Sporting Kansas City head coach Peter Vermes was determined to push his troops hard before facing Toronto FC at Sporting Park. Playing after an explosive pre-game show seemed to put the early part of the match in a haze of smoke, TFC narrowly missed an early chance to silence the packed house of Sporting Park before SKC was off to the races
Even before this match began, Toronto FC Head Coach Ryan Nelson knew it was not his day when Warren Creavalle went down with a hamstring and Nelson was forced to experiment with Jackson in the right fullback position. Jackson truly showed his recent inexperience in that position when he let Benny Feilhaber get by him and draw a foul in the box. Dom Dwyer broke out of his funk on the penalty to deliver an early lead for Sporting.
A few minutes later, one can truly credit the match official for unexpectedly letting a loose ball ricochet off him and right into the path of Dwyer. Doneil Henry was forced to commit the foul leading to a second straight goal for Dwyer. Though this sort of mistake happens everywhere, MLS officials seem to be in the way more often than usual.
Toronto FC would take advantage of SKC playing back by an excellent goal late in the first half by the speedy Gilberto, on a thorough ball from Dominic Oduro.
TFC entered the second half with the intent of exploiting the young keeper Jon Kempin, only for the 21-year-old to block Gilberto’s point blank shot which could have evened out the match.
SKC quickly countered and Soony Saad’s bullet from outside the box put the game away and took control of the game. A Jackson breakaway was foiled by a clever Aurelien Collin who got in a late tap to end any chance of a TFC result.
Sporting Kansas City will be quite happy to be leaving Sporting Park on a high as the team travels to Esteli, Nicaragua to take on Real Esteli in CONCACAF Champions League play this week. Witnessing their own fans showing the same enthusiasm as many of the supporters south of the border is quite encouraging.
Ryan Nelson who was quite irate at the officials for some costly calls knows he at least has a full week to rest his troops before coming back home to BMO Field to face the surging Chicago Fire. With that elusive playoff spot far from wrapped up, Nelson can only hope to have the healthy backline needed for the final stretch.