We're going to start making a habit of this. After every match--home or away, regardless of result--we'll package every piece of major content around the contest, tie it up in a pretty bow and present it to you as a gift, from us. The beautiful thing about the beautiful game is that everyone sees things a bit differently, we just want to make sure you see everything.
Another match, another clean sheet, another assist from Graham Zusi and another three points for Sporting Kansas City. If you weren't around last night, that makes 12 points from a possible 12 in 2012 for Sporting, good enough for tops in MLS and the best start to a season in club history.
You could say this is going according to plan, but don't tell Peter Vermes that. It's just another three points in a season that will require a lot more--and then some--to be considered a success.
It wasn't the most comprehensive victory in Vermes' tenure as manager, as you can perhaps infer from the stats. Sunday marked the first time this season that Sporting KC were actually outpossessed, but still not outscored which is the metric that, you know, matters.
Here's the Opta chalkboard for you to chew on, if you like. What jumped out to us? How about the performance of #HeartShaped, er...Kei Kamara? The winger ranked behind only Chivas right back James Riley in terms of logged activity on the night, and managed to win 10 headers. TEN. That's more than the attacking quartet of Ryan Smith, Laurent Courtois, Nick LaBrocca and Ale Moreno combined. What does this mean? Not all that much, just confirms that Kei's a [PV's word] "monster" and you probably wouldn't win an aerial duel against him.
Speaking of aerial duels, how about Zusi boxing out Heath Pearce to nod the final pass over to Sapong for the matchwinner? Get in there, Zeus! Kid looked like Withey going after that rebound off the bar. Reminded me of Landon Donovan's disallowed goal against Poland back in 2002, except the Ponytail actually pulled it off.
Video is below. Love the reaction of both Zusi and Sapong afterwards, just a whole lot of pent up aggression on both of their faces. LA's next. #Raaaaaa.
