Makeshift Defense Dooms Sporting Kansas City

On a day when Sporting Kansas City was without Matt Besler, Lawrence Olum, Ike Opara, Aurelien Collin, Graham Zusi, and Oriol Rosell Sporting fought to the final whistle but ultimately fell to the Chicago Fire 2-1.

Sporting lined up in a formation we haven’t seen in quite some time, Kronberg; Myers, Palmer-Brown, Sinovic; Peterson, Nagamura (C), Feilhaber, Dovale, Juliao; Bieler, and Dwyer made up the 3-5-2 formation. The KC Wizards won the MLS Cup with this formation so some fans had some optimism leading in to the game.

Erik Palmer-Brown is Sporting’s second homegrown player to ever make a start for the club, the first being Kevin Ellis who made an appearance as a sub in the game. Palmer-Brown was asked to play as the lone CB in the 3-5-2 and it ended up being a bit too much to ask of the 17 year-old defender.

Chicago came out in attack mode and went right at Palmer-Brown, the young defender showed his inexperience when he let a defender in behind him and left Eric Kronberg with Quincy Amarikwa running right at him with the ball. Amarikwa dribbled around Kronberg and Kronberg took his legs out and the referee blew for a penalty in favor of Chicago. Mike Magee converted the penalty to give Chicago the 1-0 lead in only the 7th minute.

Chicago didn’t let up after the first goal and went right back at the young defender, this time it was Benji Joya that dribbled the ball up the right wing right at Palmer-Brown and Palmer Brown made the tackle and looked to win the ball but spilled the ball in to the box and pushed Joya in an effort to recover. Some claim the push was soft and Joya sold it with a dive but the penalty was awarded and once again Magee stepped up and converted the PK to make it 2-0 in the 15th minute.

The game settled down a bit after the 15th minute and went into half with Chicago up 2-0. Chicago came out of half time and went right back at Palmer-Brown and he was given a yellow card in the 49th minute for a foul near mid field. Palmer-Brown was given his second yellow of the game and was ejected for another foul near midfield in the 64th minute. Sporting would have to finish the game with only ten players.

Following the Palmer-Brown ejection Kevin Ellis was subbed in for Claudio Bieler and Sporting switched from the 3-5-2 back to the more familiar 4-3-3 and looked rejuvenated by the formation change. Sporting was awarded a free kick from about 30 yards out and Benny Feilhaber took the free kick and curled a ball to the far post where Dom Dwyer put his head to it and drilled it past the keeper to give Sporting life and make it 2-1 in the 68th minute.

Both teams had their share of chances in the final 20 minutes of the game but neither team converted on their chances and the game finished 2-1 in favor of Chicago. Chicago picked up their second straight win and handed Sporting their second straight loss.

Sporting Kansas City coach Peter Vermes had this to say about the situation Sporting found themselves in with all the injuries and national team duties.

"“Listen, you have to deal with adversity. I think it’s better to deal with it early on in the season rather than at the end of the season, based on the fact that then you know how to deal with it. We are in a difficult position at the moment based on our central defender situation. It has forced us to change a little bit in our formation, stuff like that. But at the same time, I think the team did well. We were down to ten men. We ran the game. They were just hanging on, doing all they could do. We scored; we had quite a few chances at the end. We were in and around their [defensive zone] more than they were in ours, and we were taking the chances. We were leaving ourselves a little exposed. I thought the guys did a great job, especially in the second half. As we well know, the MLS season is very long and we’ll be competitive, that’s for sure. “"

Sporting Kansas City will have a short week as they travel home to face Toronto FC on Friday. Sporting will be looking to end their two game losing streak but will have to do so without Palmer-Brown. The status for Oriol Rosell and Aurelien Collin is unclear at this time.

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