Fire give up late lead, fall to Sporting KC in season opener

Felipe Gutierrez scored twice and Sporting Kansas City rallied with two late goals to beat the Chicago Fire 4-3 on Saturday night.

Gutierrez capped the scoring for Sporting (1-1-0) in the 86th minute, finishing Daniel Salloi’s back-heel flip. Jimmy Medranda tied it at 3-all three minutes earlier with a left-footed blast.

Chicago (0-1-0) erased a two-goal deficit with three goals over a 13-minute span. Aleksandar Katai cut the deficit to 2-1, heading home Bastian Schweinsteiger’s cross in the 70th minute. Nemanja Nikolic evened the score with a putback on Tim Melia’s save in the 74th minute and he made it 3-2 in the 82nd, finishing a short feed from Brandon Vincent off Matt Polster’s deep cross.

Gutierrez opened the scoring with a putback header from the middle of the area in the ninth minute. Johnny Russell doubled the lead for Sporting in the 44th minute, finishing Salloi’s back feed with a left-footed smash.