Andre Luiz's brace rescues Kansas City in wild 3-3 draw with Portland after blowing two-goal leads

Sporting Kansas City found themselves down 1-3 against the Portland Timbers, and with everything pointing toward another blowout loss in a season to forget, the club found a way to salvage a 3-3 draw at Sporting Park. They did it behind a brace from Andre Luiz, whose second goal arrived in the 72nd minute off a counterattack, right when the match looked all but decided.

The night started poorly for the home side. David da Costa put Portland ahead just nine minutes in with a low finish from the middle of the box, assisted by Ariel Lassiter. That score held until the end of the first half, when VAR reviewed a play inside the area and awarded Portland a penalty. Vincent Janssen made no mistake at the start of the second half, converting in the 48th minute to make it 0-2.

What followed was a wild stretch of goals packed into about 25 minutes. Just three minutes later, Kansas City earned a penalty of their own: Andre Luiz missed his first attempt, but the ball stayed live and he buried the rebound to pull one back in the 51st minute. Portland answered quickly, with Lassiter turning finisher this time to make it 1-3 in the 63rd minute off a cross from Jimer Fory. It looked like the knockout blow, but Sporting Kansas City refused to fold. Justin Reynolds curled a shot into the top corner in the 69th minute to make it 2-3, and three minutes later Andre Luiz struck again, finishing calmly near the post off another counterattack to complete the 3-3 final.

What the numbers say

The final score tells an interesting story when you look at possession: Portland controlled the ball with 54.4 percent to Kansas City's 45.6 percent, and also outpassed the hosts 547 to 444. Still, Kansas City generated more total shots and was far superior in corner kicks.

Our expected goals estimate based on the match's shots comes out fairly even: 2.113 for Kansas City and 1.832 for Portland, a number that reflects just how contested the final stretch was, with both sides creating danger in front of goal right up to the end.

What we had projected

Heading into the match, our model gave the Portland Timbers a 51 percent chance of winning, compared with 27 percent for Sporting Kansas City and 22 percent for a draw. We had also projected a combined expected goals total of 3.81 between the two sides, 1.59 for the hosts and 2.22 for the visitors. The final score, with six goals split almost evenly, ended up validating the idea of an open, high scoring match, though the draw contradicts a forecast that clearly favored the Timbers, who twice built two-goal leads and couldn't hold onto either.

Where things stand in the standings

In the Western Conference, both clubs are stuck in the lower half of the table. Sporting Kansas City sits 15th with 22 points from 28 matches (6 wins, 4 draws and 18 losses), while the Portland Timbers are 10th with 33 points from the same number of games (9 wins, 6 draws and 13 losses). The gap between the two clubs stands at 11 points, something tonight's result doesn't change much on paper, though it leaves a very different feeling for each side: Kansas City grabbed a point that looked impossible just 20 minutes from the end, while Portland is left to stew over blowing a two-goal cushion not once but twice.

In the end, the 3-3 result leaves more questions than answers for both coaches, Raphael Wicky and Marti Cifuentes: a Kansas City defense that keeps leaking goals in a season already defined by a brutal goal difference, and a Portland side that couldn't close out a match it had won twice over.