Sporting Kansas City Pregame and Discussion Thread
Mandatory Credit: Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports
Sporting Kansas City resume their quest to repeat as MLS champions today against the losing side of the MLS Cup final Real Salt Lake. Sporting Kansas City come in to the game with 7 points and a 2-1-1 record trailing only the Columbus Crew who are sitting on 9 points with a 3-0-0 record in the Eastern conference.
Real Salt Lake come into the game sitting in a similar position with 8 points and a 2-0-2 record trailing only FC Dallas who are sitting on 10 Points with a 3-0-1 record.
Sporting Kansas City and Real Salt Lake met up twice last year, once in the regular season and once in the Championship game with Sporting winning both match ups in thrilling fashion. The first match-up came on July 20th 2013 at Rio Tinto Stadium in Salt Lake City.
The game was scoreless entering the half with both teams getting a feel for one another, but Robbie Findley opened the scoring in the 56th minute to put Real Salt Lake up 1-0. Real Salt Lake defender Chris Wengert picked up his second yellow card of the match and was issued a red card and sent off in the 66th minute. Sporting didn’t waste any time at all as Soony Saad evened things up at 1-1 in the 67th minute.
The game looked to be heading toward a draw until Graham Zusi curled a free kick into the box and Ike Opara met it with his head and gave Sporting the 2-1 lead in the 97th minute. The referee blew the whistle on the game and Sporting Kansas City left Salt Lake City with 3 points in hand.
Sporting Kansas City would meet Real Salt Lake again on December 7th in the MLS Cup Championship game at Sporting Park in Kansas City. The cold December weather seemed to be really affecting the play as there were a lot of mistakes and just sloppy play all around. Both teams were fortunate to go into have time with the score being 0-0.
Alvaro Saborio slotted one past Sporting goal keeper Jimmy Nielsen to give Salt Lake a 1-0 lead in the 52nd minute. With fans getting anxious Graham Zusi curled a corner kick into the box and defender Aurelien Collin rose up and headed it into the back of the net to level the score at 1-1. The score would stay even throughout the rest of the regular time as well as the two 15 minute over time periods.
Penalty Kicks would decide the Championship. The teams traded blows through 9 penalty kicks staying all tied at 6-6 until regular time hero Aurelien Collin stepped up and gave Sporting the 7-6 advantage. Lovel Palmer stepped up for Salt Lake to try to extend the game but sent the ball over the cross bar to give sporting the Championship.
Real Salt Lake returns to Kansas City today in a much anticipated rematch against Sporting Kansas City at Sporting Park. You can catch the game on TV at 38 The Spot, SKCTV, or on the radio at ESPN 102.9 (English) and La Gran D 1340 AM (Spanish).
Sporting Kansas City has been busy in the past two weeks and you can get all caught up here.
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