Sporting KC Suffer Heartbreaking Defeat Against The LA Galaxy

Sporting KC traveled to Los Angeles on Saturday to face the LA Galaxy in a Western Conference showdown. Sporting were riding a four game unbeaten streak, and LA were in the midst of a 25 game home unbeaten streak.

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Sporting KC were without Ike Opara, Chance Myers, and Seth Sinovic due to injuries, but Graham Zusi made his return to the starting eleven. LA forward Robbie Keane was out with an injury, and Gyasi Zardes was not in the starting eleven due to playing the the United States Men’s National Team friendly against Mexico on Wednesday. Zardes was on the bench in the 18 man game day roster though.

The LA Galaxy were able to jump out to an early lead when a shot was fired from the right wing and Luis Marin deflected the ball away, but it skipped across to the left side of the box and Baggio Husidic was able to tap the ball into a wide open goal to put LA up 1-0 in the ninth minute.

Sporting KC were able to find an equalizer midway through the first half when Dom Dwyer dribble the ball from the right wing to the middle of the box where he passed to Benny Feilhaber who one timed the ball into the path of Krisztian Nemeth who found himself with a one on one with the LA goalkeeper Jaime Penedo who went low to try to take the ball away but Nemeth chipped the ball over and the ball easily went into a wide open net to make things even at 1-1 in the 22nd minute.

Sporting KC knocked on the door of the LA goal and looked to be the better team for a majority of the first half, but neither team was able to find another goal and the game went into half time even at 1-1.

The LA Galaxy came out firing in the second half, but even though they had several good opportunities to score they were unable to find the back of the net in regular time.

Sporting KC looked to be on their way to a hard fought point on the road against LA, but LA earned a corner kick in the fourth minute of stoppage time. The ball curled into the box from the corner and LA defender Omar Gonzalez was able to get his foot to the ball and beat Marin to give the home side a winner in the dying minutes of the game.

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How Sporting KC responds after a heartbreaking loss will tell a lot about the team. Kevin Ellis played well in place of Ike Opara so he will likely get the go ahead to start in his place for the foreseeable future.

Sporting look to have found something special in forward Krisztian Nemeth who scored his second goal of the season against LA which ties him for the team lead with Ike Opara.

It was nice to see Sporting KC score a goal in the run of play after a majority of their goals so far in 2015 have been off of set pieces. Sporting are significantly less dangerous on set plays without Opara on the field.

Sporting KC are currently ninth in the Western Conference standings with nine points in seven games played. They will return to action on Saturday when they travel to Houston to take on the Houston Dynamo.

Next: Sporting KC: Ike Opara Diagnosed With Ruptured Achilles