Sapong denies trying to kick ball at FC Dallas player

As red cards often do, the game changed when Sporting KC's CJ Sapong received a straight red for kicking the ball at a down FC Dallas player. While Sporting KC was up two goals at the time, FC Dallas had an edge in play. After Sporting KC went down a man, FC Dallas turned up the pressure, finally scored and then equalized just before the end of regulation.

Andrew Jacobson was on the ground after a collision when in the 68^th minute referee Mark Geiger judged Sapong to have kicked the ball at the down Jacobson. The ball was played back by a Dallas player to the spot of the foul for a restart and would likely have hit Jacobson anyway but as Sapong was running he sped up and redirected the ball into Jacobson's arm.

"I did not try to kick the ball at him, that is not me," Sapong explained on Sunday. "Plus, it would have been incredibly stupid to try to kick the ball at him, the ref was right there." Sapong went on to admit that he may have been trying to redirect the ball away to gain a little time wasted off the clock but there was no intent to kick the ball at Jacobson.

"I definitely was not kicking the ball at him," Sapong explained.