Andy Lundberg | Special to The Star

Sporting Kansas City's Roger Espinosa (left) and Montreal's Eduardo Sebrango battled on Saturday.

With the largest home crowd of the season on hand, Sporting Kansas City returned from a two-week hiatus and laid an egg Saturday at Livestrong Sporting Park.

The expansion Montreal Impact — which went with a patchwork lineup, opting to rest some starters in preparation for a Canadian Cup showdown Wednesday with Toronto FC — stunned Sporting KC 2-0 despite being outshot 22-6 and conceding 11 corner kicks.

The crowd of 20,404 watched Montreal, 3-5-2, claim its first road win, while delivering the first regular-season shutout win by an opponent in Livestrong’s brief history.

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A warm reception

Prior to Saturday’s game against the Montreal Impact, a minute-long tribute to former Sporting KC player Davy Arnaud aired on the in-stadium videoboards at Livestrong Sporting Park.

Arnaud, a fifth-round pick in the 2002 MLS SuperDraft, spent 10 seasons in Kansas City before he was traded Nov. 28 for Seth Sinovic, who Montreal had snapped up only five days earlier in the expansion draft, and allocation money.

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| Star file photo

Real Salt Lake midfielder Ned Grabavoy (left) and Sporting KC midfielder Davy Arnaud fought to control the ball during a September MLS soccer game in Sandy, Utah.

Davy Arnaud never wanted to leave Kansas City.

He started his professional soccer career here and happily would have ended it here as well. And there are no lingering hard feelings from Sporting KC’s decision to deal him north of the border during the offseason.

Seeking leadership and a physical presence in the midfield, the Montreal Impact, who had selected Sporting’s Seth Sinovic in the expansion draft, traded Sinovic, a defender, back to his hometown team in exchange for Arnaud.

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Momentum is a fickle, fickle beast. Two weeks ago, Sporting Kansas City had it in aces.

Then Portland happened.

Then a week off happened.

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Herman Evaristo | HEPhotoweb.com

Devon Grousis-Henderson, a 2006 Shawnee Mission North graduate, celebrates with Cyprian Hedrick when the two were teammates with the Fresno Fuego of the Professional Development League, a fourth-division soccer squad primarily used as a summer training ground for amateur college players. Grousis-Henderson decided to continue striving for a professional soccer after Sporting Kansas City drafted Hedrick, who lived with his family for three summers in California.

Devon Grousis-Henderson had lost the fire to play professional soccer. He was going to hang up his cleats and focus on a web development company he started.

But when his friend and former teammate, Cyprian Hedrick, was drafted by Sporting Kansas City in the second round of the MLS SuperDraft in January, the competitive fire inside Grousis-Henderson was reignited as well.

“I always told him the summer before his senior year that he was going to get drafted out of Coastal Carolina,” Grousis-Henderson, a 2006 Shawnee Mission North graduate, said about Hedrick. “We always joked about it, but I knew he was a strong player, who had the desire to get better. That’s what the MLS needs.”

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The only things, so far, that have been able to stop Sporting Kansas City's torrid start are a Chance Myers own goal and the schedule makers.

That both happened at the same time seems rather fortuitous.

While feels like a month ago, but, really it's only been a little over a week since KC fell 1-0 to Portland. Though it has been long enough for the Royals to end and begin another multiple-game losing streak in that period.

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Sporting KC's reserve team drew 2-2 with FC Dallas on Tuesday night at the Swope Park Training Center.

KC's goals came from Michael Thomas and Dom Dwyer. The reserves are 1-2-2 in the Central Conference.

• With Seth Sinovic sidelined recovering from surgery on a broken hand, Peter Vermes told MLSsoccer.com today that one-time starter Michael Harrington will fill in against Montreal this Saturday.

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JOHN SLEEZER | The Kansas City Star | The Kansas City Star

Sporting Kansas City’s Aurelien Collin (center) and his teammates have gotten off on the right foot this season, giving their fans plenty to cheer.

Admit it, soccer fans, you’re all wondering the same thing: Does Sporting Kansas City have what it takes to make a run at the MLS Cup?

The cold, hard truth is that only time will tell. The answer won’t come before Dec. 1, but the club’s early-season surge to the top of the Eastern Conference table has the U.S. soccer world buzzing about the possibility.

Fresh off a trip to last season’s Eastern Conference final, Sporting KC, 7-1-0, broke from the gate better than any team in franchise history. A string of seven straight wins opening the season ended in a 1-0 loss on April 21 at Portland, the hard-luck result of an own-goal.

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Don Ryan | AP

Portland Timbers forward Kris Boyd, top, picks up Sporting Kansas City defender Aurelian Collin off the field during the first half of their MLS soccer game in Portland, Ore., Saturday, April 21, 2012. (AP Photo/Don Ryan)

Full 90 Player of the Month: Aurelien Collin

On April 15, 2011, Sporting Kansas City finally were able to pull the strings on an important acquisition: The French-via-Portugal defender Aurelien Collin.

Collin was almost immediately inserted into the lineup, earning a reputation (rather fairly) as physical and yellow-card-attracting defender. But his physicality and fiery play ignited the team. It didn't happen immediately, but KC steadily became a better team with him beside Matt Besler and the pair helped lead KC to the Eastern Conference finals.

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JOHN SLEEZER | The Kansas City Star

Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder Landon Donovan (10) grabs hold of Sporting KC defender Seth Sinovic's (16) arm while chasing down the ball during Saturday's soccer game at Livestrong Sporting Park in Kansas City, Ks, on April 7, 2012. John Sleezer/The Kansas City Star

Sporting Kansas City suffer a bad break, but thankfully it came at the right time.

Starting fullback Seth Sinovic fractured his right hand during the team's 1-0 loss to Portland on Saturday. According to MLSsoccer.com, Sinovic had surgery on Tuesday and is expected to miss no more than two weeks.

With Sporting KC on a bye this week, it's likely Sinovic could miss just one game -- May 5th against Montreal.

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Last week, Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber sat down with sports editors from around the country during the APSE Commissioners Meetings.

Garber talked jersey sponsorship (for the league and Sporting KC) and how KC have grown the last few years.

Here are The Don's quotes.

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Don Ryan | AP

Portland Timbers defender Mike Chabala, right, slides in and blocks a shot by Sporting KC forward Kel Kamara during the second half of their MLS soccer game in Portland, Ore., Saturday, April 21, 2012. The Timbers won 1-0.(AP Photo/Don Ryan)

The hardest part of a long winning/unbeaten streak is that first loss. It hurts or stings or sucks or whatever negative verb you want to interject.

Also: It feels foreign. The last time Sporting Kansas City lost a regular season match was 218 days before against Real Salt Lake.

The good news: Sporting still holds a 9-point lead over D.C. United in the Eastern Conference and has a league best goal differential of +9.

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Don Ryan | ASSOCIATED PRESS

Sporting Kansas City defender Aurelian Collin slid in for the ball against Timbers forward Jorge Perlazain the first half Saturday in Portland, Ore.

Minutes before halftime, defender Chance Myers helplessly buried his head in the grass at Portland’s Jeld-Wen Field, where Sporting Kansas City suffered its first defeat of the season Saturday against the Timbers.

Nearby, two of his Sporting KC teammates, defensive midfielder Julio Cesar and goalkeeper Jimmy Nielsen, struck similar poses — doubled over with heads on the turf.

It was the 42nd minute and Myers had just headed home the first goal of his career.

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If there are any MLS fans who can rival Sporting Kansas City’s Cauldron, it might be the Timbers Army, so the shoe will be on the other foot in a sense tonight as coach Peter Vermes’ squad aims for an eighth straight to start the season at Jeld-Wen Field in Portland.

Of course, Sporting KC isn’t worried about the allegedly rowdy Timbers’ supporters.

“To be honest, not much changes,” forward Teal Bunbury said. “We just have to be a little more concentrated and have a little more focus. We can’t get complacent. We know it’s going to be rowdy, but we just have to stay composed and not get caught up in the emotions or get too reckless.”

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Over the last 34 regular season games, Sporting Kansas City are 19-4-11. If that were an MLS season (and not spread over two), Kansas City would own an MLS-best 68 points. Only Los Angeles (with 68 in 1998 and 67 in 2011) have ever reached that point plateau.

So, the question is: Why is Sporting playing so well right now?

The answer is, of course, there isn't really one thing but a series of things that came together in the right environment. It's a perfect storm of talent, tactics and togetherness. (Did I just get all alliterative on that one? Yeah.)

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Darryl Dyck | AP

Sporting Kansas City's Kei Kamara, left, kisses the boot of teammate Chance Myers after Kamara scored a goal against the Vancouver Whitecaps during the second half of an MLS soccer match in Vancouver, British Columbia, Wednesday April 18, 2012.

As I sift through the stats, notes and quotes from Sporting KC's 3-1 win over Vancouver last night, I'm at a loss to figure out which numbers are more impressive.

That Sporting Kansas City have won its first 7 games to start the season. Or that it beat five consecutive Western Conference opponents. Or that KC have earned 21 points on the season (a number the team didn't reach last season until July 6!). Or that Sebastien Le Toux's goal in the 79th minute was the first allowed in the run of play this season. Or that a team actually out-shot Sporting. Or that Jimmy Nielsen had a streak of 415 minutes without allowing a goal. Or that it was the first time KC rolled out the dark blue (and much better looking) jerseys.

Or that, despite not playing its best, KC managed to win a road game by 2 goals.

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DARRYL DYCK | The Associated Press

Sporting Kansas City’s Chance Myers (left) and Aurelien Collin celebrated Kei Kamara’s second-half goal against the Vancouver Whitecaps. Sporting won the game 3-1 and ran its season record to a perfect 7-0.

Roughly a year ago, Sporting Kansas City grabbed a seemingly comfortable three-goal lead in Vancouver against the Whitecaps only to watch it get erased during a disappointing draw.

History threatened to repeat itself as Sporting KC put its perfect start on the line Wednesday against the Whitecaps at BC Place in Vancouver.

Ahead by three goals once again, Sporting KC conceded a goal in the run of play for the first time this season in the 79th minute, but that’s where the Whitecaps’ comeback stopped this time, winning 3-1.

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The last game Sporting Kansas City played in Vancouver, a little more than a year ago, turned into a nightmarish 3-3 draw.

“I will never forget that game,” Sporting KC goalkeeper and captain Jimmy Nielsen said.

Blowing a three-goal lead in the span of 20 minutes — and nearly losing in the 84th minute — has that sort of lingering effect.

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