Sporting Kansas City wasted no time avenging their midweek U.S. Open Cup loss to the Portland Timbers with a victory of their own Friday night at Providence Park.
Coming on the heels of a 2-0 win at the Houston Dynamo on June 6, Friday’s 1-0 triumph in Portland was historic. For just the third time in club history, Sporting KC registered consecutive shutout road wins in MLS competition (including postseason). The team has won at least two straight away games 13 times since 1996, but never posted consecutive clean sheets during those runs until 2011.
Peter Vermes’ men achieved back-to-back shutout road victories for the first time ever when they notched four straight from October 2011 to April 2012, a streak that spanned two seasons (including the 2011 postseason). Sporting KC accomplished this feat for the second time when they rattled off three straight from August to September 2012.
Sporting KC consecutive shutout road wins (all-time)
| First occurrence | |
| 10/22/11 | W 1-0 at D.C. United |
| 10/30/11 | W 2-0 at Colorado Rapids (posteason) |
| 03/10/12 | W 1-0 at D.C. United |
| 04/01/12 | W 1-0 at Chivas USA |
| Second occurrence | |
| 08/04/12 | W 1-0 at New England Revolution |
| 08/18/12 | W 1-0 at Toronto FC |
| 09/19/12 | W 2-0 at New York Red Bulls |
| Third occurrence | |
| 06/06/14 | W 2-0 at Houston Dynamo |
| 06/27/14 | W 1-0 at Portland Timbers |
Sporting KC now has four away victories in 2014, second-most in MLS behind the Seattle Sounders’ five. Since the beginning of 2011, no team has more regular season road wins—or shutout road wins—than Sporting KC.
MLS regular season road wins since the beginning of 2011
Sporting KC |
24 |
Seattle Sounders |
23 |
Real Salt Lake |
20 |
Los Angeles Galaxy |
19 |
San Jose Earthquakes |
16 |
MLS regular season shutout road wins since the beginning of 2011
Sporting KC |
13 |
Los Angeles Galaxy |
12 |
Real Salt Lake |
11 |
Seattle Sounders |
10 |
Columbus Crew |
9 |
In a press conference following the match, Manager Peter Vermes offered a simple explanation as to how Friday’s game differed from Tuesday’s Open Cup defeat at home.
“The difference is we just played to our standard in regards to our work ethic on the field,” Vermes said. “Obviously we’re still missing 13 guys out of our team through injury and guys away with the national team at the World Cup. With all that being said, we still have a great fighting spirit with the group.”
Defensive statistics back up Vermes’ assertion. Sporting KC turned in one of its stoutest defensive performances of the year, setting season-highs with 43 clearances and 24 tackles won. Aurelien Collin had 14 clearances, Seth Sinovic contributed seven clearances and won four tackles, and Igor Juliao won seven tackles—all individual season-highs. Goalkeeper Eric Kronberg made three saves en route to earning his seventh shutout and lowering his goals against average to 0.88, both best in MLS.
The win lifts Sporting KC into a first place tie in the Eastern Conference—an impressive feat for a club that has fielded a different starting lineup in all 16 MLS matches this year due to international duty and a slew of injuries.
