Winless streak ends at seven as Sporting KC downs Orlando City 2-1

The soccer-specific stadium hung its proverbial shingle in Kansas City, Kan., on June 9, 2011, representing the final piece of a re-brand designed to reinvigorate a diminishing fan base.

In the ensuing five seasons, Sporting Kansas City responded to sellout crowds with 47 regular season victories.

Few have felt more important than the one the club secured Sunday.

On an afternoon in which it broke the franchise record for shots in a match, Sporting KC needed to come from behind to halt a seven-game winless streak with a 2-1 victory against Orlando City SC at Children’s Mercy Park. The venue hosted its 76th consecutive sellout with a crowd of 19,080.

“We had done enough talking. We had done enough analyzing. It was really just about going out and getting the job done,” captain Matt Besler said.

For the latter, Sporting KC leaned on Jacob Peterson, a man making only his second appearance of the season.

But it wasn’t without its adverse moments first.

After a streak defined by Sporting Kansas City’s inability to find the win column, a six-minute segment Sunday re-instilled cause for alarm. A club that had not scored in more than 300 minutes found the back of the net in the 67th minute — except it was on the wrong end of the field.

Orlando City, 2-3-5, grabbed a 1-0 lead on an own goal from Sporting KC left back Jimmy Medranda, despite the visitors having pulled the trigger on 24 fewer shots at the time. Orlando finished without a shot on goal in the match.

“You kind of think, ‘What more can happen to us right now? This can’t be happening,’” midfielder Benny Feilhaber said.

Then? An answer.

Finally.

After Sporting KC, 5-6-2, had already set its club record for shots in a single match, Dom Dwyer leveled the score, finishing off a pass from Peterson, who had subbed into the match only five minutes earlier. It was the club’s 31st shot attempt of the afternoon.

Five minutes later, Peterson did the work himself. Roger Espinoza connected with Peterson, who headed home his first goal of the year.

“It could’ve been an own goal for all I care,” he said. “As long as we’re celebrating right now, that’s all I care about.”

The five-minute segment put the 313-minute scoring drought in the rearview mirror.

Twenty minutes later, the losing streak was finished, too.

Sporting KC scored multiple goals in a match for the first time in eight games. It finished Sunday with a club-record 34 shots, with 13 of them reaching the target. Orlando City keeper Joe Bendik made 10 saves.

Dwyer actually beat him in the 43rd minute with a left-footed shot, but it was disallowed for an offsides call. The initial chance of the match — a 20-foot strike from Graham Zusi — clanked off the crossbar in the third minute.

An omen for the first 70 minutes. Dwyer, Zusi, Davis and Espinoza all saw prime chances come up empty.

“Sometimes you look up at the scoreboard like, ‘Is that ever going to change?’” Dwyer said.

Dwyer altered it himself. Peterson completed the comeback.

The sum: The first victory in five weeks.

“After they scored, it would’ve been easy to say (that) this is a familiar feeling and here we go again, (given) the kind of stretch that we’re going through right now,” Besler said. “But we didn’t do that. We responded really well.

“It was a big, big result for us.”

This story was originally published May 15, 2016 at 5:22 PM with the headline "Winless streak ends at seven as Sporting KC downs Orlando City 2-1."