Rough 15 minute span costs Sporting KC a trip to semifinals

Thursday was not Sporting KC’s night, as they fell 3-1 to Philadelphia Union with all three Philadelphia goals coming in the first half and within 15 minutes of each other.

Sporting Kansas City has been up and down throughout the entire MLS is Back Tournament, but their run in the tournament has officially come to an end with a 3-1 loss to Philadelphia Union on Thursday night (but at a normal time for this match-up).

The first Philadelphia goal came in the 24th minute when Jamiro Monteiro had all kinds of room in the goal to knock the ball into and did just that. Two minutes later, the Union had one of the easiest goals imaginable, as Sergio Santos took advantage of a poor defensive effort by Sporting and put his team up 2-0 just like that.

Being down two goals didn’t seem like the end of the match, especially with it being so early in the game, but once Santos knocked in a third goal 13 minutes later, it just didn’t feel like Sporting KC’s night.

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Alan Pulido did add a late half spark when he scored in the first minute of stoppage time, but that would be it as far as scoring went for either side. A scoreless second half was all Philadelphia needed to ensure that they’d be moving onto the semifinals while sending Sporting KC home.

Sporting KC’s run in the MLS is Back Tournament has officially ended, but it was good to see the boys back in action and their journey up to this point had been pretty impressive. They technically have only lost two matches all season and really battled back in this tournament after a rough loss to Minnesota in their first game of the group stage.

Hopefully Major League Soccer can have some sort of regular season when the tournament wraps up in two weeks, but if they want to do that, they’ll need to consider looking into a bubble like they did with this tournament because that seems to be the only thing that’s working well for sports right now.

The points earned from this tournament will count toward the regular season and with how well Sporting Kansas City has played, it’d be nice to see them get to continue their 2020 campaign.

Philadelphia moves onto the semifinals and will await the winner of the Portland Timbers and New York City FC. It’d have been fun to see Sporting in that game, but at least we got to see the boys back in action.