Sporting KC's playoff hopes delayed in San Jose

Sporting Kansas City's hope of securing a playoff spot was delayed Saturday night when San Jose stretched their home unbeaten streak winless streak to 17 games. Sporting KC will be able to guarantee a playoff spot with a win in of their two remaining home games.

Both teams traded chances in the first half but it was Anibal Godoy's 47th minute goal that put the Earthquakes on top and Sporting KC was never able to equalize. Chris Wondolowski played a ball across the box that caught several SKC players out of position and scrambling to recover. Wondolowski earned his first assist as Godoy was there for the easy tap-in.

Sporting KC manager Peter Vermes brought on Krisztian Németh to replace Bernardo Anor in the 59^th minute. The Hungarian forward has been able to deliver some magic in the last couple games for Sporting KC and is fresh off of scoring for Hungary as well.

Staging a comeback was complicated for Vermes' squad when he had to quickly sub in Amobi Okugo for Matt Besler and Saad Abdul-Salaam for Seth Sinovic in the 60^th and 64^th minutes. The two Sporting KC veteran defenders picked up separate injuries leaving Vermes out of subs.

With Sporting KC already starting Erik Palmer-Brown in place of Kevin Ellis and still missing defensive mid Soni Mustivar, the visitors did well to hold on but could not find the back of the net themselves.

The match was physical but Sporting KC keeper Tim Melia attributed that to the playoff race. ""It's playoff time and everyone's competing. Everyone wants to win. All of these games are so important and our guys are going for it on every play and every tackle."

"I think some calls could have been made," stated Peter Vermes. "I think everybody would have calmed themselves down because that's the way it goes, but I thought the game got a little bit too loose at one point."  

It had a playoff feel," Vermes observed. "I think these games all do at the end of the season. Tempo was good. I thought both teams battled. They scored, we didn't. We had a couple very good chances as well - the header; the breakaway from Dom early. It was a good, hard-fought match."

Sporting KC will try to earn their playoff spot on Wednesday when the host the Colorado Rapids. The match was originally scheduled for May 16 but postponed due to inclement weather.

Sporting Kansas City: Tim Melia; Seth Sinovic (Saad Abdul-Salaam 64), Matt Besler (Amobi Okugo 60), Erik Palmer-Brown, Chance Myers; Paulo Nagamura, Benny Feilhaber, Mikey Lopez; Bernardo Anor (Krisztian Nemeth 59), Dom Dwyer, Graham Zusi

Subs Not Used: Jon Kempin, Amadou Dia, Jordi Quintilla, Jacob Peterson

San Jose Earthquakes: David Bingham; Shaun Francis, Clarence Goodson, Fatai Alashe, Marvell Wynne; Shea Salinas, Anibal Godoy, Matias Perez Garcia (Sanna Nyassi 76), Cordell Cato; Quincy Amarikwa (Adam Jahn 91+), Chris Wondolowski

Subs Not Used: Bryan Meredith, Leandro Barrera, J.J. Koval, Tommy Thompson, Mark Sherrod