Somewhere around the 70th minute, it looked like the Curse of Caricola was back, and the New York Red Bulls had somehow re-angered the soccer gods and stumbled into a new era of despair.
They were losing a game they'd dominated. They'd missed sitters and been punished off a careless midfield turnover. They were going to lose – again – in the playoffs at Red Bull Arena.
But those ghosts of 1996 are banished. The Red Bulls survived, coming back to beat Sporting Kansas City 2-1, and will fight on into the Eastern Conference semifinals of the 2014 MLS Cup Playoffs, presented by AT&T.
Here are a few thoughts from tonight's game:
1. New York subs change the shape of the game
You know Péguy Luyindula had an effect on things, since he had second assists on both of New York's goals. And Ambroise Oyongo got the game-winning primary assist, even though it looked like the first time he'd ever attempted to kick a soccer ball with his right foot. The counting stats are there.
Bigger, though, was how both subs changed the shape of the game. Oyongo offered pure width and a bit of trickery on the ball – also allowing Lloyd Sam to switch to the KC right and torment that side of the defense a little bit – while Luyindula set up shop as a pure attacking midfielder, operating between the lines and pulling defenders away from Thierry Henry.
The game-tying goal is the perfect example of that.
When Luyindula drifts away like that, he forces Sporting's bunkered defense to make some tough choices about who goes with whom. Those choices have to be quick, and they just aren't for Sporting – haven't been since May. As highlighted in the match preview, teams have been hitting that gap between the right back and right central defender all year (including the Red Bulls on Sunday in the regular-season finale for both teams).
New York didn't get much going in that gap before Luyindula's introduction. When he came on, it allowed Henry to play off the ball and offer some penetration without it, creating the sorts of angles needed to break through a parked bus.
2. Did I mention Sporting's parked bus?
Parked, and, unfortunately, out of gas. Injuries, the transfer of Uri Rosell, the retirement of Jimmy Nielsen and a whole lotta games have simply taken their toll. KC knew they would struggle to press and go toe-to-toe with the quality teams in the Eastern Conference, so they had to do what they could. Result: smash-and-grab.
It's a complete 180 for a team that's been defined by their ability to ramp up the tempo as high as it could go and punish the mistakes of others. To be fair, they did punish New York's one big mistake in this one – though it definitely wasn't a "high-pressure" goal.
For a long while, it looked like that would be enough. But Sporting, who led the league in possession with 57.13 percent in 2014, did this on Thursday night:
That's remarkable. Even after New York tied the score and it was clear that Sporting weren't going to have a damn thing left in the tank for the possibility of extra time, they still couldn't go forward. They finished with just three shots, the lowest number they've had in any game – regular season or playoffs – since 2011, according to Opta.
Truth be told, this team's season basically ended in August. Nobody needs a couple of months off more than Peter Vermes' men. Given their trophy-filled run over the past few years, it's well deserved.
3. Everything through Titi
Henry's miss from about eight yards out in the 72nd minute felt, for a second, like the nail in the coffin. It was of a piece with New York's playoff history.
Instead of collapsing as past New York teams have, though, they just kept running the game through him. He ended up all over the ball in this one:
He also had four key passes, one that turned into an assist on Bradley Wright-Phillips' opener above. And his ability to switch the field like this …
… was always a threat to crack open the Sporting defense.
Eventually that defense did crack. Henry's mere presence was enough to turn most of KC in his direction, and that made enough of a channel for Luyindula to slip a beautiful pass to Oyongo.
For once, for New York, the little things went right in the postseason.
