All goals count the same on the scoresheet, but not all goals are created equal. Take for instance, Sporting Kansas City's second goal in Saturday's 3-0 victory over the New England Revolution. Kei Kamara makes the near post run, holds off Kevin Alston and connects with Soony Saad's cross to place a powerful header past Bobby Shuttleworth for his seventh goal of the season. But let's rewind the tape to appreciate this goal in all its glory...
From the moment Oriol Rosell puts the ball back into play with a free kick at the 48:30 mark, Sporting Kansas City maintains 65 seconds of uninterrupted possession and successfully completes 22 passes over that span with all 10 field players touching the ball. In other terms, New England goes over a minute in the run of play without a single touch of the ball prior to conceding the goal while Sporting KC sprays it around the park nearly two dozen times with contributions from every positional player sans the goalkeeper.
To fully appreciate the degree of difficulty in such a sequence, consider this. Prior to Saturday, the most impressive buildup to a Sporting KC goal this season was 12 passes and 37 seconds of possession on Claudio Bieler's tap in against Toronto last month. So impressive, in fact, that it was recently named the top play of the month by MLSSoccer.com.
Check out the full breakdown below for possessions and passes completed for every Sporting KC goal scored this season:
<strong>Game</strong> |
<strong>Goal Scorer</strong> |
<strong>Minute</strong> |
<strong># Passes</strong> |
<strong>Possession</strong> |
3/2 vs PHI |
Graham Zusi |
41 |
0 passes |
2 seconds |
3/2 vs PHI |
Oriol Rosell |
66 |
1 pass |
2 seconds |
3/2 vs PHI |
Claudio Bieler |
83 |
10 passes |
34 seconds |
3/9 vs TOR |
Claudio Bieler |
77 |
2 passes |
7 seconds |
3/30 vs MTL |
Claudio Bieler |
5 |
2 passes |
8 seconds |
3/30 vs MTL |
Graham Zusi |
80 |
1 pass |
9 seconds |
4/5 vs DC |
Claudio Bieler |
89 |
1 pass |
4 seconds |
4/17 vs NY |
Aurelien Collin |
13 |
1 pass |
2 seconds |
4/27 vs POR |
Chance Myers |
1 |
1 pass |
3 seconds |
4/27 vs POR |
Chance Myers |
29 |
3 passes |
5 seconds |
5/5 vs CHV |
Claudio Bieler |
47 |
1 pass |
6 seconds |
5/5 vs CHV |
Claudio Bieler |
57 |
0 passes |
1 second |
5/5 vs CHV |
Graham Zusi |
65 |
10 passes |
30 seconds |
5/5 vs CHV |
C.J. Sapong |
87 |
3 passes |
9 seconds |
5/12 vs HOU |
Aurelien Collin |
73 |
1 pass |
4 seconds |
5/19 vs DC |
Ike Opara |
60 |
1 pass |
2 seconds |
5/26 vs HOU |
Kei Kamara |
68 |
11 passes |
27 seconds |
6/1 vs MTL |
Claudio Bieler |
49 |
0 passes |
1 second |
6/22 vs DAL |
Kei Kamara |
43 |
0 passes |
1 second |
6/22 vs DAL |
Own Goal |
57 |
0 passes |
1 second |
6/29 vs CLB |
Kei Kamara |
34 |
2 passes |
8 seconds |
6/29 vs CLB |
Claudio Bieler |
50 |
4 passes |
11 seconds |
6/29 vs CLB |
Kei Kamara |
80 |
1 pass |
3 seconds |
7/3 vs VAN |
Aurelien Collin |
35 |
0 passes |
1 second |
7/7 vs CHI |
Benny Feilhaber |
6 |
0 passes |
1 second |
7/7 vs CHI |
Graham Zusi |
8 |
1 pass |
6 seconds |
7/13 vs TOR |
Soony Saad |
21 |
6 passes |
27 seconds |
7/13 vs TOR |
Soony Saad |
51 |
0 passes |
1 second |
7/13 vs TOR |
Claudio Bieler |
63 |
12 passes |
37 seconds |
7/20 vs RSL |
Soony Saad |
67 |
1 pass |
1 second |
7/20 vs RSL |
Ike Opara |
97 |
1 pass |
4 seconds |
8/3 vs NY |
Kei Kamara |
45 |
0 passes |
1 second |
8/3 vs NY |
Dom Dwyer |
92 |
1 pass |
4 seconds |
8/10 vs NE |
Kei Kamara |
27 |
4 passes |
16 seconds |
8/10 vs NE |
Kei Kamara |
50 |
22 passes |
65 seconds |
8/10 vs NE |
Benny Feilhaber |
92 |
0 passes |
1 second |
Kamara's goal is a model example for a Sporting Kansas City squad that has become the League leader in possession this season. According to Opta, Sporting Kansas City (56.84) narrowly edges out both Portland (56.26) and Real Salt Lake (56.24) in team possession for 2013 and is on pace to best the top marks from both the 2011 (Chivas USA 55.35) and 2012 (Houston 55.92) campaigns.
