Sporting Kansas City entered Decision Day knowing a win would send the club to the MLS Cup Playoffs. Benny Feilhaber rose to the occasion.
A commanding performance from Sporting Kansas City's midfield talisman drew Team of the Week plaudits from MLSsoccer.com and Goal.com the day after a 2-0 win over the San Jose Earthquakes at sunny Children's Mercy Park.
Feilhaber buried the game-winning penalty kick in the 27th minute and set up Graham Zusi for a second goal on 88 minutes as Sporting Kansas City clinched a club-record sixth straight playoff appearance and ran its unbeaten streak at Children's Mercy Park to nine games.
Feilhaber's late assist was the 50th of his Sporting KC career in all competitions, making him the fourth player in team history to reach the milestone behind Preki (104), Zusi (60) and Klein (54).
Another key contributor to Sunday's triumph was goalkeeper Tim Melia, who made four saves en route to the shutout. The goalkeeper landed Bleacher Report Team of the Week honors and now has two consecutive clean sheets for an increasingly confident Sporting Kansas City side heading into the playoffs.
Now Sporting Kansas City can turn its attention to Thursday's Western Conference Knockout Round match against Seattle Sounders FC at CenturyLink Field. Peter Vermes' men have fallen at this juncture of the postseason in each of the last two seasons, but Feilhaber believes his side is capable of getting over the hump this time around.
"To be honest, if you look back at the two playoff games we’ve lost the past two years, we’ve played pretty well," Feilhaber said postgame. "In the New York game [in 2014], we got a 1-0 lead and gave up two late goals. And in Portland [in 2015], we were able to come back from a 1-0 deficit, get two goals and blew it in the end. But we can definitely take the experience of being able to compete in tough situations like that on the road. Hopefully, we can also take the experience of not letting down in the last few moments of games to be able to come away with a victory."
Kickoff on Thursday is set for 9 p.m. CT on FS1, UniMas, Sports Radio 810 WHB and La Grande 1340 AM.
