Sporting Loss Sees them Drop to the Fifth Seed

Sporting Kansas City's late season form continued to hurt them on Sunday at home against the New York Red Bulls as Sporting fell 2-0 at home to New York, dropping them from the third seed to the fifth seed, meaning a trip to New York on Thursday in an attempt to make the conference semifinals.

Kansas City came out with some fire looking to strike early. Dom Dwyer got played in with space behind New York in the eighth minute, but had his shot saved by Luis Robles and got cleared for a throw. Unfortunately for KC it'd really be their only shot on goal in the first half. KC had another opportunity in the 10th as Jacob Peterson played a decent lofted ball in to the back post for Kevin Ellis, but the right back put his effort over the bar giving New York a goal kick. In the 15th minute, Kansas City paid for not making more of the earlier opportunities as Bradley Wright-Phillips got played in behind KC's defense and beat Eric Kronberg to give New York the lead. Eric Alexander picked out the Golden Boot winner with a nice through ball that Ellis couldn't get a touch on. The Englishman then slotted the ball to the far post giving New York the 1-0 lead. With the lead, New York became the aggressor and KC's defense had to be on alert to keep New York from doubling the lead as Aurelien Collin and Matt Besler stepped up to block efforts from New York's attackers. KC couldn't create enough offensively in the first half to challenge New York, and dug themselves a hole that they'd have to try to dig out of in the second half.

In the second half, New York continued to be the more aggressive side. In the 54th minute they almost grabbed a second as a corner kick played to the back post was headed on goal by Dax McCarthy but Sal Zizzo was on the line to knock the ball away. In the 70th minute, New York doubled their lead. A long ball over the top for Wright-Phillips caused Collin a number of problems as he first tired to hold off the Englishman before losing the ball. Wright-Phillips collected the ball and lost Collin. Wright-Phillips started to attack Besler before cutting back and firing a shot inside the near post of Kronberg to double New York's lead and send KC reeling into the play in game. Down two goals, KC struggled to create opportunities, and it was New York that had the better chances on the counter. Wright-Phillips almost picked up the hattrick in the 83rd as he got played in behind KC's defense, but Kronberg came up with a big save and there was no one in the middle as Wright-Phillips tried to lay the ball off to a teammate. KC never seemed to really threaten the New York net late on as KC fell for the 5th time at home in league play this season, the most since the team rebranded after the 2010 season.

Wizards Man of the Match - None - Really no one stood out at all when it came to their work on the field. No one looked like they wanted to take over and really lift this team when they were struggling to create chances offensively. No one on defense had a shut down defense that stopped the New York attack from going, and no one in the midfield really controlled the game. Overall it just wasn't a great performance.

Player Ratings - Kronberg 4, Ellis 4, Collin 3, Besler 3, Sinovic 3, Olum 1, Nagamura 4, Zusi 4, Peterson 4, Dwyer 3, Zizzo 2. Subs Lopez 3, Dovale 3, Bieler 3.