Sporting Kansas City set a club record tonight on the road against the Columbus Crew, winning their fourth straight road game 2-1 over the Crew thanks to a late winner by Benny Feilhaber.
Sporting came out in the first half and looked the better side during the half, pressuring the Crew high up the field as they've shown to do on the road. In the 7th minute KC had a great opportunity to take the lead. A Feilhaber corner found the head of Lawrence Olum in the box, but his header was hit the ground far enough in front of Steve Clark and has it bounced back up he was able to palm the ball over the bar. The next corner was headed clear. Kansas City continued to pressure in the half, winning a number of corners and finally in the 43rd minute capitalized. Feilhaber found the head of CJ Sapong who headed it past Clark and into the net. The goal was Sapong's first of the season and his celebration seemed to contain a bit of relief in it as well.
The second half saw KC start off attempting to continue their pressure on the Crew. That all changed in the 54th minute, when a floated ball into KC's half of the field was challenged for by Aurelien Collin and Adam Bedell. Collin had gotten up in the air above Bedell, and headed the ball away. Collin had gotten his arms up on the playand ended up bringing his elbow down on Bedell. No foul was called on that challenge, but seconds later on another foul. But after Bedell got treatment for a bloody nose he picked up on the play and consulting with his assistants, referee, Edvin Jurisevic, gave Collin a red card for the challenge. From there the game changed, Sporting immediately replaced Soony Saad with Kevin Ellis. KC though was on the back foot from that point forward. The Crew took advantage of the man advantage and Dom Dwyer's isolation up top to pin Kansas City deep in their own end. From comments Peter Vermes after the game, it sounds like Sporting is going to appeal his red card as well. In the 61st minute, Andy Gruenebaum was called into service as the Crew worked down KC's right. Bedell's initial header wasn't on goal but Seth Sinovic knocked the ball back to Bedell who one timed a shot to Gruenebaum's near post. He got down well though and palmed the ball out. The Crew finally leveled the game in the 69th minute. Bernardo Anor dribbled at KC's defense before playing the ball wide to Chad Barson. Barson crossed the ball into the box towards Federico Higuain. Igor Juliao was in front of the Crew midfielder though but there was little Juliao could do to avoid the ball and he knocked it into his own net leveling the game at 1-1. The Crew continued to pressure but weren't able to grab a second goal as Sporting started to sit deeper. The teams were level at 10 a piece in the 89th minute when Will Trapp didn't control a quick throw-in by Anor and tripped Juliao as he raced to win the ball. Trapp was given his second yellow card and sent off, leveling the two teams for the final two minutes plus stoppage time. With the teams level KC was able to get into the game more again and found a winner in the third minute of stoppage time. KC worked the ball down the right wing with Jacob Peterson. He played the ball up the field to Juliao who got by his mark and cut in a little towards goal. He played a ball back towards the top of the box. Peterson had continued his run and tried to control the ball but didn't get enough on the ball. It continued to roll though right into the path of Feilhaber who hit a one time strike that hit the underside of the cross bar and went in, restoring KC's one goal lead. KC held on through the rest of stoppage time for the fourth straight road win.
Wizards Man of the Match - Benny Feilhaber - A goal and an assist for the new dad, a very nice performance from him, taking control of the midfield as he's done for most of the season for KC. Plenty of fans have been more impressed with his set pieces than those of KC's regular taker,Graham Zusi.
Player Ratings - Gruenebaum 6, Juliao 6, Collin 4, Besler 6, Sinovic 6, Feilhaber 8, Olum 6, Lopez 6, Sapong 6, Dwyer 5, Saad 4. Subs Ellis 5, Peterson 6.
Juliao 4. Was abused on the goal and beaten time and again on the wing. Nice play at the end, though.
ReplyDeleteI agree about Juliao. He is very good going forward. But he is killing us defensively. I will continue to say that I would rather see Ellis starting at right back while Myers is out of commission.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I know that Ellis is cover for center back. But that's about to change with Claros coming into the squad.
How was he abused on the goal? He was in an awful spot to defend of no fault of his own, and was pushed while trying to make a play on the ball.
ReplyDeleteI dont think people understand how dangerous it is to have an outside back that can actually attack and strike the ball consistently.
When down a man, the outside backs have the toughest job as the remaining players compact in the middle, leaving ample amounts of space on the wings and number disadvantages. You might have choose to ignore Seth getting turned inside out multiple times in this situation, conveniently.
"Killing us defensively" - we havent given up more than a goal in a game since 5/23, and yesterdays was caused on the opposite side as he plays.