Sporting KC Stays Perfect with 2-1 Win Over FC Dallas
March 25, 2012 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Sporting Kansas City News Release
Sporting Kansas City kept their perfect start to the 2012 season intact and handed FC Dallas their first loss with a 2-1 win on Sunday at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park, courtesy of Kei Kamara's game-winning goal in the 88th minute. With the win, Sporting Kansas City moves to 3-0-0 this year and into sole possession of first place in the Eastern Conference.
FC Dallas struck first in the 25th minute on a free kick from Ricardo Villar, the visitors only shot on goal of the game, before Aurelien Collin equalized in first half stoppage time with the 700th goal in team history coming on a header from Graham Zusi's set piece.
It was one of two assists on the night for the Sporting KC midfielder and gives him a League-high four on the season, including one in each of the club's first three matches.
FC Dallas goalkeeper Kevin Hartman made seven saves on the night, including a diving stop on Kamara's penalty kick in the 50th minute, but Sporting KC broke through in the game's closing minutes on a play started and finished by Kamara. Winning the ball back at midfield and receiving a pass from Julio Cesar in quick succession, Kamara sent a pass to Chance Myers on the right touchline that began a sequence of four consecutive one-touch passes and culminated with Kamara's a first-time finish at the near post.
Myers combined with Zusi on a give-and-go and outran FC Dallas defender Hernan Pertuz to deliver a perfectly-placed cross for Kamara to hammer home from eight yards out and secure the full three points.
Sporting Kansas City's high pressure created opportunities early and often, as C.J. Sapong was the recipient of a deflected pass in the FC Dallas end. His shot from the top of the penalty area forced Kevin Hartman to go low and to his right to make the first of several stops in the match.
FC Dallas came close in the ninth minute when Bryan Leyva settled a cross from Blas Perez and turned quickly in the area, sending his shot wide of net. Moments later on the opposite end, Kamara collected an errant clearance from Ugo Ihemelu and put his shot on frame only to see it smothered by Hartman.
The FC Dallas goalkeeper stayed busy with a pair of stops midway through the first half, first pushing away Zusi's left-footed attempt in the 20th minute and then collecting Bobby Convey's strike six minutes later.
But it was FC Dallas who struck for the game's opening goal after being awarded a free kick when Perez went down just outside the area. Villar made no mistake on the set piece, arching his shot over the wall and inside the near post for his second goal of the season.
With four minutes of stoppage time following an extended delay during Villar's first half injury, FC Dallas midfielder Daniel Hernandez was cautioned for a foul on Espinoza in the half's final minute. Zusi delivered the free kick into the penalty box and Collin rose high to flick it past Hartman to put the teams level entering the half. The goal, Collin's fourth in two MLS seasons, matched the latest first half strike in club history.
Sporting Kansas City used the momentum to their advantage, drawing a penalty kick in the 50th minute when Myers was tripped up by Ihemelu inside the penalty area. Kamara, who converted both of his penalty kicks in 2011, stepped to the spot and struck his shot low but Hartman dove to his right to push away the attempt.
It marked the club's first unsuccessful penalty kick in their last 14 attempts dating back to 2007 and was the 14th career penalty save for the former KC goalkeeper. Kamara nearly found redemption on the ensuing corner kick, winning the header but pushing it just wide of the far post.
The back-and-forth action continued with FC Dallas nearly taking the lead in the 57th minute as Jair Benitez found space on the left flank and surged forward. He slipped a pass across the goalmouth for an onrushing Andrew Jacobson, who couldn't connect from close range.
FC Dallas, who were the last team to defeat Sporting Kansas City at home in a regular season MLS match, threatened again in the 86th minute as Pertuz sent a shot narrowly over the crossbar.
Two minutes later, Kamara recorded his second goal in as many games and 22nd of his KC career to give Sporting Kansas City its second 3-0-0 start in team history. Sporting becomes the only team in MLS with three wins through their first three games, earning the victory in their first of six straight matches against Western Conference opponents.
Sporting Kansas City will now return to the road for their next MLS match, traveling to take on Chivas USA on Sunday, March 31 at The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. The match will be broadcast live on KSMO-TV at 8 p.m. CT.
LIVESTRONG Sporting Park will host the CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying Tournament semifinals on Saturday, March 31 and championship on Monday, April 1. Tickets are available at Ticketmaster.com or at the LSP box offices.
Fast Facts:
* Sporting Kansas City is 3-0-0 this season and in sole possession of first place in the Eastern Conference. * Sporting KC is 2-0-0 at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park in 2012. * Sporting Kansas City is 197-199-100 all-time and 133-72-43 at home in the team's 17-year history. * Sunday's match marked the first time Sporting Kansas City has played three games in the month of March. Sporting Kansas City is 8-6-1 all-time in the month of March. * Sporting Kansas City has scored 29 goals in the month of March all-time, most among all MLS teams. * With the win, Sporting Kansas City is 3-0-0 in 2012 and in first place of the Eastern Conference at the conclusion of week three. This is the second time Sporting Kansas City has started a season with three consecutive wins, the last time was in 2006. * Sporting KC is now 20-19-8 all-time against FC Dallas and 11-8-5 at home in the series. * FC Dallas lost for the first time in the 2012 season. * Ricardo Villar's goal in the 25th minute ended Sporting Kansas City's shutout streak at 204 minutes without conceding a goal, second longest in MLS this season. * Sporting Kansas City goalkeeper Jimmy Nielsen allowed his first goal of the 2012 season lowered his all-time goals against average to 1.12, the best career mark among all goalkeepers in KC history. * Sporting Kansas City is 1-0-0 against Western Conference opponents and Sunday was the first of six straight matches against Western Conference teams for Sporting Kansas City. * Sporting KC started the same lineup in Sunday's match as they did in last Saturday's 3-0 victory against New England. * Sporting Kansas City has outshot their opponent by ten or more shots in each of the first three games in 2012. KC leads the league in shots with 66 and shots on goal with 24. * Kei Kamara had 11 shots in tonight's match, falling just short of the all-time MLS record of 12, shared by Preki and Mamadou Diallo. * Kamara's 11 shots breaks Preki's record for most shots by a Kansas City player all-time against FC Dallas. His five shots on goal tie Preki for most shots on goal by a KansasCity player all-time against FC Dallas. * Kamara surpasses Chris Brown, Scott Sealy, and Matt McKeon for 9th place (75 shots on goal) on the club's all-time chart. * Kamara surpassed Jack Jewsbury for 6th on the clubs all-time shot list. * Kamara leads all MLS players in shots in 2012 with 24. * Aurelien Collin's goal in the 49+ minute was the fourth of his career and ties the record for latest first half goal in Sporting Kansas City history. The only other time a goal was scored that late in the first half by a Kansas City player was on September 26, 2001 when Francisco Gomez finished off an assist from current Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes. * Collin's goal marks the 700th goal in club history. * Sporting Kansas City is 3-0-1 all-time when Collin scores. * Graham Zusi earned assists on both goals in tonight's match and now leads MLS with four assists in 2012, tallying at least one assist in each of the team's first three games. * This is the second straight season that Graham Zusi has accumulated assists in three consecutive games. In 2011, his streak lasted from June 12 to June 25 and tied for third longest in the League. * Zusi now has 12 assists in his MLS career. * Zusi now has six points (one goal and four assists) and is tied for second in the League for points behind David Estrada. * Tonight marks the first time Sporting Kansas City has failed to convert a penalty kick since July 29, 2007 when Carlos Marinelli missed against Chivas USA. Kansas City also won that match, scoring the game winner in the 89th minute. * Sporting Kansas City has scored 49 of their 67 penalty kick attempts all-time with a 73% success rate. * Sporting Kansas City converted 13 consecutive penalty kicks prior to tonight's match. * The penalty kick save marks Kevin Hartman's 14th of his career. * Kei Kamara scored his second goal of 2012 and 22nd goal during the regular season for Sporting Kansas City. * Kamara has notched a goal in each of Sporting Kansas city's last two matches against FC Dallas. * Kamara's game-winning goal moves him into a tie for 7th on the club's all-time chart joining Chris Brown, Jose Burciaga Jr., Eddie Johnson, Mo Johnston and Miklos Molnar with six. * Kamara becomes one of 164 field players to surpass 10,000 minutes in his MLS career. He is one of 53 active field players to accomplish this feat. * Chance Myers tallied his first assist of 2012 and third of his career on Kamara's finish. * Graham Zusi also tallied an assist on the goal, marking the sixth game-winning assist of his career and second of the 2012 season. Zusi leads the League in game-winning assists in2012. * Zusi and Myers are both credited for the 200th game winning assist in club history. * Sporting Kansas City becomes the sixth MLS club to accumulate 200 or more assists. * Zusi moves into a tie for 10th place on the club's all-time game-winning assist chart, joining Mark Chung, Matt McKeon, and Sasha Victorine with six. * Sporting Kansas City maintained 59.4% of the possession in tonight's match. * Time Warner Cable was the official match sponsor for tonight's game. SeanCurry, TWC Director of Marketing, conducted the pre-match coin toss. * Sporting Kansas City hosted their third annual Jewish Heritage Celebration in conjunction with the match. All proceeds benefitted the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy sports programs and the Jewish Federation's Sasone organization. * Sporting Kansas City was without striker Teal Bunbury, who has played in each of the United States first two matches in the CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying Tournament. * Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes remains atop the team's all-time coaches chart for best winning percentage (.513, 30-28-21), surpassing Bob Gansler (.502, 86-85-51). * Sporting Kansas City will host their first home 2012 MLS Reserve League at 11 a.m. CT on Tuesday at the Sporting Club Training Center in Swope Park against the Houston Dynamo. * Because Sporting Kansas City scored more than two goals at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park on Saturday, all in attendance received a voucher for a free 2-Liter of Pepsi Max.
QUOTES
Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes...
General thoughts on the match... The first half was a very slow, methodical pace that they set up. We knew that they were going to try to do that coming in here. I was a little disappointed because we knew it and we had talked about how we needed to do better with them trying to do that. We got too caught up in them getting fouls and slowing the game up. It changed our tempo and our pace. Just towards when we finally scored, we started to get a little bit of our tempo back."
On going down a goal for the first time in 2012... The good thing about the guys is their resiliency. They believed that they were going to get back into the game and that is a good mentality to have, because not every game you are going to come out and doing everything perfectly, but you have to be able to respond well and I thought the second half was much better.
On if a draw would have felt like a loss... FC Dallas is a good team. I don't think you can take that away from them. Getting a point is always a good thing, but for us, we felt that we needed to get the 3 here at home. We have a few tough games coming up, one on the road this week against Chivas, who just beat Real Salt Lake at their place. There is not a game that is easy in MLS, so taking points at home is very important.
Sporting Kansas City defender Chance Myers
General thoughts on the match... Obviously it took giving up a goal to wake us up and get us going. They came in and had their game plan to slow it down and take their time on ball. When they lost the ball, they would go back and sit back. We couldn't really find the space to break them down. The second half, we found the space and stretched them a little bit. Defensively, I though we were solid. Jimmy guided us the whole time. Offensively, we are going to create chances so we needed to be patient, and eventually, they came.
On the pass he received from Graham Zusi that led to Kei Kamara's goal... We worked on this in practice. The in-back-and-through, our pattern play up the right side with Kei and Graham and I. When we get rid of the ball, our objective is to get off and start running to find the space. It was kind of second nature. I played the ball the Graham and just started running. Kei read the placement well and I just slipped in right to him.
Sporting Kansas City forward Kei Kamara On scoring the game-winning goal shortly after missing a penalty kick in the second half... Being a player, those are the situations you dream about, getting the game-winning goal. Any time you can do something like that for your team, it feels great. As a striker, sometimes you keep missing and keep missing. If you take your head out of it, you'll never get going. So I just had to keep my composure and take any chance I had.
On Chance Myers' pass to set up Kamara's goal... The connection we have on the right side is great. Chance has an engine - he's going to go up and down the field all game. When I see him running like that, all I can do is just follow. I'm a goal scorer and I want to be in the right spot.
On Sporting Kansas City's attacking form... We'd like to see some more goals, but at the same time, we've got three points each game. If it's just one goal a game, as long as we get the three points there's no problem. And the thing about this team is that it really doesn't matter who scores. All we want to do is win right now.
On playing in a physical, emotional match... It's a lot of fun. When the fans get into the game, they add energy and you want to keep going. It's a brutal game at times. Dallas tried to slow the game down - in the first half we didn't adjust to it, in the second half we did.
On the contrast between Sporting Kansas City's first half and second half performances... We picked up the energy and made more runs off the ball. We didn't let Dallas decide how the game was going to be played.
Sporting Kansas City midfielder Roger Espinoza
On Dallas's approach to the game... Dallas tried to slow the game down, which made it tough for us in the first half. Every time there was a foul, they were taking their time. So it was a game we really had to grind out. They made nothing easy for us. It didn't seem like they wanted to play, but we won the game, and that's what matters.
On starting the season with three straight wins... We had a strong end to last year, and we knew we could come out this year playing the same way, or even better. Our goal in the offseason was to get in great shape and continue playing well, and I think game by game we are getting better.
Sporting Kansas City midfielder Graham Zusi
On registering his fourth assist in three games... It's easy for me to play well when the team is playing well. Dallas is always a tough team to beat, but we're high on confidence right now and we know we can get positive results every game.
On the importance of equalizing right before halftime... That goal was huge for us. The first half, Dallas was able to control the momentum. It was a big for us to break through right at the end because we had some confidence going into halftime.
On Sporting Kansas City's halftime adjustments... Some of it was just a mental change. But also, we couldn't allow them to control the pace of the game. They wanted to slow things down, but in the second half we did an excellent job of upping the tempo. We were in their half a lot of the time and it was only a matter of time before we got one.
On the game's atmosphere... Those fans are constantly making noise. They 100 percent believe we are going to win every game. It's easier to push for the full 90 minutes when you have 18,000 people getting behind you.
On avenging Sporting Kansas City's 3-2 home loss to Dallas last season... It was a little bit of redemption for us. That memory hasn't slipped our minds at all, so this win was a little extra sweet.
FC Dallas manager Schellas Hyndman
On the physical play in the match... We're playing against a very good team, very strong, very athletic, very powerful. They have a lot of weapons coming forward. It's the way you play. If I'm telling you something you don't know, then you need to follow another sport.
On the performance of Kei Kamara... Excellent player. I think that if Kei Kamara had taken up another sport, he would be outstanding, as well. He puts it all on the field and he is very athletic. When you think you have guys who can jump pretty well, he goes six inches higher. He's definitely one of the best players in the league.
On the injury to Ricardo Villar... He's the one who has the skills and the vision to break people down, to make the right passes, to hold the ball under pressure. Not having him out there, I thought that coming away with a point would have been a good accomplishment for our team.
On the team's mentality going into the match... We never go into a game trying to get a point. We're trying to get a win. I think that we would have put ourselves in much better shape if we wouldn't have given up the goal so late in the first half"
On Sporting Kansas City... They are much further ahead than any other team in the league and they have a lot of weapons. They play a style of soccer that is very disruptive, both going forward and defending. I don't think there is another team in the league playing at the level they are playing at.
FC Dallas goalkeeper Kevin Hartman
General thoughts on the match... Obviously we're disappointed. We got an early goal and I thought we possessed the ball well. Once we were up a goal we sat back a bit and tried to absorb the pressure and unfortunately we gave a goal up. That being said, we were able to overcome the penalty kick and a bunch of other things. I though we were in a position to leave with a point at a stadium where it's really difficult to get points.
On the performance of Kei Kamara... At the end, we just gave Kei Kamara too many opportunities. He's a good player and he's one of those players that you need to be aware of going into the game. Unfortunately we gave him one too many opportunities.
On FC Dallas's plan going into the match... I think that we are a team that wants to come in and play our game. We don't necessarily want to go on the road and play in a shell. I don't think my any means we did that in the first half. We really took the game to them. We got a free kick and a good position on the field and we were able to score early.Obviously when you're on the road you want to be safe and respectful of the fact that you have that goal. Unfortunately at the end of the day Kansas City continued to bring it.
On giving up a late goal... We gave up a goal late in the first half and late in the second half. We need to work on our time management and look at the clock and make sure we are aware of where we are in the game and what's good enough on the road and what's not good enough. Tonight I thought a point would be good enough and we deserve more than we got.
On saving Kei Kamara's penalty... I said to Kei, "I got this." I wasn't sure of it but I wanted to get it in his head and fortunately I was able to get it around the post.
FC Dallas defender Ugo Ihemelu
General thoughts on the match... It was a disappointing game; we gave up late goals in both halves. Those are the times you have to be focused.
On giving up late goals in both halves... The first goal was a set piece and we should have just been set. As for the last goal, I could have put myself in a better position but Sporting kept putting pressure on us and they scored.
On their expectations going into the match... We just wanted to play our game but we knew Sporting is a good team and we knew how they play. We knew what to expect on certain plays. When you have the lead you have to maintain it going into halftime. You have to see the half out.
FC Dallas midfielder Andrew Jacobson
General thoughts on the match... It sucks and it hurts that we didn't win.
On playing Sporting Kansas City at home... Everywhere we go we expect to win and get better than the week before. We came planning to win and we didn't.
On what they will take away from the match... The feeling of losing. It sucks. Please note: When discussing our team, please refer to us as Sporting Kansas City or Sporting KC. Tickets are currently on sale for 2012 home matches at state-of-the-art LIVESTRONG Sporting Park. Visit www.SportingKC.com or call 888-4KC-GOAL to reserve seats.
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