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It's been a rough journey for Sporting Kansas City forward Teal Bunbury in recent months. The striker has seen limited playing time since the start of the 2012 season and had been goal-less for well over 150 minutes in league play. That goal drought was broken however in the 2nd minute of Sporting KC's 2-2 draw with the Colorado Rapids over the weekend with the help of Seth Sinovic who provided the assist to Teal in the middle of the box early on in the game.
Teal had expertly picked up a position away from Colorado's keeper and two center backs in the middle of the box and easily finished off the move with a diving header. Teal also scored another somewhat effort-less goal later on in the half off a corner. Matt Perkins had left his goal in a failed attempt to clear the ball and it found its way to Bunbury who easily slotted the ball home in a wide open net.
If goals come as easy as this for the rest of the season Bunbury will wind up with 15+ goals come November.
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Unfortunately in all likelihood this won't happen. But with Graham Zusi and Kei Kamara away on national team duty and set to miss possibly three important games for Sporting the brunt of the pressure to score goals will come down hard on Teal Bunbury's shoulders.
CJ Sapong could step up and help with some of that pressure while KC's main two threats are away but that seems unlikely if he's to remain on the bench for the next couple of weeks. The starting lineup for Sporting KC against the San Jose Earthquakes on Sunday may actually not even have Sapong in it at all due to performances outside of the center forward position being less than impressive.
In soccer, confidence his huge to have, and for Teal to have gotten the start against the Rapids and to have scored two goals will do him a world of good. Maybe SKC have found the answer to their recent goal scoring woes. Castrol Rankings sure thinks so, the controversial soccer player ranking system lists Bunbury at the top of their list for their weekly Top 20 performers in the league. And why not? Teal managed to score two goals after having been seemingly forgotten about by the Sporting KC faithful and whether or not that was due to luck or whether it came down to pure determination from Bunbury it's good for him and the team as a whole.
With Kamara and Zusi gone for the next couple of weeks I'm not too worried about our attacking prowess guys. Bunbury is back ladies and gentlemen and while it may not be for the long haul atleast for a little bit we'll be able to see why this intriguing young man has been able to make a name for himself so early on in his career.