Sporting KC downs Salt Lake 2-0 at home

Sporting Kansas City came out strong Wednesday night defeating Real Salt Lake 2-0 and moved into third place in the Eastern Conference. Sporting KC extended their unbeaten streak to 14 MLS matches without a loss, a club record and tied for third longest in MLS history.

Sporting Kansas City dominated the game right from the start, consistently pressuring the visitors. Omar Bravo had the first good chance just 30 seconds into the game when he headed a cross from Michael Harrington just wide of the net.

Midfielder Roger Espinoza nearly score a few minutes later but his header was snagged out of the air by Salt Lake keeper Nick Rimando. Espinoza had another shot go over the crossbar before he found net in the 29th minute. Espinoza stole the ball from a Real Salt Lake midfielder, squeezed between two defenders and into the box. Espinoza'slet fly a powerful shot just inside the near post to beat Rimando and notch his first goal since his rookie year.

Sporting KC added a goal just 5 minutes later when Matt Besler took a long throw in to Kei Kamara in the box. Kamara's header was blocked by Rimando off to his right when Teal Bunbury was lurking. Bunbury took a couple steps to the ball while Rimando tried to quickly recover. Bunbury's shot rocketed to the goal but hit the Salt Lake keeper's head first. The shot snapped Rimando's head to the side and the ball deflected into goal. It was Bunbury's second goal in two games and fifth for the year matching his rookie season.

Real Salt Lake picked up the play in the second half but only had a few chances until they gained a man advantage after Espinoza received his red card for a tackle from behind on Kyle Beckerman. Real Salt Lake started to control possession more consistently at that point and took over half their shots but were unable to put one past Jimmy Nielsen.

Real Salt Lake dropped their second straight game doe the first time in 44 matches and Manager Jason Kreis was not happy with his team's performance. When asked about the morale of the team Kreis responded, "It better be real bad because my morale is real bad. We need guys right now to feel that pain because I honestly feel that we’re at a precipice for our season right now. We need a huge game on Saturday, a huge effort, we need these guys to pull together and give absolutely everything they have because to have three losses in a row would be monstrously bad."

Kreis was also not pleased that they failed to capatilize with the man advantage, "To be up a man for that many minutes, there’s not an excuse that we don’t come out of here with at least one goal. So we were lacking a bit of quality in the attacking third of the field that I thought we were missing last match as well."

Understandably Sporting KC Manager Peter Vermes had a more Favorable view of his team. "I thought if you compare it to our last couple of games here at home and all the games that we’ve played throughout the season there is one other game I can compare this to and this was probably the best 90 minute performance that we’ve played all year."

"It just showed the commitment from the guys right off the bat," Vermes detailed. "We started from where we left off from the last game in the way we were pushing. I thought our defense was strong. It was very difficult for them to break us down especially when we were at even strength with them. They didn’t really have one chance from the first half. The guys recovered well and it’s great to get a shutout a clean sheet. That is big time for the team."

Goal scorer Teal Bunbury had struggled for through much of the season after scoring 3 early in the year. Bunbury spoke about regaining his confidence, "It's been great, team mates have been very supportive, the coaching staff, my family. I've been doing a lot of thinking and just getting back to my old self, being hungry for it, being concentrated, taking full advantage of the opportunities that come my way."

Bunbury wanted to spread the credit around to his team mates, "A goal is a goal, as a striker it builds your confidence and I'm back on the score sheet but credit to my team mates. As a striker it's my job to score goals but that save that Seth had off the goal line, the great saves that Jimmy was making, it's a full team effort. I was just doing my part."

Defender Seth Sinovic agreed those were both big moments as well as others throughout the game. Sinovic did explain why he was at the right spot, "We decided to do that after the Seattle game when we gave one up in the last minute of the game on a corner. They had a little header and it went in at the back post. It just happened to be this game where I was there and got the clear off the line."

Score 1 2 F

Sporting Kansas City (7-6-9, 30 pts) 2 0 2

Real Salt Lake (9-5-6, 33 pts) 0 0 0

Sporting Kansas City: Jimmy Nielsen; Seth Sinovic, Matt Besler, Julio Cesar, Michael Harrington; Roger Espinoza, Graham Zusi, Jeferson (Birahim Diop 79); Omar Bravo (Luke Sassano93+), Teal Bunbury, Kei Kamara (C.J. Sapong 74)

Subs not used: Eric Kronberg, Daneil Cyrus, Soony Saad, Milos Stojcev

Real Salt Lake: Nick Rimando; Tony Beltran (Robbie Russell 68), Nat Borchers, Chris Schuler, Chris Wingert; Arturo Alvarez (Andy Williams 59), Kyle Beckerman, Collen Warren (Luis Gil 65), Will Johnson; Fabian Espindola, Alvaro Saborio

Subs not used: Tim Melia, Chris Agorsor, Jean Alexandre, Rauwshan McKenzie

Stats: KC RSL

Shots 17 19

Shots on Goal 5 3

Saves 3 3

Fouls 14 12

Offside 2 2

Corner Kicks 2 8

Misconduct Summary:

RSL – Nat Borchers (Caution; Reckless Foul) 47

KC – Roger Espinoza (Ejection; Serious Foul Play) 57

RSL – Fabian Espindola (Caution; Dissent) 89