Sporting Kansas City lost their crown Thursday night with a 2-1 loss to the New York Red Bulls at Red Bull Arena. It was a difficult game to predict with the way Sporting played in their previous match against RBNY, but also with knowing the team had potential to play better.
The Kansas City side has only won one of their last five regular season matches, a late win over the Chicago Fire in early October. Coincidentally, or not, that was also the last time Andy Gruenebaum started as goalkeeper. Eric Kronberg has not played up to his previous skill level since filling in for Gruenebaum, and the team has suffered as well for it.
Countless injuries have been woven through Sporting’s season this year but, the team came out of the gate looking unrecognizable to the one that just lost four days ago. Benny Feilhaber was back in the lineup after his CONCACAF ankle injury and his presence significantly boosted the midfield. Feilhaber made plays, won duels, and made a beautiful pass to Dom Dwyer that resulted in the goal that put Sporting up by one just eight minutes into the second half.
Dwyer was in top form and always in the right position to apply pressure. He scored his 24th goal of the year off that pass from Feilhaber. He almost put an assist to Paulo Nagamura on his record earlier in the game, but Luis Robles made easy work of that shot. Dwyer’s defensive game as on point, too. He headed more than one ball out of the box and out of danger, only to chase it down the field and move to the offensive.
Matt Besler, Aurelien Collin, and Kevin Ellis, who all struggled last week, formed a strong back line last night with the never disappointing Seth Sinovic. It was like watching a brand new, rested team. They worked together. They communicated. They surprised.
“I thought we were locked into the game, like I said, I think the way we played it was very evident that they were finding it very difficult to play through us,” Manager Peter Vermes told the press afterward. “I thought we countered really well quite a few times and you know obviously we caught them on the one […] but I thought game plan, execution, and determination by the guys, work ethic, all that stuff was there.”
It was there. It looked as if Sporting could pull off a win at Red Bull Arena until the 77th minute when Bradley Wright-Philips showed everyone why he won the golden boot. Not only were they winning balls, blocking shots, and applying pressure to the Red Bulls, but the home side had a rough start. Tim Cahill booted an easy opportunity high over the cross bar in Mario Balotelli-like style. Dax McCarty sent a header off a Thierry Henry free kick pretty wide of the goal. Henry himself didn’t seem to be on target.
It was the subs for the Red Bulls that changed the pace of this game. Fresh legs added strength to their side and Henry put a ball directly in the path of Wright-Phillips who then sent it to the back of the net.
This had every fan screaming for extra time. Both sides fought for the winning goal, and at the 90 minute mark, extra time looked viable. Then Wright-Phillips headed a cross from sub Ambroise Oyongo into the far right of the goal, and everyone was stunned speechless. Except Wright-Phillips himself, who spoke to press after the game saying, “Initially the ball was quite high, wasn’t it? I thought I couldn’t get much of it, I just tried to get it on target.”
That goal caused my father to send me a text asking if I was alright.
Sporting KC put up a fight, but won’t advance to the next round of playoffs. Their season ended last night, but next year is full of hope, opportunity, and redemption. I for one, look forward to watch 2015 has to offer from Sporting Kansas City.
The Red Bulls will host DC United on Sunday at 3pm CT. The winner will advance to the Eastern Conference finals and the game can be seen on MLS live or Univision Deportes.
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