A Draw Like a Loss

photo courtesy of Jarred Donalson

In a vacuum, last night's draw in Colorado is a good result.  KC ended their 3 game losing streak, on the road in a place where KC normally doesn't get wins.  Teal Bunbury got out of his goal scoring slump picking up 2 goals, and Seth Sinovic returned to the first team.  Unfortunately, we don't live in a vacuum, and after last night's game instead of feeling like KC picked up a point, it felt as though KC dropped two after they scored two early goals and then let Colorado take the game to them for the next 50+ minutes until Colorado equalized.


Things couldn't have started better for KC on the night though.  Around a minute into the game, Graham Zusi picked out picked out Bobby Convey on the left hand side with a great cross field ball.  Convey played the ball to an overlapping Seth Sinovic.  Sinovic crossed the ball into the box where an unmarked Bunbury headed the ball past Matt Pickens with a diving header to give KC the very early 1-0 lead.  Colorado probably should have equalized in the 12th minute.  Similar to the goal that Conor Casey scored last year, Aurelien Collin played a poor pass right to Casey.  Casey ran in on goal and tried to chip Jimmy Nielsen but didn't get the shot high enough and Nielsen collected.  KC came right back down the field and almost made it 2-0.  Kei Kamara did well to win a header in Colorado's box, then held off Drew Moor, turned and fired a shot on goal that Pickens got down and saved.  Shortly after Kamara's chance, KC did make it 2-0.  On a long throw from Matt Besler, Chance Myers challenged Pickens on the throw and the ball fell to Bunbury who one timed the shot into the net to make it 2-0 KC in the 14th minute and KC looked to be cruising.

After the goal though, the direction of the game changed.  KC was not getting forward much at all.  Instead the majority of the game was spent in Kansas City's end of the field.  Colorado controlled the game, but for the rest of the first half, KC was able to hold off the Rapids attack.

That changed early in the second half though.  After Convey lost a ball close to midfield, he raced  back to recover and made a poor challenge on Martin Rivero.  Convey drew a yellow card for it, and on the ensuing free kick Rivero picked out Tyrone Marshall, who had lost his mark and headed the ball past Nielsen and into the net to get Colorado within one.  KC continued to struggle to maintain possession and it seemed that an equalizer was only minutes away.  In the 60th minute it finally came.  Another free kick, this one at the top of the box, was struck by Jeff Larentowicz low to the corner.  Nielsen got down well to save the attempt, but could only push the shot wide.  Casey was the first to react to the shot, collected the ball and squared a ball into the middle for Kosuke Kimura who had crashed the box, losing Jacob Peterson and put the ball into the net to tie the game at 2-2. 

KC seemed to wake up a bit after the game became tied, but really still struggled to create chances.  The insertion of Peterson Joseph was a bright spot late in the game for KC as he did well to track back and created KC's more dangerous chances late on with some good dribbling and passing.  Lawrence Olum had a good look from the top of the box late in the game, probably the person I wanted least in that situation to take that shot.  Olum though blasted the shot well over the goal.  Rivero could have won it late as well with a header but Nielsen punched the ball out.  With the last touch of the game, Kamara could have won it for KC off a corner, but his header ended up going wide of the goal and right after the referee blew his whistle to end the game.

Wizards Man of the Match - Teal Bunbury - Bunbury got himself off the mark in the 2012 season with 2 goals last night.  Neither was incredibly fancy, but they were both well finished by the US international.  Hopefully this is the wake up that Bunbury needed.  He tends to score his goals in bunches so maybe this is the first of many to come.

Player Ratings - Nielsen 5, Myers 5, Collin 4, Besler 5, Sinovic 5, Cesar 5, Nagamura 4, Zusi 4, Kamara 5, Bunbury 6, Convey 4.  Subs Peterson 3, Joseph 6, Olum NR.