Sporting Kansas City dismantles Toronto FC 3-0, moves atop East

Soony Saad showed his gratitude for the start by scoring a brace as Sporting Kansas City dominated Toronto FC 3-0 at Sporting park.

Toronto had a good chance early on. Jeremy Brockie took a shot right at Nielsen and also struck the rebound but Nielsen was there to block the shot once more. The shot was cleared away and the teams stayed level at nil-nil.

Soony Saad came out of nowhere in the 21st minute, launching a low strike near post from outside the box that fired past the outstretched arms of Bendik to put Sporting ahead 1-0 in the first half. It was Saad's first goal of the season and the assist was attributed to Seth Sinovic.

Soony did it again in the 50th minute. Graham Zusi launched a shot that was deflected by Bendik but right at the feet of Soony Saad. Saad calmly finished it in the open goal to score his second goal of the night and of the season. Sporting would go up 2-0, firmly controlling the tempo and possession of the match.

Toronto would do themselves no favors in the 56th minute. An atrocious tackle by Reggie Lambe on Soony Saad earned the former a straight red card to bring the Reds down to ten men and two goals.

Sporting would pour salt in the wounds in the 63rd minute. Great passing in the box left Benny Feilhaber to tap the ball over to Claudio Bieler, who finished the score to put Sporting up by three goals. It was Bieler's tenth goal of the year and it gave Sporting more nails for Toronto's eventual coffin.

Sporting would continue to control the game and found themselves with a 3-0 victory after the final whistle sounded, which put them atop the Eastern Conference by one point over Montreal.

Manager Peter Vermes was pleased with the technical performance of the team, especially leading up to the third goal.

"The third goal was the one of the best combination goals we have scored since I've been here," He said. "We've been working on it for, I don't know, five years, but we finally got here."

Sporting extended their unbeaten streak to six straight games, which they will carry into two very tough matches the next couple of weeks. First they take on the Western Conference leading Real Salt Lake in Salt Lake City next Saturday, then they travel to Montreal to take on the Impact who are one point behind Sporting in the Eastern Conference with two games in hand.