When Sporting Kansas City dropped a 2-1 stoppage-time decision at Real Salt Lake last month, manager Peter Vermes blamed a lack of intensity down the stretch and said his club hadn't played well enough to earn even one point.
On Friday night, after another 2-1 loss at Rio Tinto snapped Sporting's five-match winning streak across all competitions, Vermes praised his club's effort but said playing for the third time in seven days had taken too much of a toll.
“It was obvious that we were tired,” Vermes told reporters in a conference call after the match. “We were beat up. But the guys gave a great effort. Maybe at the end, it wasn't the result we wanted, but it was a good fight by the guys. They gave everything they had. They just didn't have enough, unfortunately.”
RSL took the match to Sporting in the first half and went up 1-0 on Javi Morales' finish in the 34th minute after a run through the heart of Kansas City's defense. But after Vermes made a couple of halftime substitutions – including bringing on Benny Feilhaber for defensive midfielder Soni Mustivar – Sporting got right back in it.
Feilhaber, who was held out of the starting lineup for the first time in what is already the best season of his MLS career, equalized with a golazo from distance just five minutes into the second half.
“It was a great goal,” Vermes said. “It should probably be Goal of the Week, based on the place where he took it from, the timing – he put it exactly where he wanted to. It was just a fantastic goal to put the pressure back on them. We actually had two fantastic chances after that as well, which one of them we needed to put in. It's unfortunate, but we did enough to get some points here today. But again, we weren't fresh enough.”
Sporting did get two wins out of the seven-day stretch, including a 3-1 comeback victory over Houston on Tuesday that put them into the semifinals of the US Open Cup. But on Friday, the bill for fielding a strong lineup against the Dynamo at midweek came due – and Kansas City didn't have enough to cover.
“Everybody was running on fumes during the game,” Vermes said. “That was one of the reasons we had to take out Mustivar at halftime. He was cooked. He was cooked 30 minutes into the game. He expended so much energy in the last two games, it was just too much for him to have to deal with.”
Still, Sporting looked in position to hang on for a point – and perhaps grab all three – until a defensive mix-up freed RSL's Olmes Garcia for a long run into the penalty area, where 'keeper Tim Melia took him down and conceded a penalty kick.
Joao Plata buried it for the game-winner in the 73rd minute, and Sporting could muster little in the way of attack down the stretch.
“You always try to make sure defensively that you're not giving anything up,” Vermes said. “If you can nick something off the run of play, then you do it. It wasn't our intention to just go after it. It was just unfortunate. The goal that they scored off the penalty kick was unfortunate. We were unbalanced. We had players way out of position, and it caused a breakdown in our team, for sure.”
