KANSAS CITY, Kan. – So, let’s see here.
Sporting Kansas City were worried about their depleted back line – and rang up a clean sheet after Matt Besler got a temporary hall pass from the US national team.
They used five different forwards in a 3-0 victory over Minnesota United. But two of their goals came from defenders using their feet, one scoring for the first time this season and one for the first time in his MLS career. The one assist in the match came from a center back.
And the one time a striker should have scored, when Soony Saad’s 54th-minute blast found the underside of the bar, bounced down over the line and then went back out into the field of play, the officials missed it. An alert teammate had to head it back in so at least that goal would count.
“I knew it was Soony’s goal,” said Jimmy Medranda, who moved into the midfield for Saturday’s match in place of suspended midfielder Roger Espinoza. “I saw that the referee didn’t call the goal, so I ran to the ball and put it in. I think everybody was surprised. I’m just happy to get the goal, whoever gets it.”
As odd as Saturday’s victory might have been, though, it was a dominating home performance that kept Sporting KC unbeaten in MLS play at Children’s Mercy Park since May 24, 2016.
“I don’t know if we look for credit. We just kind of expect to win at home,” said center back Ike Opara. “We expect to drive the game, we expect to dominate. I think when we’re on the road, we have a lot of good things, [but] we just haven’t been able to pull off a few of those wins like we would’ve hoped. But we come home and we expect those things.
“We bring a lot of energy, especially with the crowd backing us. We owe them a whole lot of credit for that. It’s not something we look at, to prolong the streak or whatever. We just expect to come home and win.”
Opara opened the scoring – and the oddness -- in first-half stoppage time, his hard low roller from well outside the penalty area freezing Loons goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth after Sporting KC had spent the rest of the half dominating the run of play but with nothing to show for it.
It was the first goal of the year and a rare go from distance for Opara, whose goals with the club have mostly come on towering set-piece headers.
“Yeah, there were a couple times that I was getting closer in the half, and I think when that opened up, I think it was mine the whole time,” Opara said. “Obviously I was looking for someone’s feet, but once all the lanes closed and mine opened up, I was just focused on hitting the target and putting it on frame.”
Besler, released for the quick trip home by US coach Bruce Arena, assisted on the play and helped Sporting KC’s back line – depleted by Kevin Ellis’ quad injury and Erik Palmer-Brown’s international duty at the Under-20 World Cup – clean up on the rare occasions that Minnesota United threatened.
“It was great that he was able to come back,” manager Peter Vermes said of Besler. “It definitely helped us in a lot of respects. I appreciate not only him coming back, but Bruce working with us as well.
"It really decimated us in our position. We have two guys going away to national teams, you have another guy injured and then you’re signing a guy from your USL team and trying to bring him up. It was difficult.”
Right back Graham Zusi is also away on US national team duty. But Vermes had a proven backup in Saad Abdul-Salaam, who had started at the spot in his first two seasons before Zusi’s positional shift. Abdul-Salaam responded with his first career goal, a close-range finish in the 87th minute.
“Just seeing Ike be determined to take a shot from that far out, knowing that he kept it on goal and had it go in," Abdul-Salaam said, "that gave me the confidence to go forward at times when I had the chances here."
