It's becoming a bad habit for Sporting KC, allowing the Seattle Sounders to get a win on late goals. For the sixth time today Sporting allowed a goal in second half stoppage time that allowed the Sounders to take all three point. This time the goal came from Chad Barrett as he poked a shot home after a scramble in front of goal.
Kansas City came out with a few surprises in their lineup, likely with an eye towards Wednesday and a CONCACAF Champions League match up with Cruz Azul. Chance Myers, Seth Sinovic, Paulo Nagamura, Oriol Rosell, and Claudio Bieler were either left on the bench or left in Kansas City replaced by Josh Gardner, Kevin Ellis, Lawrence Olum, Dom Dwyer, and Jacob Peterson. Even with a number of reserves in the lineup KC still was able to bring the game to Seattle. In just the second minute, Graham Zusi forced a save from Seattle's Stefan Frei. The rebound fell into the path of an onrushing Dwyer but Frei recovered well and was able to get enough of Dwyer's shot to push it wide. KC continued to be aggressive in the early going, testing Seattle's back line. Seattle's first really good chance came in the 31st minute when a Marco Pappa shot was deflected, but Eric Kronberg saw the deflection well and pushed it out for a corner. Shortly after that opportunity KC should have grabbed the lead. Off a Kronberg goal kick, the ball was flicked on into the path of Zusi. Zusi played the ball to Dwyer who cut inside his defender and fired a shot on goal. Frei parried the shot away but right into the path of Peterson. The forward though couldn't get over the ball enough on his volley attempt and sent the ball well over the goal. Dwyer had another opportunity a few minutes later after getting played on by CJ Sapong. Dwyer's effort though took a deflection and skipped wide of the far post.
The second half saw the Sounders come out and push the game more as the home side. In the 53rd minute, the Sounders almost grabbed the lead. Lamar Neagle received a through ball as Gardner missed on a slide to intercept the pass. Neagle dribbled in on goal and fired a shot that Kronberg got enough of to push off target, but right into the path of Obafemi Martins. Martins though couldn't make enough contact to turn the shot on goal. KC struggled to get out of their own end and the Sounders continued to press. Kenny Cooper fired an effort just wide of Kronberg's far post in the 69th minute. Sporting continued to try to push the game forward but found their opportunities to move forward lacking. Early in stoppage timie they did get an opportunity as Frei missed on collecting a long ball when challenged by Sapong. The ball fell to Dwyer but he ended up having his shot deflected wide of the goal. Then in the 94th minute, Osvaldo Alonso won the ball in the Seattle end of the field and raced forward. He picked out Clint Dempsey who ended up playing the ball wide to Sean Okoli. Okoli crossed the ball into the middle towards Martins, but it didn't get to him, instead Kronberg and Matt Besler collided and the ball went up into the air. the ball fell to Dempsey, whose header clanged off the cross bar. His second attempt at a volley did get enough on it, but it fell to Barrett who knocked the ball home to give the Sounders the lead at the death. Only seconds after the restart the final whistle blew ending the game.
Wizards Man of the Match - Benny Feilhaber - Playing a bit deeper than normal, Feilhaber did a good job of breaking up the Sounders' attacks. His absence was noticed especially on the Sounders goal as Alonso ran right through the area that Feilhaber would have likely been filling if he hadn't just been subbed out of the game.
Player Ratings - Kronberg 6, Ellis 5, Besler 6, Collin 6, Gardner 5, Olum 5, Feilhaber 6, Zusi 5, Sapong 4, Dwyer 5, Peterson 4. Subs Zizzo 4, Jerome NR, Opara NR.
Saturday, March 08, 2014
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3 comments:
When Besler and Kronberg collided going for the ball, Collin was playing out of position and actually looked like he lept into both of them, knocking them down. If Collin had been covering back towards the middle of the six-yard box, I'm betting the ball gets cleared initially or at least we have a defender in better position to get the rebound.
Moot point of course, because we didn't score for 90+ minutes, but a tie still would have been preferred.
The goal was won by Seattle when we lost the ball in the midfield and Opara went too far forward. He was on as an extra defender but pushed too far up. When we lost the ball he continued forward and got burned. That left the rest of the defense scrambling and out of position. I really don't understand why Benny was subbed off in a tie game. We needed a ball handler and a player that knows when it is time for a professional foul. Ike should have fouled Alonso -- even if it meant a red card. Ugh. This loss in on PV for a poor substitution.
@ hartley
Pretty much in complete agreement. The play started breaking down on our part up near mid-right of the field. I just had a gut reaction to Besler & Kronberg seemingly getting the brunt of blame, which I kind of expected would happen.
I'm assuming I'm not the only one getting tired of Seattle pulling off late wins like this.
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