Kei Kamara scored his seventh goal of the season and Kansas City put up a shutout defensively as Sporting defeated D.C. United 1-0 Sunday night in front of 15,352 fans at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park.
With the victory, Kansas City (9-7-9) moved into sole possession of second place in the Eastern Conference on 36 points. D.C. United (7-7-10) remained a point behind the New York Red Bulls for the final wild card position with 31 points.
Dwayne De Rosario started on the bench for D.C. United while forward Charlie Davies was not included in Ben Olsen’s 18-man squad. Kansas City’s only lineup change from Wednesday’s victory against Portland was to insert Omar Bravo at the top of the midfield triangle.
As they have for much of their current home stand, Kansas City grabbed the initiative from the opening kick, threatening United’s goal just thirty seconds into the game.
Sporting followed that up a minute and a half later with an even better opportunity as Kamara beat Brandon McDonald one on one on the byline then picked out C.J. Sapong at the back post with a floated cross. Sapong attempted to apply an acrobatic finish, but his flying scissor kick was way over the crossbar.
Sapong helped feed Kamara next as he tracked down a ball behind the back line in the 16th minute then found Chance Myers pushing forward from right back. Myers chipped a ball toward the penalty spot, and Kamara rose above Dejan Jakovic to get a head on it but his flick hit the crossbar.
Unfortunately for the visitors, Kamara made good on Kansas City’s sustained pressure just three minutes later. Omar Bravo’s cross into a crowd was cleared out of the penalty area, but Kamara tracked down the ball, controlled it with his thigh and unleashed an unstoppable blast on the half volley from just outside the box that goalkeeper Joe Willis could only watch hit the back of the net.
Sporting continued to control the match following the goal, but Ben Olsen’s team finally found some space to maneuver in the 40th minute. Following a long throw in from Chris Pontius, Graham Zusi slipped on the ball and Josh Wolff found Blake Brettschneider in a pocket of space. Brettschneider managed to get off a dangerous shot to the back post, but goalkeeper Jimmy Nielsen got down quickly to palm the ball wide.
Olsen inserted De Rosario for Brettschneider to start the second half in search of the equalizer while Kansas City manager Peter Vermes held firm with the 11 he started the game with.
De Rosario sent a curling effort past Nielsen’s far post a few minutes into the half before Kansas City resumed forcing play into United’s half. D.C. managed to clear two dangerous balls from Kamara from in front of net then Zusi nearly replicated his long-range strike from midweek against Portland.
Once again the shot was hit cleanly and with pace, but this time Willis was there to palm it up in the air, where it just missed dropping on the goal line and fell on the top netting. The visitor’s answered with a few long-range efforts of their own but couldn’t put them on frame to test Nielsen.
As the game progressed, Vermes removed Teal Bunbury for defensive midfielder Birahim Diop and Bravo for Michael Harrington to provide some defensive steel while Olsen sent Marc Burch and Joseph Ngwenya on to add some bite to the attack.
In the end, defense won out as Sporting held onto their 1-0 lead and saw off United’s late pressure to collect another three points at home and further their efforts to solidify a spot in the postseason.
Kansas City will be back in action next Saturday when they host FC Dallas at 7:30 p.m. CT.
