Sunday, July 6, 2014

Thoughts On Sporting KC v. Chicago 7/6/14

Sporting Kansas City extended their unbeaten streak to three matches with a 1-1 draw against the Chicago Fire at Sporting Park on Sunday afternoon.

The match saw the return of USMNT midfielder Graham Zusi to the 18, while defender Matt Besler was held out.

One thing I hope doesn't come back to bite the team in the butt was a silly yellow card shown to forward Dom Dwyer after his goal in the 33rd minute. After slotting the ball past goalkeeper Sean Johnson, Dwyer ran over to a photographer, grabbed his phone and took a selfie with teammate Soony Saad. The halftime stat sheet said the card was for excessive celebration. The weird thing about that was the full-time sheet said, "not visible."

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How dominant was Sporting KC in the 2nd half? They controlled almost 80 percent of the possession in the 2nd 45 minute period (78.6, to be exact).

It didn't hurt that Chicago's passing accuracy fell through the floor after halftime. Before halftime, the Fire completed a respectable 75.8 percent of their passes. After the intermission, that rate dropped to an abysmal 45.8. Chicago manager Frank Yallop can't have been pleased with that, even though he did say the team had played well after the game.

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The Chicago Fire were credited with four shots on target, but Eric Kronberg was not credited with a single save. You might be thinking, if you didn't watch the game, "But Alan, the Fire only scored once."

True, the Fire only scored once, but Dwyer cleared one ball of the line and Aurelien Collin cleared two more. Never hurts to have a Johnny-On-The-Spot right when you need it.

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The next home game brings Landon Donovan and the Los Angeles Galaxy to Sporting Park. Considering some of the chants the Cauldron has done in the past, it would not shock me to hear the Cauldron call Donovan a "Klinsmann Reject."

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Next up on the schedule, though, is a trip to Montreal on Saturday to face the Impact. Kickoff is scheduled for 6:30 CDT and will be shown on KMCI-TV and SKC-TV.

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