COMMERCE CITY, Colo.—After their recent five-match unbeaten run league play, Sporting Kansas City can't seem to buy a victory – or even a goal.
Sporting took their second straight road shutout loss on Saturday, falling 1-0 to the Colorado Rapids on a 78th-minute goal from Marlon Hairston.
“I just think the game was back and forth,” said Sporting manager Peter Vermes. “I don’t think anyone was taking the game one way or another. It was just a hard-fought match. We gave a bad ball away.”
And, as it has so many times this season, that bad ball hurt Vermes' side.
This time, it was a careless pass from center back Ike Opara that did in Sporting. Hairston intercepted the ball, laid it off to Dillon Powers for a give-and-go, then took the return pass and curled in a far-post blast from outside the area to extend Colorado's winning streak against Sporting to five matches.
“There were a couple chances here and there for both teams, but nothing special,” Vermes said. “Obviously, we gave up a great opportunity up on that goal that they scored.”
Saturday's loss, like Wednesday's 1-0 away defeat to Chicago, was marked by controversy in the opposing team's penalty area.
On Wednesday, Dom Dwyer's apparent goal in the second minute against the Fire was flagged offside, though replays seemed to show Dwyer in an onside position when the ball was played to him. On Saturday night, during second-half stoppage time, substitute striker Diego Rubio turned toward goal with the ball and went down in the penalty area after contact with the Rapids' Jared Watts.
There was no call from referee Drew Fischer.
“We scored last week and it was onside and the referee called it offside,” Vermes said. “When you score, you score. We scored on Wednesday.”
Dwyer, who leads Sporting with eight goals, said the Rapids' defense did a solid job of disrupting an offense that had scored six times in Sporting's last two matches before this frustrating road swing.
“It’s difficult playing Colorado, when they send the ball long and try to break up the plays," Dwyer said. "We just tried to break them down, but we couldn’t.
"I think we got very unlucky tonight. We should have had two, maybe three of those chances go in.”
