Sporting Kansas City recently finished one of their toughest road trips outside of CONCACAF Champions League as they had to travel to New Jersey to play the New York Red Bulls on Wednesday and then travel across the country to Los Angeles to play the Galaxy three days later on Saturday. One game provided entertainment and three points while the other was entertaining (for the other team) and no points to speak of.
After a week off, Sporting traveled to Harrison, New Jersey to play against the New York Red Bulls. Knowing that they had to go play LA the following Saturday, Sporting had to conserve some energy so getting out to an early lead was crucial for success in both games. The easiest way to explain the game was that it was strange. The referee was calling a loose game at the beginning and got stricter as the game went on. That arguably was a cause of what happened at the end of the game but more on that later.
In the 13th minute, Aurelien Collin scored a beautiful header off a Graham Zusi corner. Once the goal was scored, Sporting went into full on time conservation mode. It sure wasn’t the most entertaining part of the game and some of the “injuries” were over exaggerated but it surely was effective. Most importantly, that got the Red Bulls off their game. Thierry Henry missed a couple point blank shots as well as a few other shots that the team made, which resulted in great saves by Jimmy Nielsen. And the moment that everyone was talking about, in stoppage time, Juninho kicked the ball at Jimmy Nielsen and goes down as it hits him in the shoulder/chest. Juninho gets a red card, as well as a 2 game ban, and that sealed the 1-0 win for Sporting. As far as the Juninho red is concerned, he deserved the red and the additional game suspension. Nielsen sold the hit like a used car salesman in hopes of wasting more time and getting Juninho the red, but at the same time, you can’t deny that there was either intent on Juninho’s part to hit Nielsen or he’s somehow wasting more time by booting the ball that’s to be used for the goal kick into the stands. He puts some strength behind the ball so it’s either nailing Jimmy or going into the stands. Both reasons are stupid and I can’t see any other explanation so take your pick.
As an added treat, I drove up to New York to spend time with friends and to go to the game. Some of us were sitting with the Red Bulls fans, some with the Sporting fans but we all had a good time. It was my first time at Red Bull Arena and I have to say it is a great looking stadium. The sightlines were great and it looked like we were on top of the action where we were in the top section of the stadium. I must say that the surroundings take a bit to get used to. I now understand why New York struggles to sell out Red Bull Arena. It’s a real chore to drive from Queens to Harrison regardless if you take the train or go by car. There really is no easy way to get there from NYC. And if you’re driving through New Jersey to get to Harrison, it’s not the most tourist-friendly places to be in. Also not to mention that we almost got the car stuck on an outrageously high layer of stones in the parking lot that made it seem we were driving through six inches of snow. I definitely see the Red Bulls struggling to have fans if the stadium in Queens gets approved and New York gets a second team. Queens is much easier to get to and a lot of New Yorkers will be willing to give the new New York (Futurama reference) team a shot.
While all that fun was on Wednesday, Sporting had to fly across the country to play against the LA Galaxy in Carson for a Saturday game. Sporting was strong but they ran into a strong and dangerous Galaxy team. Sporting players slipping on the grass set up both goals in the beginning but it still doesn’t answer the lockdown defense LA had over Sporting. Sporting’s only real shot at goal was a Graham Zusi free kick that bounced off the post. Landon Donovan set up Marcelo Sarvas in the 27th minute and Robbie Keane did the same to Donovan in the 74th to grab a 2-0 win. Jimmy Nielsen and Sporting’s streak of not allowing a goal ended at 545 minutes.
A lot of people want to blame the 2-0 loss on the travel from KC to NYC on Wednesday and then to LA for Saturday. There’s no doubt that when I first saw the schedule, I didn’t like seeing that on the schedule because I felt that it was an unnecessary trip. I know Sporting has to play in LA this season but for a league that stresses the importance of trying to lower travel miles for MLS teams, I find it rather hypocritical that they make a team travel over a thousand miles in the middle of the week and then three thousand miles for the weekend. Maybe it was impossible to avoid but I imagine the people in charge of scheduling could have thought of a better solution than that. That being said however, the travel wasn’t what cost Sporting the game. Both LA and Sporting were even throughout and LA took advantage of two slips and mistakes to win the game. It’s just something that happens and you can’t blame anyone for it. Just have to move on and look towards Portland this Saturday night at 8:30 eastern.
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