It may have taken a gut-punch of a draw to drive the point home, but Sporting Kansas City are learning from their mistakes.
Just days after squandering a 3-0 lead against the Vancouver Whitecaps, Kansas City got an opportunity to redeem themselves by defeating the Houston Dynamo 1-0 on Wednesday in a US Open Cup play-in game to advance within one qualifying victory of the tournament proper.
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“To me, it was a huge result for us,” manager Peter Vermes told MLSsoccer.com by phone following the game. “The reason being [is] the guy’s reaction from the last game. For them, the whole thing was to make sure that we don’t give up any goals and then be able to lock the game down.”
Sporting certainly did that much against the Dynamo and will next face the winner of the match between New England and D.C. United for the opportunity to be one of the eight MLS clubs that will participate in the domestic cup.
[inline_node:333193]Despite plenty of chances during regulation, Kansas City couldn’t broach Houston goalkeeper Tyler Deric’s goal until substitute C.J. Sapong struck just minutes into extra time to score his second goal for the club.
But for Vermes, the most important aspect of the performance was the way his side managed the game and kept the Dynamo off the scoreboard after giving up eight goals in their first three MLS games.
“Throughout the entire game, the guys were extremely disciplined defensively,” he said. “Because of that, it provided us with the opportunity to build off what happened last weekend.”
Although goalkeeper Jimmy Nielsen and veteran center back Júlio César weren’t available and midfielder Davy Arnaud started the game on the bench, Sporting took a near first-choice lineup to College Station, Texas, with Omar Bravo, Kei Kamara and Teal Bunbury starting up top and Shavar Thomas, Luke Sassano and Eric Kronberg serving as experienced replacements for missing regulars.
Sapong relieved Bravo at halftime, a precautionary move to prevent the Mexican from further aggravating a few niggling injuries, and the rookie had an immediate effect with his physicality and athleticism.
“Bringing C.J. on was a very likely move for us,” Vermes said, “and he made an incredible impact in the game. Not just the goal, but he was completely dominant in the air.”
And as happy as he was with Sapong’s contributions, Vermes was even more satisfied with his team’s ability to react and adapt after a difficult weekend, taking another step forward in Kansas City's only opportunity for hardware outside the MLS season.
“Every game is an evolution,” Vermes said. “The part that we evolved with today was that we learned a valuable lesson in our last game. The guys had a chance to put it use right away. I am very proud of them in the fact that they did, scored the goal and held a clean sheet, which is tremendous.”
