Austin FC make first-half goals stand in beating SKC

Gyasi Zardes and Ethan Finlay scored early in the first half and Austin FC held on for a 2-1 win over visiting Sporting Kansas City on Saturday in a Western Conference match played in searing conditions.

It was the final MLS match for the sides before a monthlong break for the Leagues Cup, a series of 77 matches between the teams of MLS and Mexico's Liga MX.

Austin (9-9-5, 32 points) won its third straight home match. Also, the Verde have never lost at home to Sporting Kansas City, winning all three times the teams have played at Q2 Stadium and racking up nine total goals in the process.

Sporting Kansas City (6-11-8, 26 points) had a three-match unbeaten streak snapped.

The Verde scored twice in less than two minutes in first half.

Zardes got Austin on the board in the 17th minute, cleaning up the rebound of his own point-blank headed shot that Sporting keeper Kendall McIntosh stopped but could not corral. The ball bounced right back to the feet of Zardes, who lifted it over McIntosh and into the goal. The Verde's all-star midfielder Jon Gallagher got the scoring play started with a cross into the goal mouth.

Then in the 19th minute, Diego Fagundez's pass from the outside the box glanced off Kansas City defender Andreu Fontas and crossed the penalty area to Finlay, who got just enough on the ball with his left foot to fit it inside the right post for a 2-0 Austin lead.

Sporting cut its deficit in half in the 33rd minute as Dany Rosero was unmarked on the far post and waiting for a pass on a corner kick from Daniel Salloi. Rosero's powerful header deflected off Austin goalkeeper Brad Stuver and into the top-center of the net.

Austin lost both midfielder Daniel Pereira (right shoulder) and leading scorer Sebastian Driussi (right groin) to injuries in the first half.

--Field Level Media