After the Houston Dynamo, New York Red Bulls, and Atlanta United all bowed out of the CONCACAF Champions League, Sporting KC was the only MLS team with a chance to continue in the competition.
They kept the MLS alive in the competition, defeating Independiente de la Chorrera 3-0 on Thursday night to advance to the semi-finals of the Champions League.
Kansas City faced an uphill climb to qualify for the next round after losing 2-1 in the first leg of the draw in Panama.
However, after a frustrating first half in which their attacks on goal constantly came up short, they broke through in the second half and advanced after scoring three goals in rapid succession.
It looked for a while that Sporting KC would come up short due to brilliant goalkeeping by Independiente keeper Jose Guerra, who saved several on-target shots until Sporting broke through in the 74th minute.
Hungarian forward Krisztian Nemeth vollied home a goal after a corner kick to give Sporting KC the goal that it needed.
The MLS side kept pushing, and got another goal after a textbook Johnny Russell assist to Roger Espinoza, putting KC up 2-0 only 7 minutes after the first goal.
Nemeth wasn’t done, however, and scored his second goal of the evening in the 86th minute to seal the team’s 3-0 victory.
Sporting will now face Monterrey in the competition’s semi-finals.
