Unless Sporting Kansas City can drastically improve its terrible form of late, it looks likely that this year’s post-season run will begin and end Thursday at the New York Red Bulls in a one-and-done playoff match.
Yep, KC is matched up against the same team that manhandled the boys in blue 2-0 just last night at Sporting Park in their regular season finale.
And it could have been a lot worse.
Sporting barely mustered a legit chance all game, and recorded but a single shot on goal. Meanwhile, New York – without Thierry Henry, mind you – ran roughshod through the center of the pitch, attacking KC’s back line over and over.
In scoring his second goal of the night, New York’s Bradley Wright-Phillips beat KC strongman Aurelien Collin at his own thuggish game, wrestling the Frenchman to the ground before cutting back on team captain Matt Besler and coolly finishing in front of a not-so-shocked-anymore Cauldron.
Photo by Mike Gunnoe
It’s hard to say anything positive for Sporting coming out of this game.
They look tired. No one can create anything, other than Graham Zusi, and with little support he can’t do much alone. Eric Kronberg has been a nightmare between the posts, and seems to have lost what confidence he did have earlier this season.
Even KC boss Peter Vermes, normally the reddest ass in the room and a no excuses type of guy, sounds defeated already.
“Our team is tired and you can tell,” he said after the loss. “We’re tired in a lot of different ways. When you look at some many 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.”
I mean, it’s true.
Between CONCACAF, US Open Cup, the World Cup, and the grueling MLS regular season, Sporting has a ton of miles on their legs. But then again, so do most other teams.
Add to that the fact that so many players have gone down with injuries. I mean, off the top of my head the only player I can think of that HASN’T been injured this year at some point is Dom Dwyer.
But hey, anything can happen, right?
“I was playing for Colorado in 1997 and we made the final playoff spot and we played Kansas City four times that year,” Vermes explained. “They won all four and outscored us 15-2. Our first game in the two playoff games was here (in Kansas City). They were the No. 1 seed and we beat them 3-0. So I can tell you that I think anything is possible when you step into playoffs.”
So you’re sayin’ there’s a chance…
Anything can happen in the playoffs, just ask the Royals.
The last month has been awful for this club…I cannot imagine a Royals-like run happening at all.
Our defense has been miserable for the past month or two and Kronberg looks lost out there. They’re also really missing an Espinoza/Rosell-type disruptor in the middle.
Yes! Good news is that Espinoza seems destined to come back…bad news (in spite of what the brainless Taylor Twellman says) is that it is not a done deal and will likely have to wait for the transfer window next summer when he is out of contract.