Sunday’s match belonged to Johnny Russell. That much was apparent over the course of 90 thrilling minutes at Children’s Mercy Park.
The rampant Scot notched a treble of left-footed strikes in the Kansas City sunshine, leading Sporting to an invaluable 3-2 victory over the second-place Sounders in a Western Conference clash that entertained from start to finish.
Russell’s hat-trick heroics weren’t entirely new—he had scored three goals in a 6-0 dismantling of Vancouver last season—but his Herculean performance on Sunday came when Sporting was in dire need of maximum points.
Encumbered by a seven-game MLS winless streak, a slew of injuries and facing one of the best teams in the league, Sporting bounced back into the win column thanks in large part to the contributions of Russell, who etched his name into Sporting’s record books with a rare feat that only one other player has accomplished.