Sporting KC falls to Portland in record-setting penalty kicks in Western Conference playoffs

On a frigid afternoon in December 2013, Sporting Kansas City outlasted one of its top rivals in a record-setting round of penalty kicks before celebrating the second MLS championship in franchise history.

Some 22 months later, that remains the club's most recent playoff victory — because on Thursday, Sporting KC was on the other end of the same record.

The Portland Timbers bounced Sporting KC from the postseason with a 2-2 (7-6 penalty kicks) victory that required 11 rounds of kicks at Providence Park in Portland — breaking the mark set in the 2013 MLS Cup Final.

"We've been on the other end of it," Sporting KC coach Peter Vermes said. "We know how it is. That's the way it goes sometimes."

Portland moves on to face Vancouver in the Western Conference semifinals.

Sporting KC is coming home.

After thrilling regulation and overtime periods, the best was saved for penalty kicks. It required 11 rounds — even forcing the goalkeepers to step to the dot.

In the final round, Portland keeper Adam Kwarasey converted his kick and then turned around — literally — to stone 21-year-old keeper Jon Kempin, who was a second-half substitute for the injured Tim Melia.

Kempin did enough to help Sporting KC advance. He made three saves in the penalty kick rounds, the final two allowing Sporting KC game-winning attempts.

They both hit the post. Well, one even clipped both posts.

Kevin Ellis clanked his sixth-round shot off the left post, and Saad Abdul-Salaam shot his ninth-round attempt off the left post before the ball skidded across the goal line and deflected off the right post, too.

"We had (two) chances to win," Vermes said. "You can't ask for anything more than that."

The lively penalty-kick rounds followed a nearly-equally entertaining run of play.

Sporting KC forward Krisztian Nemeth scored only seven minutes into the initial overtime period — a strike that put Sporting KC in position to advance to a Western Conference semifinal matchup with top-seeded Dallas. But Portland's Maxi Urruti tied the match in the 118th minute — two minutes before the final whistle.

"I think that's probably the only thing we'll be kicking ourselves about," Vermes said. "We gave up an easy play down in the corner."

In regulation, it was Sporting KC with the late comeback. Kevin Ellis scored in the 87th minute to force overtime after Sporting KC fell behind in the 57th minute, when Portland's Rodney Wallace pounced on a scramble for a loose ball and flicked a left-footed shot into the side of the net. That broke Portland's 448-minute scoreless streak against Sporting KC, which dated back to 2013.

Wallace returned to the spotlight later in the second half, when he clipped Melia with his cleat in the 69th minute. A gash emerged on the left side of Melia's face. Melia persuaded a trainer into staying in the match but later fell to a knee and called for a substitute. Kempin closed out the match.

Portland backtracked its defense to protect a 1-0 advantage, but Ellis still found himself unmarked on the other end of a Graham Zusi crossing pass in the 87th minute. Ellis led MLS defenders with four goals in the regular season.

"The guys have nothing to be down about, other then fact that we're not moving on," Vermes said. "They worked hard in the game."

Only moments after Melia departed the match, Portland forward Fanendo Adi elbowed Sporting KC captain Matt Besler in the face, and the contact sprung blood from Besler's face. Besler was on the sideline receiving treatment when Ellis knotted the score.

The game was chippy throughout. In fact, before providing the go-ahead goal in overtime, Nemeth kicked the ball into the head of a Portland player lying on the ground. He received a yellow card.

Portland entered the playoffs as the hottest team in MLS — having won four of its final five regular season games — and it carried that momentum in Thursday night. At least early on. The Timbers needed only 21 seconds to put its first shot on Melia, who gobbled up the save. In the fifth minute, Melia received some help from Paulo Nagamura, who cleared a header off the line from Portland defender Liam Ridgewell.

The Timbers maintained heavy first-half pressure on a Sporting KC back line that started two rookies — outside backs Saad Abdul-Salaam and Amadou Dia — for the first time in playoff franchise history.

And that statistic provided a microcosm of a Sporting KC season upended by long-term injuries to starters Ike Opara and Roger Espinoza — two players who were on the verge of a comeback. Instead, their next appearances will come in 2016.

The same goes for Sporting Kansas City.

This story was originally published October 30, 2015 at 12:41 AM with the headline "Sporting KC falls to Portland in record-setting penalty kicks in Western Conference playoffs."