Sporting Kansas City fell 1-2 to LAFC on Saturday night after a late banger from LA's veteran striker Carlos Vela sealed their fate in front of over 19,000 fans at Children's Mercy Park.
Despite entering the match riding the wave of a 3W-1D record in their last four games, the Black and Gold proved too much against up and coming SKC. But head coach Peter Vermes believes his side lost the match off the field, voicing concerns about the refereeing inconsistencies.
"When there's such inconsistency in all of the foul calling and then you bring a goal back when our guy actually touches the ball on the foul," he said in a post-match conference. "He has control of the ball, and two guys are grabbing him, holding him, and he gets called for the foul. I'm amazed at that decision."
Referee Rosendo Mendoza was firm on his on-pitch ruling and offered a no-frills explanation for his actions regarding the VAR decision and why Salloi was not awarded a penalty: "The SKC attacker follows through and kicks the defender, and the level of contact was deemed not sufficient to award the penalty."
Kansas opened up the scoring with a 17th minute penalty, as forward Alan Pulido took advantage of Denil Maldonado's foul within the box. But the LAFC player quickly redeemed himself, evening up the match with a brilliant header.
It was then Vela's 90' goal was the final nail on the coffin, doubly painful as VAR overturned an equalizer by Roger Espinoza four minutes later in stoppage.
"I don't think the game was a good game for either team," Vermes said. "I think coming out of halftime, we were sleeping at that moment. After the goal got called back, we were in the game at that point and we were good. I'm probably more amazed that Salloi didn't get a penalty kick in the 53rd minute. I'm amazed. I really am. I don't have any words for that piece of the game. I just don't. It's sad."
"Today we deserved more," added Sporting Kansas City right winger Erik Thommy. "I think it's difficult to find the right words because the game was a little bit different today. Even in the second half we controlled the game and then we conceded two goals. We had more possession. We scored to make it 2-2 at the end with a questionable call. It's tough. But in the end, it's soccer and sometimes you have these kinds of games, and you need to look forward."
This article was originally published on 90min as Sporting Kansas City's Peter Vermes frustrated after 2-1 loss to LAFC .
