Sporting Kansas City’s extended road trip has reached its conclusion as Sporting played to a draw in Toronto. The draw gave Sporting 6 points from their first 10 matches of the season. They will now debut Livestrong Sporting Park on Thursday against rival Chicago. The match will be on ESPN2 (9 PM CT) as the game of the week.
The road trip saw Sporting play a stretch that included 5 losses in a row and only received one point in 7 matches. They still haven’t won since opening night vs. Chivas USA in the Home Depot Center.
On Saturday, the team played a decent match considering that they were playing without several starters such as Kei Kamara, Stephanie Auvray, and Roger Espinoza, who all were on international duty. The team was also without first team goalkeeper, Jimmy Nielson, who stayed in Kansas City with an illness.
The match started with very few opportunities for either team and it really didn’t get much more exciting. Graham Zusi had probably the best opportunity to break the deadlock for Sporting with a free kick that was pushed over the goal by Toronto goalkeeper Stefan Frei. The best scoring opportunity for Toronto came late in the match by Doneil Henry and was saved by Sporting keeper Eric Kronberg. Overall, though Sporting played well considering everything and deserved at least a point.
Sporting can now look forward to Thursday night, finally playing at home, and opening their new stadium with 3 points. They will also look to make up for a slow start with a hetic finish to the season and get points if they want to make the new 10 team MLS playoffs.
(image courtesy of sportingkc.com)
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