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Arrieta double leads Crew past Sporting KC

JairoArrieta (Getty)

Livestrong Sporting Park used to be a fortress where visiting team couldn't realistically think about escaping with a point, let alone three.

That has changed quite a bit in the past month, with Sporting Kansas City suddenly finding victories at home difficult to come by. The Columbus Crew became the latest team to leave Livestrong Park with points as Jairo Arrieta's double helped overcome an early deficit to give the Crew a 2-1 victory on Saturday night.

Sporting KC got off to a strong start when Kei Kamara headed home a Graham Zusi free kick, out-jumping Chad Marshall to power home the finish in the eighth minute.

The Crew shook off that early goal in quick order when Arrieta ran onto a perfect pass from Josh Williams before slotting home a 17th-minute finish to tie things up. The Costa Rican striker made it 2-1 in the 34th minute when he intercepted a Graham Zusi pass and promptly fired home a 25-yard blast past Jimmy Nielsen.

Columbus goalkeeper Andy Gruenebaum did the rest, making a handful of outstanding saves to out-shine MLS All-Star starting goalkeeper Jimmy Nielsen and give the Crew the victory. Sporting Kansas City also hit the woodwork on multiple occasions in their failed attempt to come back.

Here are the match highlights:

What did you think of the match? See the Crew making a serious playoff push? Think Arrieta is the real deal? Starting to wonder what's wrong with Sporting KC?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Crew had possession when player went down. Therefore they’d keep possession upon restart (especially from a non dangerous position, in their own half). None of the KC players were asking for the ball, they were lined up defensively. Try again.

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  2. What the highlight reel failed to show was on the first goal the ref stopped play so that a crew player who was down could be attended to. There was no fair play on that one instead of kicking the ball to the keeper or out of bounds it was played in.

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  3. I used to think the problem with KC’s forwards was not enough technical prowess, but as KJ says, two sitters whiffed on, and Bunbury’s miss might be the single worst gaffe in MLS this season. Right now it’s past technical prowess, and seems to just boil down to the KC forwards having this slump in their heads.

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