Photo by ISIPhotos.com
By JOSE M. ROMERO
Sporting Kansas City experienced both an odd and a Saad night on its home pitch Wednesday night, with Graham Zusi scoring twice and Soony Saad adding the team's third goal in a 3-1 win over the Portland Timbers.
The odd part was goalkeeper Jimmy Nielsen being struck by a piece of an Omar Bravo bobblehead doll near his left eye as he turned to celebrate Zusi's first goal with the fans behind his net.
Nielsen went down and the game was delayed four minutes while he received stitches. He remained in the game and finished it, allowing the Timbers' lone goal in the 81st minute.
The two most important things for SKC: Nielsen seemed to be OK, and the team rebounded from a loss to Seattle at Livestrong Sporting Park in its last home match.
Zusi, who is having a banner third season in MLS with KC, scored his first goal in the 25th minute, a 25-yard rocket with no Timbers out there to defend him. Right after the goal, the incident with Nielsen happened.
Sporting KC was the better team throughout the game and constantly had the ball forward in the attacking zone. Milos Stojcev had his shot deflected off the crossbar in the 18th minute, defender Eric Brunner getting a foot on it and the ball somehow not going in for an own goal.
Portland defender David Horst came up with a strong tackle to prevent Teal Bunbury from scoring in the 33rd minute, but the Timbers couldn't make enough plays either offensively or defensively to make a game of it. In the 40th minute, a throw-in from Matt Besler, who's a legitimate weapon on offense with his ability to throw the ball into the box, went to C.J. Sapong, who headed it to Bunbury for a shot that the Timbers' Troy Perkins saved. But Zusi was there to finish the loose ball and give SKC a 2-0 lead.
With Bravo out due to red-card suspension, SKC had Kei Kamara, Sapong and Bunbury as its front line.
The Timbers almost scored a fluke goal when a long ball from Rodney Wallace took a high bounce and was close to going into the net before Nielsen tracked it down. Saad, who was celebrating his 19th birthday, came on as a sub in the 63rd minute.
The Timbers' Jack Jewsbury, playing in his first game at Kansas City against his former team, had a shot blocked by Nielsen in the 65th minute.
Saad's goal in the 72nd minute was his first career MLS goal and came in his MLS debut, and on his 19th birthday. His foot hit a deflection off a Timbers defender and got past Perkins.
The bright spot for the Timbers was Bright Dike, who entered the game in the 66th minute for Kenny Cooper and and scored off a cross from Wallace. Dike had spent much of the season recovering from a preseason injury.
Sporting KC improved to 8-7-9 and remained in the thick of the playoff chase, while the Timbers dropped to 7-12-5.
I was tempted to say six of one and half dozen of another since all the information is contained in the records and the records are more indicative of form. Then I saw your math skills and realized that maybe the author did need to dumb it down for you.
Keep up the good work Jose.
“Sporting KC improved to 8-7-9 and remained in the thick of the playoff chase, while the Timbers dropped to 7-12-5.”
Total points and perhaps number of games played is a lot more informative than just records. The records given in this article above really don’t say much. 31 points from 24 games and 33 points from 24 games is lot more helpful to the reader.
I don’t personally think Vancouver or Toronto have much of a chance, but by your logic are you not sad that Chicago, San Jose and New England still have a chance?
While I am on the Saad bandwagon (and was mystified by the lack of league-wide interest), the goal he scored yesterday hardly has any bearing on other teams decisions.
I still find it mind-boggling that DC United, which would have had the best odds of winning, and several other teams did not participate in the Saad lottery, as the scuttlebutt was floated that he wasn’t that good a prospect. COmically absurd and criminally stupid. A few weeks later he’s playing and scoring in an MLS match — not a reserve game, but the real thing. I’m sure there will be many more and KC fans will be forever appreciative of the largesse and idiocy of the other teams.
And yes, if approached, I would consider being a part-time editor. This is a great website. It just disappoints me to see lackadaisical reporting.
“After the bobblehead struck Nielsen, Omar Bravo ran to him to offer ‘a hand of friendship’, but then fell to the ground as if Nielsen had head-butted him.”
I think its sad that Vancouver, Toronto, and Portland can still reach the playoffs
5 points off with 30 points to play for hardly seems like practically eliminated. Of course they aren’t gonna win all 10, but as long as they pick up a couple wins in the next few games they can still dream. 2 years ago RSL needed to win it’s final 8 games or something to make the playoffs and they did (granted, RSL turned out to be a juggernaut hitting their stride and Portland is nowhere near that level)
Is there an editor (besides MS Word’s Spell & Grammar checker) that looks these articles over?
I understand these writers/contributors may not get paid, but this is horribly written. And no, I’m not referring to the puns… I’m OK with that. I have several issues with this article, yet the one that gets me the most is referring to Soony’s birthday twice with only a single sentence between them.
“Saad, who was celebrating his 19th birthday, came on as a sub in the 63rd minute.
The Timbers’ Jack Jewsbury, playing in his first game at Kansas City against his former team, had a shot blocked by Nielsen in the 65th minute.
Saad’s goal in the 72nd minute was his first career MLS goal and came in his MLS debut, and on his 19th birthday. ”
I get the fact he’s a young talent with tremendous potential, but why not mention more relevant/important things such as how the police, with the help of eye witness accounts, identified the alleged perpetrators of the “Bravo-bobblehead-to-Nielsen-head” incident.
(source: KC Star http://www.kansascity.com/2011/08/17/3083358/nielsen-injured-by-fan-in-sporting.html)
That is all.
/steps off soap box
I like the little I’ve seen of him so far. If he continues to play well he will deserve a camp cupcake call up.
Anybody think Zusi might be working his way onto the fringe national team radar? It seems like he has that “something” that guys like Dempsey have…
There is a small glimmer of hope left with Vancouver, Chivas, San Jose, New England, and Houston left as home games and Vancouver away. Portland needs at least 18 points to get into the top 10, so wins are necessary at this point.
Likely to happen? Probably not, but the team cannot give up yet.
Seconded.
Zusi’s goal was more than a miracle. He’s already proved earlier this season he’s fully capable of rockets like that. Graham has a superb long shot.
They did. Both of the people were banned for LIFE from the stadium and arrested by the police. They will get to enjoy the rest of their evening in a KCK jail cell.
Where they should stay.
Practically speaking this loss eliminates Portland from the playoffs since their five points off with ten games to place.
I hope they find the a@@ who threw the bobblehead and prosecute/sue him to the full extent possible. There is no excuse for that behavior…
If you’re going to call the Timbers almost fluke goal a fluke goal at least acknowledge the 3rd goal for KC was a fluke goal and the first goal was a miracle in itself. KC outplayed Portland tonight and deserved the win. Also please chalk up Dike’s goal as a fluke as well. Cause it was.
Zusi is a lookalike to the Palmeiras striker Kleber Gladiator.
Ugh, that was ugly for Portland. Nobody looked sharp on the ball, the midfield was garbage and they didn’t even generate opportunities for the forwards to frustrate us with poor finshing. SKC definitely showed their late game vulnerability in the last 15 minutes but, unlike Seattle, Portland didn’t have anyone (aside from Dike’s goal) capable of taking advantage.
PUNS!