Seeing Red: Sporting Kansas City falls 2-0 at Philadelphia Union

Sporting Kansas City's road woes continued on Saturday night when they fell 2-0 to the Philadelphia Union. This continued a road winless streak that stretches all the way back to April.

The first half went back and forth for the first stretch but the Union took over in the latter part of the half and put Sporting Kansas City on their heels. The away side, bolstered by a solid performance from goalkeeper Alec Kann, was able to keep the Union off the board in the first half, but the Union seemed firmly in control going into the break.

It was in the second half that it all fell apart. In the 59th minute, a yellow card that Jimmy Medranda had earned in the first half for dissent came back to bite him. He was given another yellow for a poor tackle and was sent to the showers early. Sporting KC would have to play at least 30 minutes down a man.

The Union took advantage. In the 67th minute, Roland Alberg took the ball from 20 yards out and smashed it into the upper 90 of the far post for the goal. This was the goal that the Union had been building towards for seemingly the entire game and, down a man, the deficit did not bode well for Sporting KC.

Then, things got worse. In the 87th minute, Roger Espinoza tried to shield Alberg off the ball near Sporting KC's box and an exaggerated fall on the part of Alberg led to a straight red card for Espinoza, who was carrying a yellow, but received a straight red card anyways. This brought Sporting KC down to nine men.

Philadelphia put the dagger into Sporting KC's heart in the 92nd minute when Alberg got Tranqullo Barnetta open on a give-and-go and Kann was not able to get off his line quick enough to stop Barnetta's shot from just inside the box as the Union doubled their lead. This would end up being the final score as the Union won 2-0.

Sporting KC are off this weekend and next are in action on Sept. 9 when they host the Houston Dynamo.