KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Finally, this is the one-two scoring punch Sporting Kansas City envisioned.
Or, if you will, the 9-14 punch – as in the respective shirt numbers of winger Krisztian Nemeth and center forward Dom Dwyer, who now have a combined nine goals as their partnership up top continues to gel.
“Now, it's better than the first few games,” Nemeth told reporters on Wednesday, after scoring twice in a 4-2 home victory over New England. “You try to feel the moves, see how we have to work together. In the future, it's going to be an even better partnership, I think.”
Dwyer also scored – on Nemeth's first MLS assist – against the Revs, giving Nemeth five tallies and Dwyer four going into Saturday night's away match with Seattle (10 pm ET; MLS LIVE). And with midfielder Benny Feilhaber on a run of form that has seen him match his single-season high with seven assists just 11 games into 2015, the scoring prospects continue to look brighter and brighter after some early-season finishing struggles.
“It’s fantastic,” Feilhaber said in Wednesday's postmatch news conference, after assisting on both of Nemeth's goals against the Revs. “It makes my job a lot easier. These guys, they make the game without our midfield sometimes, which then opens up everything for us.”
The early adjustment period – especially as Nemeth is a natural center forward, rather than a true winger – was only to be expected, Feilhaber said.
“Krisztian, being a guy who’s here for the first time, regardless of how good you are, it takes a while to gel,” he said. “I need to be able to read his runs. Dom needs to. He needs to be able to read Dom’s runs. Those things are falling into place now, and once you start gelling and reading each other without really having to take the extra one, two seconds to see where they are, it makes the game a lot easier and smoother. I think that’s definitely something that’s not only been getting better, but hopefully continues to throughout the year.”
One reason the partnership works so well already, Dwyer said, is that each forward's skill set complements the other's, and each uses his own strengths to maximize his counterpart's.
“He’s a fantastic player,” Dwyer told reporters after Wednesday's match. “I love playing with him. We work well off each other. We kind of know where we’re going to be. I’ll work off the ball for him and he’ll work off the ball for me. We have a little combination going. We’re very unselfish with each other, we just want to win. We don’t care who scores. We just want to win.”
Dwyer, who set Sporting's single-season scoring record last year with 22 goals in MLS play and 24 across all competitions, wears defenses down with his strength and his runs off the ball. And while he has missed some open looks this year, as he did early in Wednesday's match, he's also capable of pulling off feats in the vein of his 29th-minute equalizer.
With his back to New England's Jermaine Jones, Dwyer took Nemeth's pass off his chest, and in one motion spun and drove a left-footed blast into the lower right corner.
“It’s been the story of the season so far – missing the easy ones and scoring the hard ones,” Dwyer said. “Honestly, though, it always motivates me. I’m going to miss chances in a game. It’s going to happen. I just try to pick myself up and try to finish the next one. Those chances have come and gone in my mind now because we got the three points and that’s what we need.”
Nemeth, for his part, said he was as glad to pick up his first assist since joining Sporting this offseason as he was to score Wednesday's brace of goals.
“We score, I'm happy even if I give him the assist,” Nemeth said. “I'm more happy than when I score. That was my target a long time ago. I didn't have an assist in the league, so that was my target. I finally gave one to Dom. He always has good movement, so I can find him.”
Speaking of moves, Nemeth is more than capable of some nifty ones himself – especially when he's on the ball.
“Krisztian, he has a way of not only dribbling the ball, but the way he manages the ball at his feet,” Feilhaber said. “He opens up space for other guys. Defenders keep their eye on him, which opens up space for the runs.”
And if those defenders give him enough room to operate, Nemeth is just fine creating space for himself – as he showed on Wednesday.
First, he took advantage of subpar marking from Jones to head home Feilhaber's free kick for the go-ahead score in the 39th minute. Then, to drive home Sporting's comeback from an early 1-0 deficit, Nemeth put on a display of footwork against Jones and London Woodberry to get free before slotting home Jacob Peterson's pass just 23 seconds into the second half for a 4-1 lead.
“He's fun to watch in open space,” center back and captain Matt Besler told reporters after the match. “His balance – I think that's the key. When you look at him, the cuts that he makes are the highlights, but I think that comes from him having unbelievable balance. It's nice watching him dribble the ball. I can usually tell when the cut's coming, because I've seen it in training – but at the same time, I still don't know when it's coming. That's how good they are.”
Steve Brisendine covers Sporting Kansas City for MLSsoccer.com.
