Injuries Overshadow Preseason Win

Sporting KC remained undefeated in preseason last night, beating the Portland Timbers 1-0 on the back of a Mechack Jerome free kick.  The result though was the last thing on most fans minds after the game ended.  The reason for that was the possible serious injury to reserve forward Soony Saad.  In the 60th minute, Saad was posting up against Futty Danso at the top of the box.  Saad took a knee to his back and immediately went down.  Saad was down for a good 20 minutes or so and had to be carried off on a backboard  to an ambulance and taken to the hospital.  The good news though is after the game Saad posted this on Twitter:

Hey everyone thanks for all the tweets and prayers. Scary moment for sure but glad to say everything is ok.
— Soony Saad (@SoonySaad) February 2, 2013

So Saad is ok, but definitely a scary moment.  The team announced it on Twitter as a bruised tailbone, but I'm sure Saad is undergoing other testing to make sure there's nothing wrong.  But thankfully he's ok.

Saad wasn't the only injury for Sporting though.  In the 30th minute, Chance Myers made a very good run up the field that ended in shot by Sporting's right back from just outside the 18.  After the shot though Myers came back limping and called for a sub.  He was replaced by Kevin Ellis, but the injury is not thought to be too serious, which is a good thing.

As for Sporting's goal, it came off of free kick won by Mikey Lopez only a few minutes after Saad was taken off the field.  Jerome stepped up and struck the free kick low towards goal.  The ball took at least one deflection on the way in and went past Milos Kocic and into the net giving Sporting the lead.  Much of the rest of the traffic the rest of the way was towards KC's goal.

And to complete the odd way the game was going, Peterson Joseph got himself ejected in second half stoppage time for a late tackle off the ball.  Only seconds after being called for a foul for running into a player, Joseph went into a tackle with Michael Nanchoff right after Nanchoff had played a cross to the far side.  Joseph wasn't actually shown the red card, but the referee pointed him towards the sideline and made him leave the field of play.  Joseph continues to have trouble keeping his head at times.  This ejection and last year's red card against Houston.  He has tons of talent, but it's becoming quite frustrating to watch him make these tackles.  Roger Espinoza made some poor choices in his tackles, but his weren't of the same level of Joseph's.  Joseph's tackles appear more reckless and with less control than the tackles Espinoza made.

Here are the full highlights.