Sporting Kansas City is missing something. That was evident in last night’s match against the New York Red Bulls. In the much anticipated regular season ender, Sporting KC unraveled. They needed a win to claim third place and skip the knockout round, but there’s something about Sporting Park this season that isn’t working for the team.
It is honestly a miracle in and of itself that the Red Bulls only won 2-0.
Sporting KC Gets 5th Place MLS Playoff Seed
In the first few minutes, it was clear that Matt Besler and Aurelien Collin weren’t on the same page. Besler just came back from an injury, Collin from a physical, but not result yielding performance in Costa Rica, and the two struggled. Collin had a tear in his jersey, but a replacement didn’t boost the Sporting defense.
Fifteen minutes in, and Bradley Wright-Phillips gets a great ball from Eric Alexander after taking advantage of free kick. Wright-Phillips had no problem getting past the aforementioned duo and Eric Kronberg to send the ball into goal.
Kronberg hasn’t been in top form since recovering from an injury earlier in the year. Andy Gruenebaum had done a spectacular job stepping into the starting goalkeeper position until an injury in training took him out a few weeks ago. Gruenebaum is Sporting KC’s last hope for Thursday’s knockout round.
There were chances for Sporting KC to tie the Red Bulls goal. Dom Dwyer received a few good balls in, and had the only shot on target for Sporting all night, but was mostly struggling. Paulo Nagamura had a decent shot, but it took a deflection and bounced at Kevin Ellis’ feet, only Ellis didn’t seem to notice and Luis Robles scooped it up.
Manager Peter Vermes said on Thursday that he didn’t like doing substitutions before the second half, but Mikey Lopez came on for Lawrence Olum at the half hour mark.
“He was dead. You could see he just had nothing in the gas tank,” Vermes said of the substitution. Not only did Olum not have any gas, the whole team was running on fumes.
Benny Feilhaber was out with an ankle sprain from Thursday’s CONCACAF match in Costa Rica. Feilhaber might not typically wear the captain’s armband, but he adds more than just creativity to the midfield when he’s out there. Jacob Peterson missed a lot of the season with an injury and is only recently back on the field. Collin’s been on and off with injuries so often it’s almost hard to keep track of them.
Sporting KC has been coasting through the injuries that have plagued them, but it’s clearly catching up. RBNY were without their star, Thierry Henry, but their momentum wasn’t fazed. Sporting couldn’t capitalize.
“Our team is tired and you can tell. We’re tired in a lot of different ways. When you look at some different guys that have been injured-guys who’ve had to play way too many minutes when they were fatigued-it’s taken its toll,” Vermes said after the game.
Oh, you could tell. When Wright-Phillips took the ball from Collin, had no problem getting by Besler, and sent Kronberg the other way to score his 27th of the season, tying the MLS record, I almost wanted to say he didn’t deserve that because there weren’t any defenders on the field. Wright-Phillips owned Sporting’s back line and and was so close to breaking that record as well, that I even cheered for him. Kronberg had a few good saves here and Collin made some scrambled recoveries, but the damage was done and at the final whistle, the Red Bulls earned a clean sheet and three points.
Vermes recognized the faults in his team, but there doesn’t seem to be much hope for playoffs, unless Gruenebaum is fit. My fingers are crossed.
“There was really nothing we could do. I’m not sure if I’m not being clear, but when you have as many guys out as we do, at some point you have to understand you can’t replace those guys. […] I don’t walk around with the guys and paint excuses to them based on that. We have to get healthy and I think that if our guys are recovered and healthy, we can give any team in this league a good game.”
If they’re fit and healthy, which unfortunately never seems to be the case. Sporting will go into the playoffs in the 5th place seed. RBNY will start in 4th.
Vermes’ Sporting Kansas City will travel to New York Thursday night to play the Red Bulls in the knockout round of playoffs. Kickoff is set at 7:00 CT and it will be broadcast on ESPN2, WatchESPN, ESPN Deportes, and TSN2. Will it be a repeat of last night’s loss?
I’d like to see Sporting KC rest and get motivated, but I don’t know what to expect from them at this point.
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Main Photo Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
