Beyond the Box Score: Comeback kids turn stoppage time deficit into three points

History was made at the very beginning. History was made at the very end.

And when the final whistle ended the match, a euphoric crowd at Sporting Park erupted with joyful emotions contrary to those they were experiencing just five minutes earlier.

As the clock struck 90 minutes on Sunday night, Sporting Kansas City found themselves trailing 2-1 to a winless Philadelphia Union side. In danger of dropping points at home for the third time in 2015, the hosts turned the match on its head.

In the 91st minute, Jalil Anibaba headed home his first Sporting KC goal to restore the deadlock. Three minutes later, another new addition to the team completed the turnaround as Krisztian Nemeth turned the ball into the net following a Benny Feilhaber corner kick that was flicked on by captain Matt Besler.

The end result for Sporting KC? Three points in the standings, three goals in the match and 1,000 goals all-time.

Nemeth’s 94th-minute strike enters the annals as the latest game-winning goal Kansas City has ever scored at Sporting Park. The fact that it was the team’s 1,000th goal in all competitions and capped a rare comeback seen just six other times in MLS history will preserve the moment in club folklore.

“I don’t know what this win says about the quality of the team, but it says a lot about the heart,” Besler said after the match. “I can’t say enough about the way we didn’t give up. It was one of the most exciting games I’ve been a part of in a long time.”

Sporting KC's latest game-winning goals at Sporting Park

Sporting KC’s victory was just the seventh in MLS history by a team that trailed entering stoppage time. The last time Kansas City pulled off such a reversal was Sept. 17, 2007, when Eddie Johnson (93’) and Scott Sealy (94’) condemned the Columbus Crew to a 3-2 defeat at Arrowhead Stadium.

“I was never looking at a 2-1 loss,” Sporting KC Manager Peter Vermes said in his postgame press conference. “I was always looking at a 3-2 win. I don´t think about that while the game is going on. I really felt that we would get at least a goal at some point."

MLS comeback wins in stoppage time

Sunday’s match provided a happy ending for Vermes’ men, but it began with a sour twist. In the third minute of the team’s 600th regular season match and 300th at home, an unfortunate own goal from Jacob Peterson handed Sporting KC their earliest regular season deficit at Sporting Park. Before Sunday, the earliest goal conceded at the venue was scored by Camilo Sanvezzo in the 15th minute of a 2-1 Sporting KC comeback win over Vancouver in June 2011.

Dom Dwyer briefly leveled proceedings with a header before Fernando Aristeguieta gave the visitors their second lead in the 19th minute. The Union would stay on top for the next 72 minutes, but their advantage was less than comfortable. Conceding more than two-thirds of the possession to Sporting KC, Jim Curtin’s squad completed just 115 passes at 52.8 percent passing accuracy, both the lowest in an MLS match since 2012.

Fewest successful passes in an MLS match (2012-present)

Though they left it late, Sporting KC finally translated their possession dominance into two stoppage time goals. They came courtesy of Anibaba and Nemeth, marking the first time two players scored their debut goal for Sporting KC in the same match since Sept. 1, 2012. On that date, Paulo Nagamura and Oriol Rosell scored in the second half of a 2-1 comeback win against Toronto FC. 

In addition to being the club’s 1,000th goal across all competitions in team history, Nemeth’s match-winner bore league-wide significance. Sunday was the first MLS match in which both teams scored at least two goals from set pieces since September 2009.

“It was a night where we weren’t our best in certain parts of the game, but we managed a way to win the game,” Besler said. “And that’s all that matters."

Sporting KC milestone goals (all competitions)