The top of Sporting Kansas City’s offseason wish list was a high-dollar striker, but after a search ultimately fell flat, the club turned to Diego Rubio and Khiry Shelton as its answers. Fewer than four months in the season, the two options opened a game Saturday as merely substitute options off the bench, indicative of their outputs in 2018.
A match in the balance, Sporting KC coach Peter Vermes turned to the answers he was left with in March.
They responded in kind.
Rubio and Shelton scored three minutes apart Saturday, the game-tying and game-winning goals in Sporting Kansas City’s 3-2 comeback victory against Houston in front of a sold-out crowd of 20,081 at Children’s Mercy Park.