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Bunbury brace helps Sporting KC topple Rapids

SportingKCWins (Getty)

By DAVID GUBALA

Sporting Kansas City went into Sunday's Eastern Conference semifinal first leg looking to hopefully come away with a draw against the Colorado Rapids to send the series back to Kansas City 

A nightmarish night for the Rapids helped Sporting KC return to the Midwest with so much more.

After a scoreless first half that saw Colorado starters Kosuke Kimura and Caleb Folan injured and replaced in the first half, Sporting Kansas City took control in the second half, riding a two-goal performance by Teal Bunbury to record a convincing 2-0 victory over the Rapids at Dick's Sporting Goods Park on Sunday.

The result places Sporting KC in prime position to qualify for the Eastern Conference final with a positive result in the conference semifinal second leg at Livestrong Sporting Park on Wednesday.

Bunbury opened the scoring in the 49th minute when Julio Cesar set him up for a well-struck finish past Matt Pickens. Bunbury scored his second goal just ten minutes later on a penalty kick he earned after being taken down in the penalty area by Tyrone Marshall, who was issued a red card in the process.

The Colorado Rapids' luck certainly played against them in the first half.Folan was forced to come off with a left knee injury after awkwardly falling on the ground in the 18th minute.

In the 32nd minute, things got a lot worse. Kimura had begun to limp after showing pain in his left foot. He was subbed off for Marshall who ended the game early as well because of his second half ejection.

Just before halftime, Teal Bunbury went into a hard shoulder tackle on Drew Moor. Bunbury was shown a yellow card but it was Moor who got the shorter end of the stick. Drew Moor ended up coming off in the 62nd minute with a right shoulder sprain, leaving head coach Gary Smith without substitutions and without two starting defenders.

In fact, Moor's departure from the match marked the first time since 2007 he had been substituted from a match.

In addition to the three injured players, captain Pablo Mastroeni missed Sunday's match as he continues to recover from a concussion, while Jamie Smith was sidelined after suffering a torn ACL.

Sporting KC was also short-handed, with Omar Bravo missing the match due to tightness in his groin.

Comments

  1. Maybe it was a nagging ankle from when he was toppled over trying to defend Smith the last go round in Denver? Backpeddling to fall over can be dangerous

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  2. Simply didn’t back down from Colorados physical play. Only injury from an actual foul (one called w/ no contact was the knee injury) was Bunburys shoulder to Moor, which wasn’t dirty, Moor is just well, weak compared to Bunbury. To say they played like thugs is commical and shows you didnt watch the match

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  3. Kamara pushed the dudes face, as a SKC fan I was scared he was going to get a red, but in no way did he throw a punch (well, this is professional soccer/theater, where a strong wind sometimes knocks guys down). Pickens had thrown CJ to the ground and there was pushing/ a bit of a scuffle, no cards shown for any of it to my surprise

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  4. kimura got hurt in a tackle a few minutes earlier when he took a knock on his ankle, he tried to tough it out but couldnt keep going

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  5. I don’t think I saw the Kimura injury. I did see Drew Moor get blindside mauled. I also saw KC’s Espninoza blatently take a dive when Kandji was behind him a few seconds earleir and Espinoza fell to the ground after no contact and grabbed the back of his leg like he’d been cleated. He rolled on the ground for several minutes, then magically popped up and started running. Blatent dive, blatent cheat, only surprise was it wasn’t one of the central American Concacaf Champions League teams. Dude deserves a suspension for it… didn’t even get a yellow.

    KC went out there with a plan to tackle hard and then fake injuries whenever given the chance. That combo is dangerous, they are now my pick to win the title, but they won’t deserve it.

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  6. What was Ives talking about this morning about Kamara throwing a punch? I didn’t see it but if it was early and he was ejected that would have made for a different game, to say the least.

    I would normally say he will not be punished later for it, but given the hijinx in NY yesterday, I could see the league stepping in.

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