Sporting KC lets in late goal, settles for 1-1 draw with FC Dallas

Aurelin Collin scored late but Matt Hedges scored later as Sporting KC settled for a 1-1 draw with FC Dallas in the MLS home opener.

Adam Moffatt earned the match's first booking in the 28th minute after he went in with a high kick on Jimmy Medranda. He caught Medranda in the chest near the far sideline, causing the foul to be called. Two minutes later, Medranda would draw another hard foul, this time in the form of a hard tackle from Stephen Keel. Keel would earn a yellow card as well.

Sporting Kansas City would dominate for most of the first half, holding a 66.1% possession advantage, and keeping most of the pressure on the Dallas defense. Jimmy Medranda was creating opportunities and was being a general nuisance for Dallas.

FC Dallas would start to work themselves back into the game after the first half hour of the game and they had a phenomenal opportunity towards the end of the half. Blas Perez received a ball near the top of the box, turned and fired just wide of the goal, missing a chance to put Dallas up by about three feet. The center ref would blow the whistle on the ensuing goal kick and the teams went into the locker room all knotted up at zero.

FC Dallas made some more strides in the second half, equaling out the pressure and making some runs of their own. The fatigue of playing three games in eight days was also wearing down the back line as they made several sloppy mistakes, nearly giving FC Dallas the chance to go ahead. Regardless

Finally in the 81st minute, someone broke through. After a shot by Seth Sinovic went out of bounds for a corner, Benny Feilhaber's corner kick was headed into the net by Aurelien Collin. It was Collin's first goal of the year and the first regular season goal for Sporting KC.

The sloppy back line play would come back to bite Sporting KC in the 89th minute. A set piece near the top of the box was sent in and a poorly marked Matt Hedges was able to put the ball in off the header. The equalizer was his first goal of the year and the score was 1-1.

Despite a couple of minutes added on to stoppage time and some good chances by Sporting KC, they weren't able to pull out a late winner and settled for a 1-1 home draw.

Sporting Kansas City heads to Mexico City Wednesday for the second leg of the CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals with Cruz Azul, before returning home next Saturday to host San Jose. FC Dallas will host Chivas USA next Saturday.