April 13th marked a very special occasion for Kansas City soccer. It marked 20 years to the day of their inaugural MLS match against the Colorado Rapids. To celebrate their birthday, Sporting KC hosted the Rapids at Children’s Mercy Park for a Wednesday night event. Before kickoff, a highlight video of the clubs history played on the big screens and the ceremony cumulated with Digital Takawira leading the “I believe” chant before kickoff.
It all set the stage for a perfect game and another three points at home, but Pablo Mastroeni’s men had other plans. The Rapids fought and earned the three points themselves with a 2-1 scoreline at full-time.
Resting key players for the weekend, this lineup saw Diego Rubio getting his first start at striker for the club ahead of Dom Dwyer. Midfielder Jordi Quintilla, in for resting Benny Feilhaber, and defender Ike Opara, back from injury, returned to the starting XI.
Rubio’s performance was like a lump of coal trying to speed up the process of becoming a diamond. He struggled with his first touch and pass placement, but he wasn’t the only one. There were some heavy touches and passes all around.
Rubio earned a corner ten minutes in, the first of eight, but it was an easy, albeit sloppy, punch for Zac MacMath. He had a chance on goal not long after that, too. He ran through a few Rapids defenders on a break, but his shot was just wide. Graham Zusi followed that up with a shot curled in off his right foot, but it just barely missed the upper 90.
All eight of Zusi’s corner kicks were either easily dealt with by MacMath or hit too far for anything to come of them. The Rapids went to full-time without earning a corner. SKC pressed them, and they were able to capitalize on poor giveaways.
Zusi’s corners weren’t the only thing off in the game for Sporting. Rubio and Hallisey were so close to being on the same page. The runs are there, the awareness is there, but they’re not getting the placement right. They created the chances, but weren’t able to connect at the finish. A nice buildup in the 40th minute of play saw Nuno Coelho drive forward, Hallisey cross into the box, MacMath stumble with the save, but Rubio unable to finish after also stumbling over MacMath.
Rapids were finally able to make something happen with a through ball from Marco Pappa, while Lawrence Olum slept, up to Louis Solignac. He ran past Coelho and Opara jogging with their arms raised in the air for offside and slipped the ball past Tim Melia to make it 1-0.
The second half saw Benny Feilhaber enter for Quintilla and almost immediately Rubio got a shot off the crossbar. Minutes later, Feilhaber created one chance after the other for both Zusi and Olum. The chances were there again, but the finishing wasn’t. SKC needed Dwyer, and he made his appearance in the 57th minute with Rubio making way.
Again, there was an immediate impact. Dwyer created a chance after coming on and earned another fruitless corner kick for Sporting.
Dwyer showed his maturity in the 60th minute by pulling defenders, trapping the ball, and quickly passing it off to Feilhaber for a shot. Not 30 seconds later saw almost the same move from Dwyer to Hallisey. He wanted a goal, but he wanted it for the team, not his personal record.
Colorado were hanging onto their 1-0 lead with their lives since Dwyer’s appearance. They were scrambling after him and throwing their bodies in front of everything. Brad Davis came on for Olum as the final burst of help, something manager Peter Vermes didn’t think he’d need against the Rapids and, eventually, everyone connected. Hallisey found Dwyer in the box in the 68th minute to equalize for SKC.
The rest of the second half was much like the first. SKC saw chance after chance; the Rapids saw clearance after clearance with a total of 32. The Rapids are a new team this year, and they’re fighting to prove it. MacMath is definitely fighting to keep his spot once Tim Howard moves to Denver.
Melia, as great as he is, got lucky with the crossbar in the 82nd minute, but wasn’t able to stop Shkelzen Gashi’s rebound shot while his defenders watched. As nice as it is to have Opara back, Besler’s presence in the backline is irreplaceable. With five minutes of stoppage time, Davis picked up the end of a fumbled header from Dom but the angle was too tight to equalize a second time. His frustration showed.
SKC powered on with run after run into MacMath, but Colorado were able to hold onto the 2-1 lead at the final whistle, leaving the retro Wizard style kits the best memory of the birthday match. Sporting were unable to make up for their mistakes, and now face the tough task of playing at FC Dallas this weekend. There will be no room for error in Frisco.
Main Photo: Alex Menendez, Getty Images
