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Sporting Kansas City lost the rematch to the Portland Timbers 3-0 after beating them in Kansas City the week before. Sporting KC has hoped to take a victory in the stadium where they were knocked out of the playoffs last season but could not find the back of the net.
The match started physical and was looking good for Sporting KC when the Timbers' Diego Chara received a straight red for hands to the face of Benny Feilhaber in the 12th minute. With being a man down, Portland packed it in looking to weather the storm.
Sporting KC struggled to break the Timbers' defense down and was unable to seriously challenge Jake Gleeson. Even a run of several corner kicks in a row failed to test Portland's keeper.
The man advantage over the Timbers was lost in the 39th minute when Soni Mustivar's challenge on Diego Valeri also resulted in a straight red.
"We were poor in how we approached the game once we went up a man. We gave away too many balls, we made it easy for them. We didn't move the ball well enough, we gave up critical balls in places where it made us expend a lot of energy when we didn't need to. We let them back into the game. Whether it is a red card or not, I'd have to see it again." - Peter Vermes
With the manpower level, Sporting KC started possessing with more intent and moving the ball better but it was the Timbers that took the lead. Vytautus Andriuskevicius was given too much time and crossed it in to SKC's box where Ike Opara headed it aside. Unfortunately it fell directly to Valeri where he easily volleyed it past Alec Kann that had no chance.
SKC manager Peter Vermes brought in Graham Zusi and Diego Rubio looking to even it up and the visitors did create more opportunities but were unable to get one past the Timbers' defense. Portland took advantage of Sporting KC needing to push forward and punished Kansas City's mistakes. Former Wizard Jack Jewsbury (thanks to some great dribbling by Darlinton Nagbe) and Fanendo Adi scored in the waning minutes to put any comeback out of reach.
"Regardless if it was a red or it wasn't, I believe we put ourselves into that position and we did it in a very poor manner. That is pretty much what changed the game." - Peter Vermes
Possession does not equal victory
Sporting KC dominated possession before, during and after the red cards but were unable to put quality shots on goal. SKC had a 72% - 28% possession advantage and outshot the Timbers 11-8 but Portland put 4 on target compared to SKC's 3.
Shorthanded for next game
Mustivar's red means he will miss Sporting KC's match in Dallas next Saturday but so will Roger Espinoza. His yellow in the 47th minute will have him suspended for accumulation as well.