Sporting Kc Get First Ever Win At LIVESTRONG Sporting Park

Sporting Kc earned their 3rd win of the season when they beat the San Jose Earthquakes 1-0 on Friday night. But maybe more importantly, Sporting Kc won their first ever home game at LSP. CJ Sapong will go down in the history books as the first MLS player ever to score at LSP, along with Zusi, who gave Sapong the game-winning assist in the 31st minute.

First Half
At the start of the game you could see that Sporting Kc had a game plan. A game plan that essentially came down to man-marking Lenhart and feeding off of Sapong's flicks. For the first 30 minutes most of the attacking play and possession came from SKC. But then the goal came. Davy Arnaud was working hard on the right-hand side and drew a free-kick that Zusi stepped up to take.(It should be noted that I yelled "SHOOT" very loudly, but Zusi ignored my useful and well-worded advice). Anyway, Zusi curled in the most beautiful ball and Sapong connected sweetly with a left-footed volley/strike, giving SKC a well deserved lead and sending the capacity crowd into shock and amazement . There weren't many clear-cut chances for either team after the goal and the half ended with Sporting Kc heading into the break with their head held high.

Second Half
The second half started with San Jose looking the more dangerous side. Hence, they created some decent chances and got a couple of corners. SKC had trouble holding off the ensuing pressure from San Jose until about the 65th minute when Vermes brought on Cesar at CDM to hold off some of San Jose's pressure. I really like Cesar in his new role but because Collin will miss the next match due to suspension we may find Cesar back at CB, meaning that SKC will not have a traditional CB on Wednesday when they take on PHI. Anyway, after Cesar was brought on SKC found themselves with decent possession and created a few chances but nothing too major. Then, in the dying moments of the game former KC striker Scott Sealy found himself behind SKC's defense with a lot of space to run into. But Collin showed some excellent defending by stepping in at exactly the right time, essentially winning the game for SKC.


Sporting Kc are still bottom of the Eastern Conference with 13 points, but now find themselves 2nd to last in MLS (only Vancouver have less points). But it's worth mentioning that a win at Philadelphia (who are undefeated at home) on Wednesday would hurl Sporting Kc up to either 6th,7th, or 8th place in the Eastern Conference depending on the outcome of the NE-CHI game tonight.

Player Ratings (out of 10)
Nielsen 6, Sinovic 6, Besler 7, Collin 9*, Myers 7, Sassano 7, Diop 7, Zusi 8, Arnaud 8, Bravo 7, Sapong 9.
*Denotes man of the match
Subs: Cesar 7, Bunbury N/A, Kamara 6