Sporting Kansas City returned home to host Orlando City SC Sunday afternoon after a seven game winless streak. This week club reached out to fans for continued support and promised the results would come. Sunday, in a game that started like all the others, they delivered. Sporting KC came back from behind to beat Orlando 2-1 with an assist and a goal from substitute Jacob Peterson to earn three needed points.
It seemed like the same old story for Sporting KC. They again showed they are masters of the high press, and they again showed their inability to finish chances. The first half was frustrating, however, they also showed signs of improvement.
The goals Sporting has conceded this season have come from easy mistakes and giveaways where the backline wasn’t able to track back and cover. This game, they were solid. Matt Besler was back at 100 percent for the first time since his concussion and worked well with Nuno Coelho to keep Cyle Larin at bay the few times he made a run.
Larin had five touches in the first half including a breakaway that was well defended by Besler and lead to a goal kick. Orlando assistant coach Mark Watson thought he looked dangerous on the counter, but “that’s not enough touches for someone like Cyle.”
“He’s not getting enough of the ball…It wasn’t his best night, but you know, he’s playing against two great center backs,” Watson said after the game. SKC’s defense improved and so did their midfield. With the exception of Jimmy Medranda’s own goal, they won every second ball and stopped every OCSC counter. Tim Melia didn’t have to make a single save.
The attack is where the real improvement was needed. Chances needed to be finished. Sporting had 16 shots and five on target by the end of the first half and nothing to show for it. Medranda’s own goal in the 67th minute looked like the perfect embodiment of the ‘finish your chances or you’ll regret it’ cliche.
Dom Dwyer could have scored from a tricky backheel early on and a turn around a defender later. Brad Davis had multiple shots over the bar. Medranda sent a few wide. Graham Zusi had shots off target and crosses just inches too far ahead or behind of Dwyer. Roger Espinoza had a strong header straight to OCSC keeper Joe Bendik. Benny Feilhaber sent a few flying and a few right into the arms of Bendik. Bendik was saving everything that came close to being on target.
Enter “The Answer.”
Peterson, The Answer, entered the game for Davis in the 69th minute and proved he’s still worthy of his nickname. He hasn’t played much this season and has been getting a lot of criticism from the past two seasons, but he put that all to bed in a man of the match performance Sunday.
Peterson got on the end of a ball from Feilhaber and headed it up to Dwyer, who sent it to the back of the net for the equalizer almost instantly after entering. A few minutes later, he put his head to a ball in from Espinoza to grab the winning goal. Both of these goals came after SKC already had 30 total shots on goal. The creativity and the chances were there, but Peterson added the extra aggression needed to hit the back of the net.
After the game, manager Peter Vermes joked about how Peterson has played every position asked and praised his ability to continue to be professional and churn out good performances.
“Not only was he calm and cool on the assist that he made, it was a great finishing play to be in the spot that he was. We needed guys in the box late in the game like that…we were gonna put the pressure on them and I thought we did a great job with that. Credit to him (Peterson),” Vermes said.
The game ended with 34 shots, a club record, and 13 on target for SKC. Orlando had seven total and zero on target.
“At the end of the day, we absolutely outworked them. We were a stronger team physically all the way down to the last minute of the game,” Vermes said.
Sporting started the season strong before their seven game winless run. Feilhaber said they’ve learned and are back to taking baby steps, but are optimistic looking forward to the rest of the season.
Main Photo: Peter G. Aiken, Getty Images
