SANDY, Utah — Sebastián Saucedo scored from the top of the box at the end of the first half and Real Salt Lake knocked Sporting Kansas City out of a share of first place in the Western Conference with a 4-2 win Wednesday night.
“It’s huge. It means a lot,” RSL coach Mike Petke said of defeating SKC. “This is a new rivalry to me over the last year. You see it tonight, the passion, the bite, two red cards and how many yellows which there probably could have been some more. It means a lot but we still are behind Kansas City quite a bit. It means three points for us and we kept them at their current level.”
Sporting KC (9-4-5) has lost two straight and trails FC Dallas by three points in the West.
RSL (8-8-2) led 3-1 at intermission following RSL goals by Jefferson Savarine, Corey Baird and Saucedo, but Sporting KC pulled within one when Ike Opara scored on a cross by Johnny Russell in the 64th minute.
Tim Melia kept the Sporting KC comeback alive by denying Albert Rusnak’s penalty kick in the 80th minute, but Daniel Salloi was sent off in the 90th minute and Roger Espinoza earned a red card in the fourth minute of stoppage time.
Luis Silva scored on a penalty kick for RSL in the 10th minute of extra time.
“I think it’s definitely a statement,” Baird said. “We’ve had a lot of games where we’ve played really well for large stretches of the game but weren’t able to convert our chances and then we end up losing at the end of the game. I think KC had periods where they were on top, but we really capitalized from the moments we were on top and we finished our chances.”