Calvin Harris Rescues Sporting KC in 1-1 Draw as St. Louis CITY Stretch MLS Unbeaten Run to 10

Calvin Harris was riding the high of scoring when he spotted the flag. Taylor Calheira had slipped him in behind the St. Louis CITY SC back line in the 55th minute, Harris had buried a left-footed finish into the top left corner, and now an assistant referee was telling Sporting Park it did not count. Then VAR took a look, the call flipped, and the place erupted.

That goal earned Sporting Kansas City a 1-1 draw with St. Louis CITY SC on Wednesday night, cancelling out Eduard Löwen's free kick from the final seconds of the first half. Neither side found a winner. St. Louis extended its unbeaten run in MLS play to 10 matches, while Sporting, which out-shot the visitors 18-7, walked away feeling like it deserved more than a point.

Sporting Comes Out Swinging

The hosts came flying out of the gates in front of 15,355 fans. Sporting won four corners between the fifth and eighth minutes, and the shots kept coming: Dejan Joveljic forced Roman Bürki into a save in the 12th, and in a frantic stretch around the 14th and 15th minutes, Lasse Berg Johnsen, Jake Davis and Calheira all had efforts blocked. Capita fired high and wide in the 28th, and Davis dragged one wide from distance a minute later.

St. Louis did not register an attempt until the 30th minute, when Jeong Sang-Bin tried a left-footed shot from outside the box that Stefan Cleveland saved comfortably. Ten minutes later, the visitors nearly stole a lead. Daniel Edelman clipped a right-footed shot from the right side of the box that came back off the crossbar.

They would not miss the second time. Jansen Miller was booked in the 45th minute, and two minutes into first-half stoppage time, Löwen stood over a free kick and drove a right-footed shot into the bottom right corner. Sporting KC said the ball took a big deflection on the way in. Raphael Wicky, the Sporting head coach, put it more bluntly after the match: "out of nothing you suddenly are 1-0 back at halftime."

The Flag, the Screen and the Equalizer

Sporting responded the way you would want a team in its position to respond. Capita had a shot blocked early in the second half, and in the 52nd minute Bürki had to stretch to keep out a Miller header from a Davis cross. Three minutes later came the equalizer, and the drama around it.

"It's a big high and a sense of relief and emotion and then I see the offside flag and I'm thinking there's no chance I'm offside because I ran onto the ball and I never felt like I was offside," Harris said, per the club. "Once I saw it went through to VAR, I knew."

The goal stood, and it was Harris' third of his first season with the club, according to Sporting KC.

St. Louis nearly answered almost immediately. In the 60th minute, Jeong got free in the middle of the box and smacked his shot off the crossbar, the second time the visitors hit the woodwork. Joveljic then wasted a big chance at the other end, sending a left-footed effort from the middle of the box over the bar in the 65th.

The final half hour belonged to Sporting. Davis and substitute Stephen Afrifa had shots blocked in the 78th and 79th minutes, and Emir Karic missed to the right after a corner in the 80th. Karic then went down and had to be replaced by Jayden Reid because of an injury. Five minutes of stoppage time came and went without another clear look.

Who Showed Up

Calvin Harris needed one shot to make his mark, and it went in. He also gave his coach a performance to point to on a night when Sporting's press was the story.

Eduard Löwen gave St. Louis the lead with the kind of set piece that changes a game's mood. St. Louis noted it was his third goal of the season and his 20th career MLS goal.

Roman Bürki made two saves, and the back line in front of him did the heavy lifting. St. Louis blocked 10 Sporting shots and cleared the ball 30 times.

Dejan Joveljic was Sporting's busiest attacker with five shots, though only one hit the target. Calheira earned the assist on the equalizer in ESPN's data, while both clubs also credited Joveljic with a secondary assist.

The Turning Point

The VAR review in the 55th minute decided the shape of this game. Had the flag stood, St. Louis would have been protecting a 1-0 lead, and this team knows how to see out results. Instead, Sporting had life, the crowd had something to scream about, and the second half turned into a siege. St. Louis hit the bar again five minutes later and managed only two more attempts after that.

Stats That Matter

• Shots: Sporting KC 18, St. Louis 7, though only three of Sporting's were on target.
• Blocks: St. Louis blocked 10 Sporting shots.
• Corners: Sporting KC 9, St. Louis 2.
• Woodwork: St. Louis hit the crossbar twice, through Edelman and Jeong.
• Possession: St. Louis 51.5 percent, Sporting KC 48.5 percent.

Where It Leaves Them

St. Louis CITY SC moved to 8-6-6 with 30 points and has now gone 10 straight MLS matches without a loss, seven wins and three draws since a 2-0 defeat at Austin on May 3. The club said that run ties the longest unbeaten streak by any team in the league this season, set earlier in the year by Nashville SC, and that it is unbeaten in 11 across all competitions. According to Sporting KC, St. Louis has still never won a match at Sporting Park. St. Louis, which won the first meeting 3-2 at home on July 16, hosts Houston Dynamo FC on Saturday.

Sporting Kansas City is 4-3-13 with 15 points. The draw stopped a three-match losing run after defeats to LAFC, Houston and Colorado. "I'm not pleased with the result, but I'm very pleased with the performance of the team tonight," Wicky said. Sporting visits Atlanta United on Sunday.

Believing Is Half the Battle

Sporting is 4-3-13, and nobody is pretending otherwise. But this was the kind of night a struggling team can build on, and Wicky sounded like a coach who saw something real. "If you play more games like we did tonight, I believe that we can win games," he said. "I'm absolutely 100% convinced." Now Sporting has to prove it on the road.

Stats from ESPN's match data. Postgame quotes and match notes as reported by Sporting Kansas City (sportingkc.com) and St. Louis CITY SC (stlcitysc.com).