One early lapse, another just seconds from the final whistle, and Sporting Kansas City came away empty-handed.
“Obviously, it's not good,” manager Peter Vermes told reporters during a conference call after Saturday night's 2-1 away loss to the LA Galaxy on Omar Gonzalez's goal deep in second-half stoppage time. “Not good. We worked too hard, put too much time in, to walk off the field that way.”
Sporting fell behind after just nine minutes, when they left Baggio Husidic unmarked for a putback of Stefan Ishizaki's saved shot. They came back to equalize in the 22nd through a pretty chip from Krisztian Nemeth – after Benny Feilhaber's league-leading fifth assist of the season – and were seconds away from picking up a road point that would have kept them one ahead of the Galaxy in the Western Conference standings.
They couldn't withstand a late barrage of set pieces from the defending MLS Cup champs, though, and the last one cost them when Gonzalez's shot from a Juninho corner kick deflected off Bernardo Anor and past SKC goalkeeper Luis Marin for the match-winner.
“I thought we played a good game,” said Vermes, whose club had a four-match unbeaten streak broken. “I thought we were good in possession. I think in the second half, they owned a little bit more of the match. They were just pumping the ball in on us, lot of little things here and there in the second half.”
And with center back Ike Opara out with a ruptured left Achilles tendon, sustained late in last week's scoreless home draw against Real Salt Lake, Sporting are without their best set-piece defender and strongest aerial presence at either end of the pitch.
“Overall, we played well, but you can't – we gave up way too many free kicks in the second half in that end,” Vermes said. “Somewhere, something's going to be a mistake, and that's what it wound up being. A ball bounces off our guy and goes in the back of the net.”
One bright spot from Sporting, aside from new arrival Nemeth's second goal of the young season, was winger Graham Zusi's return from a two-match absence due to a hamstring strain – and his ability to go for most of the match before being lifted in second-half stoppage time.
“We need him on the field,” Vermes said. “He gives us a lot of different things in the game. So that was good.”
Steve Brisendine covers Sporting Kansas City for MLSsoccer.com.
