50/50 challenge with Willy Agada. Later in the sequence, Celio Pompeu ripped a shot into the top corner, giving St. Louis a 2-1 halftime lead.

St. Louis clearly brought physicality to the table, and it was clear the referee was going to give the rivalry match some leeway in that area.

“We always know what’s going to happen, but there’s also an impartial party that also has to make decisions,” Vermes said, appearing to reference officiating. “Unfortunately, those decisions weren’t our way, so we had to fight against that as well.”

Sporting KC responded in the second half, almost instantly with the substitution that brought on Johnny Russell.

Russell took a free kick that made its way to Daniel Salloi, whose shot somehow sneaked into the goal to tie it at two. Salloi’s goal was later ruled an own goal by St. Louis.

Erik Thommy made it 3-2, finishing a one-on-one chance, but then came the old storyline that has popped up for Sporting.

In stoppage time, St. Louis’ Tomas Totland somehow found himself in acres of space in front of goal, and Leibold’s tackle couldn’t bring him down. He finished his one-on-one chance against goalkeeper Tim Melia to send each team home with a point.

So, is this situation fixable for Sporting KC?

“It’s evident there’s a habit of it currently,” Melia said. “But it shouldn’t be in our minds, ‘cause it’s so early in the season, and we’re doing so many good things right.”

Sporting also has an example of what an in-season turnaround can look like, going back to last year. The club started on a 10-match winless streak before turning things around and reaching the playoffs.

“We have a lot of the same guys,” Melia said. “So we know we can overcome these types of challenges, and we know we can adjust and improve.”

Next up: Sporting KC heads north to St. Paul, Minnesota. Kickoff against Minnesota United FC is set for 7:30 p.m. central on Saturday.

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