I come not to salt wounds, only to scour through the rubble of Sporting Kansas City's latest collapse for answers and/or hope. I don't expect to find much of the later, though I can offer a little of the former.
Here are 11 questions I have and will attempt to answer after Sporting's soul-crushing 3-2 loss to Dallas. 1. Why?The most optimistic thing I can offer is that soccer is a maddening sport sometimes and it's better to get this sort of game out of the way sooner rather than later. And, yep, that's about it. 2. No, really, why? Soothing platitudes about "that's the game" and "it'll get better" won't cut it. We need someone to blame. Somewhere to direct our still festering ire. Find a good excuse.
Pick one: Tired legs, poor officiating, Teal Bunbury's red-card, Peter Vermes' odd substitutions, Brek Shea's brilliance, it's all part of an MLS conspiracy to keep Kansas City down or Livestrong Sporting Park was built on an ancient Indian burial ground and we're just finding that out. They're all kind of right. Well not those last two. Or, certainly, not that last one. (We hope.)Whatever the case, dropping points at this point of the season really, really, really hurts. And that's the most important part.3. Just how important were those three dropped points?
Losing that game was about as important as winning the D.C. United game last weekend. Instead of gaining ground in the East, KC spun its tires in the mud. (Luckily, every Eastern team did the same.) The difference between second-place and out-of-the-playoffs is just four points. Four. Another bad game combined with a positive result for New York and/or D.C. United and this is a different situation. And, for Sporting, the schedule doesn't exactly get easier (as I've mentioned in this exact format a few times) -- seven of the next eight games are against teams in the thick of the playoff hunt. 4. When will Kansas City learn how to close out big games?
Against the Top 9 teams* in MLS (Los Angeles, Seattle, Dallas, Colorado, Columbus, Salt Lake, Houston, Philadelphia and New York), Sporting Kansas City have struggled mightily with a record of 2-6-4 (or, 10 points out of a possible 36). *To reiterate my point from Question #1, Sporting still have six games against the Top 9 teams in the MLS. Of those six losses, FIVE have been by just 1 goal. What's more, Sporting KC actually lead in two of those games. If Sporting Kansas City plans on making the playoffs, figuring out how to win a 1-goal game against one of these 9 teams will be just as important as having 11 players, a field and a soccer ball. 5. Will Sporting Kansas City make the playoffs?
Wow. Now that's a tougher question than you might think. I'd like to not overreact to one loss and concede the season. This is a team, after all, that have fought admirably from a very large hole. But, with such a dangerously thin margin separating a mass of teams... it's conceivable that failure is very much an unfortunate option for Sporting KC.**To reiterate -- again -- my point from Question #1, Sporting still have six games against the Top 9 teams in the MLS. September will be a long, tough month. 6. Who's more to blame: Peter Vermes or Chris Penso?
You hate to be a sore loser and blame the referee for a loss, but it's hard to ignore that Penso had a really, really bad game as the man in charge. Dallas' first goal, a free-kick by Daniel Hernandez, was the result of a foul that wasn't. (If you don't remember the exact moment, it's the 69th minute, a pass is threaded through to Brek Shea. He steps on the ball, slips on the ball and falls over. Chance Myers is standing behind him. The ball wriggles free, Shea stands up and Myers chases him toward the byline for the ball. As both are jostling -- a good 3 count after the slip -- the whistle blows. Shea and Myers both look legitimately puzzled.*)*The resulting free kick was a dreadful showing by Sporting. Nobody covers Ugo Ihemelu, who dips his head to it before it goes right through two players. It doesn't matter how bad the decision was to award the kick, KC has to defend set pieces better than that.But that's not the only incident that was questionable. I'm pretty sure Bunbury -- who was five yards behind the last defender -- was offside on KC's second goal. And I'm also fairly sure that Penso didn't realize that Bunbury was already on a yellow when he went to put him in the book for simulation in the second half. That red card was kind of a big deal. There were other decisions that didn't involve Bunbury, but they are too numerous to list in detail. Now, while the refs did have a collective shocker, Vermes made a few bad calls of his own. The biggest of which was his odd first substitution pulling Omar Bravo off for Aurelien Collin.Collin didn't look 100 percent. He seemed tentative on physical challenges and, gasp, not nearly as effective as Julio Cesar. But was troubles me more was leaving Bunbury and Kei Kamara on the field and taking off Bravo. Bunbury was on a card and tackling like Lee Cattermole. Kamara looked absolutely gassed -- twice in the first half, he looked on the verge of needing to be replaced and it didn't improve much in the second half. 7. Let's throw some more blame around: Who was at fault for the almost identical goals at the end?There's not one individual player whose feet you can lay blame on -- it was a team effort to lose this game. The defense will bear the brunt though, as there was too much space and poor tackling in the last 10 minutes. But if you had to pin it down specifically, both Julio Cesar and Chance Myers individually failed to close down Brek Shea on the game-tying and game-winning goals. I mean, why give one of the most dangerous players in MLS a cushion in which to operate? That's exactly what Sporting did though. 8. Is Brek Shea the best player in MLS?
I was talking with James Starritt of The Sporting Times before the game and we both agreed that he was the most terrifying player on the field and easily one of the Top 5 most frightening players with the ball at his feet (Landon Donovan, Fredy Montero, Javier Morales and Omar Cummings are my other four). He's Major League Soccer's magical mystery unicorn. Give him space and/or time, and, eventually, he'll tear you apart. 9. Didn't KC control a large chunk of this game? Why didn't it continue?
This is probably the most over-looked aspect of this game the last few days. After half, Vermes sent the team out in a much more defensive-minded 4-2-3-1. It sort of looked like this (with the arrows point toward the players key direction of movement).
At times, it almost seemed to resemble a 4-4-2 with Bravo and Bunbury up top -- though Bravo was slightly withdrawn. Here's the crazy part: It worked, creating possession, pressure and a goal. Well, it worked right up until Bravo was subbed off in the 71st minute and Bunbury's card in the 76th minute. After that, possession and pressure waned substantially. The red card changed everything. Kansas City doesn't play well a man down and have allowed 8 goals this season while down a man. (Which is not such a bad number when you consider that KC have played down a man EIGHT times this season.) Sporting attacks down a man. The fullbacks still play vertically, the center defenders still set a high line and the forwards often spend too much time on the ball in the middle of the field. It's a blueprint for conceding. Speaking of blueprints: Smart teams I guarantee you will take note of Dallas' game-plan. Which seemed to be press Sporting high early and often (which almost unhinged the game in the first half), weather the storm (without panicking), wait for the inevitable Sporting Kansas City red card (see #7), and when up a man, push the ball inside out (basically, sucking the fullbacks too far inside and then using the space that creates to pull apart the backline). If you can stomach it, just watch the game-tying goal again to see what I mean. 10. Didn't KC almost sneak back a goal at the end to draw?In the 93rd minute, Chance Myers put a cross to the far post that Michael Harrington turned wide. It was a wide-open net too.11. Can you think of anything at to lighten the mood? This story is like listening to Elliott Smith on shuffle.
Yeah, how about you try and explain what exactly happens to Real Madrid's Mesut Ozil in this video.
