Sunday, September 24, 2017

Sporting Edge Galaxy 2-1; Extend Home Unbeaten Streak to 24.

Sporting Kansas City continued their vein of good form with a 2-1 victory over the struggling Los Angeles Galaxy in front of 19,028 fans at Children's Mercy Park on Sunday afternoon.

The victory extends the club's home unbeaten streak to 24 matches. It also propelled the club into second place in the MLS Western Conference, one point behind the Vancouver Whitecaps. Sporting KC also sits 3 points ahead of both Seattle and Portland, with one game in hand on both.

On a hot, humid day in Kansas City, Sporting KC seemed like they were the only team that came to play in the first half. It was the most disinterested I'd seen a team play since Sigi Schmid's last visit with the Sounders. It also, as it turned out, was Sigi's last match with the Sounders, as he got relieved of his duties shortly after that.

The way the club is playing, it seems to me Peter Vermes may have been on to something on Wednesday in his speech to the club before the champagne started to fly. "This isn't the last one this year," Vermes said, "let's go."

When Dom Dwyer was traded to Orlando at the end of July, some people wondered aloud who would provide the offense for the club for the rest of the season. As it turns out, those worried about where goals would come from needn't have worried. With a goal and an assist from Diego Rubio and a goal in consecutive games from Daniel Salloi, the club has shown why the deal was made. Love him or not, Dom was expendable. There wasn't really a need to get another forward before the roster freeze because Dwyer's replacement was already in the building, so to speak.

If the defense can hold up down the stretch and into the playoffs, and there's no reason to believe they won't, this could be a very special season. I'm not saying that it isn't special already. After all, the club has already picked up a piece of hardware, but if they were to complete the double, it would be closer to spectacular.

The stat of the day really goes to show just how impressive Tim Melia has been this season. In order to have a goals against average of 1.00 for the season, Tim would have to give up 11 goals in the last five games. So far this season, Tim's given up more than one goal in a game just three times, the last on July 29th in a 3-2 win against Chicago. I simply don't see it happening that many times between now and the end of the season.

Will the run continue? We'll see, starting Saturday, September 30, against Vancouver. Kickoff is set for 8:00.