KANSAS CITY, Kan. — It was the consensus among many CONCACAF Champions League participants that Sporting KC got the toughest draw of the 16-team tournament having to play Toluca FC in the first round.
If so, watch out for Sporting, because Thursday night the club put a 3-0 beat down on their foes from south of the border.
"I think there’s no doubt that the ability for us to play through as good a team as Toluca is pretty impressive," said Sporting Manager Peter Vermes.
Krisztian Nemeth got the scoring started in the first half after the ball fell to him in the box.
"All of a sudden – I don’t know how – the ball came to me and I tried to be patient to find the goal," said Nemeth.
Sporting added to its lead in the second half when Gerso got his own rebound and found the back of the net on his second try.
"The ball bounced to me and I was just like, ‘I’m going to smash it inside.’ Lucky me, it went in," said Gerso.
Ilie sealed it late in the match with a brilliant strike that left the final total 3-0 in favor of Sporting KC.
The aggregate round now moves to Toluca, with an elevation of over 8,700 feet, but Sporting holds the huge lead and did not allow a road goal.
"This is just one leg. This is just one game. We have a second leg here that is going to be very difficult and we realize that," said Vermes.
