Donnelly: Sporting KC Needs Playoff Push After 4th Straight Loss

Embedded image permalinkOver the weekend, Sporting Kansas City dropped its 4th game in a row, this time on the road at the New York Red Bulls.

The boys in blue have been in a death spiral for the better part of a month now, though to be fair, they were a bit sharper against NY than they have been lately.  Not that it mattered, because Thierry Henry sealed the 2-1 Red Bulls’ win with a right footed rifle shot that blasted the top corner of the net.

“I mean it’s a world-class finish,” said Dom Dwyer.  “He puts it right in the top corner, but we’d like to close him down quicker…”

The KC defense gave the still-dangerous Frenchman way, way too much space at top of the box on the play, but like Dom said, the strike was still world class.

So where does this leave Sporting?  They’re sitting at 2nd in the Eastern Conference, with 6 MLS matches left before the playoffs.  No team has clinched a playoff spot yet.

The next 6 opponents are Chivas, New England, DC, Chicago, Philly, and New York.  New York is sitting at 6th, just out of the playoffs, and Chicago also still has a chance to make it in.  And all of these teams are in the Eastern Conference, except Chivas.

What I’m saying is the playoffs are far from a lock for KC.   Embedded image permalink

“You’ve got to understand that the whole season we’ve been in first or second place, the whole entire season with massive amounts of injuries, guys away on international duty, we’ve kept ourselves in the mix,” explained KC coach Peter Vermes.  “In this league, you always run into a rough patch somewhere. The question is when do you come out of it…”

What a letdown it would be to lead the conference table for nearly the entire season and then fail to make the playoffs.  However unless Sporting can get out of their funk – and soon – that letdown could be closer than we think.

Embedded image permalink

Dom and Soony carbo-loading for Friday night’s game

Luckily, this Friday’s game will see KC take on one of the worst teams in the league, Chivas USA.  And it helps that Chivas is a Western Conference team, so even a loss for KC won’t hurt quite as much as it would against an Eastern Conference team.

http://www.mb-kc.com/
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5 Responses to Donnelly: Sporting KC Needs Playoff Push After 4th Straight Loss

  1. legendaryhog says:

    Sporting’s play lately has invoked merely this two word review: Shit sandwich.

    Henry’s goal was world class. He struck the ball from behind his hips. That is really hard to do let alone hit with power, pace, and accuracy. Goal of the week. Bradley Wright-Phillips was just tearing it up. Dude was doing whatever he wanted with Sporting’s back line and added a goal to his league leading tally. Just not a whole lot of positives for SKC in this game. They looked a little sharper, but still not nearly as dominate as they have been in the past. Again, the whole idea of “out working” the opponent basically assumes that they are equal or worse than you are and that you are going to grind them down. This doesn’t work with the better teams. You can’t just run and run and run and expect to keep your form. Also, everyone in the league has figured out that the man to go at is Senovic. Unfortunately, he is too slow and not strong enough to take on these big strikers. He actually makes pretty good decisions and is a decent crosser of the ball when he overlaps, but he is becoming a defensive liability.
    Sporting midfield??? Nonexistant. Get your shit together Zusi. You forgot that you are a world class player. Everything should go through you not Benny.

  2. the dude says:

    They need three points bad.

  3. the Polar Bear says:

    Sporting is trying to follow in the footprints of the other Hunt sports team. After they win a title, they turn to $hi~ for the next 40 years while running ticket prices and parking sky high while serving watered down beer and cheap hot dogs.

    The Hunt’s enjoy spending KC money all over the Metroplex. You see little, if any, spend in KC. Ironic, huh ?

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