Ball-watching, turnovers costly in Sporting KC loss to Galaxy. Postgame reaction & more

The post-win bump didn’t last very long.

Sporting KC returned to the loss column on Saturday night, dropping a 4-2 road decision to the Los Angeles Galaxy.

On two separate occasions, Sporting cut a two-goal deficit to one. But each time, the Galaxy answered.

The Galaxy opened the scoring in the 39th minute. Sporting goalkeeper Tim Melia saved two shots, the second by Los Angeles’ Dejan Joveljic, but the defenders in the area appeared to give up on the play and stood watching. Joveljic got a second chance and finished his final shot into an empty net.

Manager Peter Vermes lamented the ball-watching, as well as turnovers leading to goals, in his postgame news conference.

The Galaxy doubled their lead in the 54th minute off a goal from Gabriel Pec.

Sporting brought on Stephen Afrifa and Willy Agada, and both made an impact over the final 30 minutes. Afrifa got Sporting on the board with his first MLS goal, courtesy of a pass from Erik Thommy.

The Galaxy made it 3-1 in the 75th minute with a lightning-quick counterattack as Sporting pushed for the equalizer.

Robert Castellanos gave Sporting a second goal and glimmer of hope before Miguel Berry put the game to bed in the second minute of stoppage time.

Sporting KC has a quick turnaround, hosting Real Salt Lake on Wednesday night.

This story will be updated.

Daniel Sperry covers soccer for The Star. He can be reached at sperry.danielkc@gmail.com.