Sporting KC’s Johnny Russell plays out of this world with two more goals against Galaxy

When Johnny Russell gets one-on-one with a defender down the right wing, there’s usually only one result.

A goal.

And the Sporting KC forward scored two more of them Wednesday night against the L.A. Galaxy, extending his streak of consecutive matches with at least one goal scored to eight in a 2-0 victory at Children’s Mercy Park.

“Everything I’m hitting right now seems to be going in,” Russell said..

For a player who’s always team-first, the admission of his own dominance in recent weeks is telling.

His first goal victimized Niko Hämäläinen. Russell sprinted onto a low pass across the box from Gadi Kinda, took three quick touches to get past Hämäläinen, then fired past Galaxy keeper Jonathan Bond.

The Sporting KC winger scored his second in the 82nd minute to ensure a victory that secured at least one home playoff game for Sporting KC (17-7-7) in this year’s MLS Cup playoffs.

Sporting KC coach Peter Vermes praised Russell as “a monster” Wednesday night but isn’t surprised at his captain’s ability to cut inside and score at will.

“It’s what I saw when I was looking at him to bring him here, it’s what I saw,” Vermes said. “With the way that we play, it was always a big emphasis to try to have wingers that can get isolated. Because if they can, in the way that we play, and they do a lot, you’ve got guys that can break people down. And (Russell) can do it.”

Kansas City retook first place in the Western Conference, easing past the Seattle Sounders based on goal differential, with a game in hand.

“We’ve got three games (left),” Russell said. “We win out and we finish top of the West again, three times in four years.

“It’s in our hands. It’s up to us. We go out and win our games, then that’s it — no one else has a say in it.”

Russell’s goals and Sporting’s victory marked a couple of other milestones, too. Russell became the highest-scoring Scottish player in Major League Soccer history, with 39 goals, and Sporting KC won its 400th game across all competitions in Vermes’ 400th regular-season game.

Vermes is just the fourth coach in MLS history to reach that milestone and the first to do it all with one club.

With three games remaining until the postseason, Sporting KC seems to be putting it all together at the right time. Not only is the club grinding out gritty victories, it continues to do so without some of its key players.

This time around it was MVP candidate Daniel Salloi, who’s day-to-day with an ankle injury, and goalkeeper Tim Melia, who was serving a one-match suspension following his “Rock Bottom” incident against Seattle on Saturday.

But little did it matter to Sporting KC. The home side came out in a torrential downpour Wednesday night and pushed the Galaxy deep in their own half throughout the opening 15 minutes.

Ilie Sanchez hit the post a few minutes into the game and Sporting won seven corners through the opening quarter-hour before the Galaxy began to find a foothold.

Sporting KC’s backup for Melia, goalkeeper John Pulskamp, had an idea he would start following the incident with Melia and officially found out on Tuesday. He made a firm foot-save in the 30th minute and followed that up by making a crucial save in the 90th minute, solidifying his first-ever MLS clean sheet.

Pulskamp arrived in Kansas City in 2019 having grown up in California and spending some years in the L.A. Galaxy youth system.

“There’s no other team I’d rather have this performance against ...” Pulskamp said. “It just makes it all that much more sweet.”

With Pulskamp holding his own, Sporting KC’s altered front line held down the other end. Kinda and Khiry Shelton played not one but two dummy passes to manufacture space for Russell to open the scoring in the 40th minute.

Russell and teammate Graham Zusi celebrated the goal, Russell’s 14th of the season, by pantomiming a pro-wrestling style “clothesline” move, a playfully mischievous reference to Melia’s suspension.

“It was just a bit of a joke,” Russell said. “It was meant for Timmy. ... I should have went for the ‘rock bottom’ or suplex like Timmy, but we settled for a clothesline.”

Russell scored his second goal from the right wing in the 82nd minute after finding a pocket of space off the back of Galaxy defender Oniel Fisher.

Sporting KC now embarks on a two-game road trip, starting with Minnesota United on Halloween Sunday, before returning home for Decision Day against Real Salt Lake on Nov. 7.