Sporting Kansas City took on the Colorado Rapids in Tucson and played to a 2-2 draw. It was largely a tale of two halves as Colorado took
Colorado got things started early as Roger Espinoza ran into the referee while pursuing Lucas Pittinari who fed a nifty through ball to Gabriel Torres who slotted the ball home in the 12th minute.\
Not long after Colorado caught Sporting on the counter attack and Luis Marin wound up well off his line in an attempt to break up the break away, to no avail as Vicente Sanchez easily found Dominque Badji for an easy tap in.
The second half was a different story, with both sides playing a different XI. Sporting Kansas City spent more time in the attack and the match changed when Francisco Flores was ejected after being shown a second yellow card in the 75th minute. Just one minute later Jimmy Medranda was brought down in the box to earn a penalty kick, which Krisztian "Pre-season Diop" Nemeth deftly converted. Then in the 78th minute Bernardo Anor showed off some clever footwork and found enough space to slot home the equalizing goal.
The match ended at 90 minutes with both sides showing some good moments and some preseason cobwebs. Overall, Sporting looked good after a dicey first twenty minutes and perhaps somewhat vulnerable in the midfield and back to speed and counter attacks, but there were plenty of positives to take away.
In other news coming out of the match, Chance Myers spoke and stated that while he's healing and progressing well, he may not be match fit and ready to play by the season opener. Graham Zusi also took a moment to speak with the commentary crew and thought that he may be ready to start getting preseason minutes as early as this Saturday, when Sporting Kansas City takes on the Seattle Sounders in the second match of the Desert Diamond Cup.
We want the (pre-season) Cup (as long as there are no major injuries or set backs).
Lineups
| Sporting KC | Colorado Rapids |
|
1st Half: Marin; Ellis, Anibaba, Besler, de Jong; Marcelin, Espinoza, Nagamura; Peterson, Dwyer, Hallisey 2nd Half: Melia; Dia, Opara, Palmer-Brown, Sinovic; Carrasco, Medranda, Feilhaber; Rogers, Nemeth, Anor |
!st Half: MacMath; Knight, Burling, Sjoberg, Harrington, Pittinari, Sarvas, Sanchez, Torres, Alvarez, Badji 2nd Half: MacMath; Flores, O’Neill, Watts, Burch, Cronin, Newnam, Serna, Powers, Montoya, Brown |