Sporting Kansas City: Ending to 2018 season doesn’t feel right
Sporting Kansas City’s season came to a close on Thursday when they fell 3-2 to the Portland Timbers. This one is going to be tough to get over for Sporting KC fans.
Win and advance. It seemed too easy. At the end of the night, it wasn’t meant to be for Sporting Kansas City, who lost 3-2 to the Portland Timbers in the Western Conference Finals on Thursday night at Children’s Mercy Park. It’s a loss that’s going to really stick with the organization and the fans for a long time.
Sporting played it safe over the weekend and played for the draw in Portland and that ultimately came back to haunt them in this game. The Timbers scored three road goals and the final one that came in stoppage time was the dagger on SKC’s season.
Heading into the match, the momentum was all on Sporting’s side. They had home field advantage, something that has absolutely helped propel them to great things in the past, and the crowd was jacked on Thursday night.
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When Daniel Salloi put the first ball in the net in the 20th minute, all the team had to do was not let Portland tie it up or take the lead, and they’d be on their way to the finals. SKC kept the lead through the half, but Portland struck early when play resumed.
It was mostly downhill from there. The Timbers scored again in the 61st minute and with how poorly SKC looked at the beginning of the second half, it didn’t appear that scoring two or more goals to take the lead was going to happen.
Sporting did manage to tie things up, but we all know a 2-2 tie still would have resulted in Portland advancing. With nine minutes of stoppage time to close out the final match at Children’s Mercy Park, SKC couldn’t quite get the ball into the net, despite some close calls.
The final nail in the coffin came when in the final minute of stoppage time, the Timbers scored again. There would be no MLS Cup in Kansas City in 2018. There’s no other way to put it… This loss sucks.
Not scoring in Portland ultimately came back to bite this team in the butt. Sure, Portland went on to win this match, but had SKC scored a goal on the road, the 1-1 draw and 2-2 draw would have likely went in Sporting’s favor.
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Moving forward, there’s still a lot to like about this team and what the future has in store. Salloi is an absolute stud and it looks like the core of fan favorites will be sticking around. Still, when you have home field advantage to close out the Western Conference Finals and can’t pull out the W, that’s going to loom large for a long time.