There’s nothing wrong with winning a point on the road, but Sporting Kansas City definitely feels as though it was cheated out of the full three points by a blown offside call Sunday against D.C. United at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C.
Defender Ike Opara scored a goal in the 30th minute, but it was waived off by assistant referee Matt Nelson’s offside call. The game ended in a 1-1 draw.
Replays clearly showed that multiple United defenders kept Opara onside, so the goal should have counted.
Momentum can be elusive. Through much of April, Sporting Kansas City had it. Then, they lost it.
Did they get it back on Sunday with an emphatic 4-0 win over Chivas USA? Sure seems like it. Anytime you can get your leading scorer back on a good vein of form (Claudio Bieler had two goals), your best player back to dominating the pitch (Graham Zusi was the man of the match and MLS Player of the Week) and the defense back on track (Jimmy Nielsen earned his 38th shutout -- and it was by far his easiest) is a good game.
Now, will it carry over into a tricky tricky mid-week fixture against the second-worst (but still quite dangerous) team in the league, the Seattle Sounders?*
If wide-open soccer with an edge to it is your sort of bag, well, have I got the match-up for you: Sporting Kansas City (4-3-2) and Chivas USA (3-3-2).
Both teams have double digits in goals (10 for KC, 12 for Chivas), both teams have allowed a few goals (8 for KC, 11 for Chivas). Both are coming off weeks with high score lines (3-2 for KC, 2-2 for Chivas). Peter Vermes has repeatedly appealed for teams to come into Sporting Park and play soccer.* Juan Luis Sanchez Sola (aka El Chelis) has already said this year, "I would rather lose 5-4 or 5-2 than to win 1-0...I want fans to be happy and entertained."**
*Vermes got his wish last week against Portland. Wonder if teams seeing that they can open up and play KC will open up games this year that might have been more closed off?
** El Chelis is worth the price of admission, in case you hadn't heard.
The buzzword around Sporting Kansas City’s practice last week was “balance.”
A lack of balance defensively resulted in a bounty of counterattack goals allowed the last two weeks in losses to the LA Galaxy (2-0) and Portland Timbers (3-2).
It’s no secret that Sporting KC, which had a run of five consecutive shutouts before leaking five goals in the last two games, needs to achieve better balance to return to the win column.
A few hours after suffering a 2-1 loss Saturday against Aston Villa, Norwich City announced that Kei Kamara’s loan deal was finished.
The Canaries had the option to acquire Kamara on a full transfer after a three-month loan period, which officially ends Monday, but Norwich City elected not to exercise that option.
Instead, Kamara is heading back to Sporting Kansas City.
This has been a strange start for KC. It wasn't a scorched earth road-trip from hell like in 2011 (1-6-2 over the first nine matches) or a destroy-all-comers and grind out quality wins like last year (7-2-0 to start the season).
Instead, SKC have looked great (2-0 vs. Montreal), lethal (the 2nd half of the 3-1 win in Philadelphia), resilient (1-0 vs. D.C. United), toothless (0-0 vs. Chicago), disinterested (0-0 in New England), exposed (2-0 in Los Angeles), tough (1-0 in New York), slow (3-2 vs. Portland) and overmatched (2-1 in Toronto).
But the big takeaway? It's early. There have been positives, negatives and a lot to chew on as KC hits the second phase of the season. There are 6 months and 25 matches remaining. That's a lot of soccer still to go.
Despite beating the Dearborn (Mich.) Stars 1-0 in a “win-and-you’re-in” Region II qualifier for soccer’s Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, the KC Athletics won’t get to play in the national club championship after all.
Player/coach Kyle Perkins scored a 90th-minute goal April 21 at Olathe North High School, but the Stars protested the match on the grounds the field was too narrow to meet the United States Adult Soccer Association’s minimum 65-yard width.
That protest was upheld last Wednesday and a replay of the game was ordered Sunday in Chicago.
