I’m going to be honest, I didn’t expect Sporting Kansas City to be in a position to obtain the Supporters Shield a couple months ago. A couple months ago, teams like the Montreal Impact, Seattle Sounders and New York Red Bulls were in the drivers seat either by leading the conference or having multiple games in hand to easily make up the difference. When Sporting lost to the Chicago Fire 1-0 on August 23rd, they had lost 4 of their last 5 games and all hope seemed lost for the Supporters Shield and Sporting fans were accepting that they’re going to have to fight just for a playoff spot.
Since August 23rd, Sporting had a record of 5-1-1 before this past weekend’s game against the Philadelphia Union, the only team to beat Sporting during this run of games. The standings also changed dramatically, replacing Seattle and Montreal in the Supporters Shield race were the Portland Timbers and Real Salt Lake and Seattle and Montreal were going down and on the edge of making the playoffs. A win in Philadelphia would knockout Portland and Salt Lake from the Supporters Shield and would force the Red Bulls to beat Chicago in order to win the Shield. New York had their own streak that started at the same time as Sporting’s. Once September started, New York was 5-0-2 going into the weekend so both teams were hitting on all cylinders.
Sporting KC came into Philadelphia meeting a Union team who had something to play for as well. While Sporting was already solidly in the playoffs, the Union needed to win just to have a chance at making the playoffs. And being there in person, sitting in The Cauldron, the situation in the stadium was tense. A draw did nobody any good so both teams were going to throw caution to the very strong wind and go for the win.
The first half seemed rather normal and tentative from both teams. The 2nd half rolls around and Sporting gets on the scoreboard with a Graham Zusi header from a Lawrence Olum pass and Matt Besler long throw in. In Zusi’s professional career, he hadn’t scored a header until the “Goal Heard Around CONCACAF” a couple weeks ago and now he got another. Being down 1-0 and needing a couple goals to have playoff aspirations, the Union goes more and more aggressive in the offensive zone. All of a sudden, in the 88th minute, Jack McInerney gives the Union fans a glimmer of hope as he equalized in front of the Sons of Ben. Even with that, the Union still needed another goal so the back line was all but invisible.
Now down to the 92nd minute. When it looked like Jimmy Nielsen kicked the ball away to kill some time, Jacob Peterson chased down the ball that almost went out for a goal kick. He crossed to Josh Gardner, which grazes his head to the other end of the field to an open Teal Bunbury. Instead of taking the shot, he lays the ball off to a wide open Olum from the 6 yard box and clinically finishes to get his 1st career MLS goal in one of the most dramatic moments of the Sporting KC regular season.
To me, I have always followed Lawrence Olum closely and have personally rooted for him. When I was an intern with Sporting, one of the jobs I had was to pick up new signings and trialists from the KC Airport and drive them to their hotel in the city where they would set up for training with the team the next day. One of the players I picked up was Olum and naturally, we talk soccer in the half hour from the airport to the hotel. Helped that we were both Liverpool fans but Lawrence couldn’t have been nicer. Even though he was a trialist and it was his first chance at a top league club, Lawrence seemed to be very appreciative, happy and confident that he can make an impact on Sporting Kansas City. He’s had limited chances to prove himself on the national stage but this goal instantly made him a fan favorite among Sporting KC’s fans and I’m glad I was able to witness his goal in person.
Even though on Saturday, it seemed like it was destiny that Sporting Kansas City would win the Supporters Shield, it wasn’t to be. The Red Bulls dominated against Chicago and won their first trophy in 18 years. Although it hurts as a Sporting fan, it was a helluva run by Sporting to get into position to win and they forced New York to do the same so the Red Bulls deserved to win the Supporters Shield.
Now that the Supporters Shield race is over, the MLS Cup playoff race is now in high gear. Sporting KC will play the New England Revolution in the Conference Semifinal. New England can be dangerous but historically, Sporting has had their number in the past. So out of the four other teams in the Eastern Conference, I would rather face New England. New York is the Eastern Conference favorite while Houston and Montreal have been thorns in Sporting’s side for a while so that leaves the Revolution. To a lot of experts, Sporting would have to join New York as Eastern Conference favorites. The upward path of those two teams coupled with the downward path of teams like Seattle and Montreal shows how I feel about the MLS regular season. Even though games from March to August are important for playoffs and Supporters Shield because points are points, but how a team plays before September is irrelevant to how they perform in the playoffs. Before September, all 19 teams had their rough patches at one point or another so while it hurts at the time, it happens to everyone. The point is to have that happen early and get it out of the way like New York and Sporting and not have it now like Seattle and Montreal. That’s going to be the biggest determiner of who moves on in the MLS Cup playoffs.
