Sporting Kansas City shocks St. Louis City SC 4-1 as the Western Conference regular season champions are put on the brink of playoff elimination

St. Louis City SC, regular season champions of the Western Conference, lost the first game of their best-of-three series against Sporting Kansas City 4-1.

St. Louis, which reached the playoffs in its first season of existence, could not produce a result in front of the home fans gathered at CITYPARK on a rainy Sunday evening.

Kansas City, which scored just three goals in its first 10 games this season and defeated San Jose on penalties in the Wild Card game, can advance to the conference semifinals with a win in Match 2 at home on Nov. 5.

Kansas City’s Logan Ndenbe, a 23-year-old defender, opened the scoring in the 27th minute when he put away a shot from the top corner.

But Tim Parker replied when he cleared an Indiana Vassilev corner that was deflected by Sporting’s defense to make it 1-1 moments later.

St. Louis scored just one goal after putting six shots on goal, but failed to convert at home

St. Louis made it a 1-1 game, but SKC scored three unanswered goals and took the win

Rémi Walter scored in the 36th minute to give Sporting KC the lead for good and Gadi Kinda added a goal in the 39th to make it 3–1.

Walter scored when Kinda’s shot from the left side of the penalty area was saved by goalkeeper Roman Bürki, but the ball rolled straight to Walter at the top of the penalty area and he curled a roller through four defenders and past Bürki into the net.

Kinda’s corner was headed at the near post by Alan Pulido to Dániel Sallói, who tapped in from point-blank to end the scoring in the 61st minute.

St. Louis, which has lost three straight games for the first time this season, is the eighth expansion team to reach the playoffs in its inaugural season and the first since Inter Miami and Nashville accomplished the feat in 2020.