Sporting Miss the Smash and Grab

Sporting Kansas City almost pulled off the smash and grab at Red Bull Arena on Saturday night, but a late New York Red Bulls goal saw Sporting leave with a 1-1 draw. Alan Pulido scored on Sporting’s only shot of goal of the game, but a late goal by Julian Hall saw the two teams split the points.

Sporting went back to the double pivot of Zorhan Bassong and Jake Davis that had found success for Sporting in their last league game against Orlando City a couple weeks ago. The duo was strong in the game, much more active in the middle of the field than KC has seen from their defensive central midfielders this season. The game though was only scoreless due to big misses by Elias Manoel in the first half. The best chance for Manoel came in the 33rd minute when Cory Burke was played behind the KC defense and a sliding challenge from Robert Voloder. Burke squared the ball to Manoel after he’d gotten Sporting goalkeeper Tim Melia to commit, but with an open goal from the penalty spot, Manoel missed the goal entirely. The second best chance of the half also fell to Manoel as a corner was only partially cleared by Sporting to Daniel Edelman who played the ball back into the box, but Manoel’s one time redirection went wide of KC’s goal.

The second half saw Sporting KC come out with a renewed vigor and push the game against the Red Bulls. They were rewarded in the 55th minute when the Red Bulls couldn’t clear their lines at the top of the box. The ball came to Davis who chipped a ball into the path of Alan Pulido in the New York box. Pulido brought the ball down with his head before touching it past goalkeeper Ryan Meara and into the net giving KC a 1-0 lead. in the 62nd minute, Sporting thought they’d doubled the lead as Erik Thommy was played behind the Red Bulls defense by Khiry Shelton but Thommy was ruled offside on the play and his goal didn’t stand.

Sporting didn’t create much more going forward but the defense continued to hold firm as New York tried to find an equalizer. A Tim Melia save on a corner in the 70th minute kept Sporting in front as they kept trying to see the game out and keep their slim playoff hopes alive.

The minutes kept ticking away and it began to feel like KC would take all three points and jump to within six points of Minnesota United for the ninth and final playoff spot in MLS’s Western Conference. Unfortunately in the 89th minute Sporting’s resistance finally broke. After an speculative ball into the box, Robert Castellanos cleared it right into substitute Hall who was able to bring it down, get around both Castellanos and Bassong, wrong foot Melia in the KC goal and put it into the near post, tying the game at 1-1.

Things went from bad to worse for KC in stoppage time as Davis, who’d already picked up a yellow card that would suspend him for the game next week against the Seattle Sounders, picked up a second yellow that saw him sent off. The final whistle blew after some final pressure from New York, and while a point on the road isn’t bad, it felt like two points dropped by Sporting.