After losing to two of the top teams in the Eastern Conference recently – Montreal and 
New York – Sporting Kansas City was finally able to get by a key conference foe.
The 3-0 win against the New England Revolution Saturday in KCK saw the boys in blue running on all cylinders – and that without star play maker Graham Zusi, who is still out with a pulled quad. The win puts KC on top of the east with 39 points, one point over New York and two over Philly.
And get this – the packed house at Sporting Park was the team’s 29th straight sell out.
Crazy huh?
KC’s first two goals came from Kei Kamara headers, both off of Soony Saad crosses.
“It’s so easy,” explained Saad afterwards. “You just loft it up there and nine out of 10 times he’s going to win it. I think he did really well to win the first one he just climbed above Austin and the second one I kind of saw him through my peripheral and saw a blue shirt running and I thought it was Kei so I just clipped it into the danger area and he did excellent to get to it, but I felt like I scored that’s how happy I was.”
With KC up two and New England failing to muster much, the game got a little chippy. The Revs saw two of their players get sent off in the second half, one for accumulation, and the other for a cheap and dangerous tackle on Kei that knocked him out of the game.
But Kei wasn’t interested in calling the guy out or anything:
“You have to expect that if you’re doing well,” he said. “You have to expect people to come and get you. That’s just part of it. That’s a breakaway. Andy’s an experienced guy and he’s been playing this game for a while. He got a red card but I don’t think he tried to hurt me as much as he did. He was trying to break the play down so I can’t hold him to it.
“I’m just mad I’m going to miss the Susan G. Komen cancer walk tomorrow morning. It’s an annual thing for me so that’s the only thing I’m mad about.”
In the closing moments, Benny Feilhaber took matters into his own hands and curled in a free kick, making the final 3-0. It was nice to see a direct goal off a set piece for what I believe is the first time this season.
Sporting now gets a much needed break, after globetrotting last week to Central America and the quick turnaround for the New England game. They play at San Jose on Sunday against an underachieving Earthquakes squad.
KC boss Peter Vermes just takes the packed schedule in stride.
“We say our players need to be Sporting fit,” said Vermes. “It’s something we take a lot of pride in… Thanks to the ownership, we had a private plane, which helped immensely on our travel. Getting the result boosted our confidence. The guys did well with the quick turnaround, that’s for sure.”
Where’s the guy who always posts racist rants against Kei? Didn’t think we’d be hearing from that choadhuffer today.
Racist rants against Kei? Don’t think so – maybe you’re thinking of a different KC website.
But I do applaud your use of the word “choadhuffer.”
I urbandictionaried choadhuffer, not defined yet. Now is your chance Grover…
Strong performance without Zusi…hopefully he’s ready to go at San Jose.
A nice bounce back effort in light of the team’s less than stellar performance against the Red Bulls. A third consecutive Eastern Conference title and the club’s second-ever Supporters Shield are very much within the realm of possibility.
Nice to finally get a win at home. Soony is hitting his stride lately, hope he can keep it up. Also, Vermes, give Kei two burritos! (I mean seriously, when is he going to get sponsored by that place?)
Unfortunately, all goals were scored off crosses or set pieces. When, praise jebus, is SKC going to get that central attacking midfielder that we need so badly? I think New England actually fucked themselves a bit with trying to match SKC’s formation. SKC plays possession ball, and just tries to grind other teams down with superior fitness. The pack-in-the-defense/counter attack has been the Achilles’ heel for SKC at home. New England did not take that strategy from the get-go, and then after the first red card it was on.
On another note. Second best officiated game of the year. That crew did a good job. Maybe the MLS officiating is improving (yeah right).