The Game in Tweets: Sporting KC v SJ Earthquakes [VIDEO]

Ideally you watched the game yesterday between Sporting Kansas City and the San Jose Earthquakes. If you didn’t, there is always the option to go back and watch it on Fox Sports Go or if you are out of the area, MLS Live. If you simply don’t have time for all that then this is the place for you.

While not all the gifs used below are beautiful, they will fill you in a little bit on what you missed. Lets start with the Starting XI for each squad.

No surprises for SKC as they went with the same Starting XI for the third straight game. In fact, the entire 18 stayed the same. Let’s not leave out the first lady of US Soccer (despite her being half Canadian).

We’ll go with our first gif of the first significant play that was just over a minute into the game (and ignore that I spelled Jair Marrufo’s name wrong).

Hopefully all that video makes it clear that Dwyer was taken down in the box and Marrufo missed his first (of many) calls of the game. Gerso would quickly test David Bingham after that.

From there, Benny and Dom almost connected inside the box but the ball was just a little ahead of Dwyer’s foot.

Shortly after that Dwyer oversells some minor contact in the box and Jair gives him a yellow. This isn’t the best angle but there is some contact. Even if there wasn’t his path is clearly impeded. There is no way this should be a yellow for simulation.

The next significant moment was a bizarre one. Matt Besler appeared to almost give up on a play in his own box then he makes an incredible tackle.

After that we have a few more chances for Sporting KC. One from Benny, where he has to go to his left foot and another where Jimmy Medranda collides with Bingham.

Gerso just keeps trying.

Then, if there was a roof on Children’s Mercy Park, it would have blown off the place. Benny Freaking Feilhaber!

As the teams approach halftime, the last good opportunity was created by Gerso and Benny working together up the right side of the pitch. Benny delivers a lovely cross that Medranda gets on the end of but fails to put on target.

It felt like it should be 3-0 at the half, but it was just 1-0 Sporting KC.

.At halftime recent retiree Paulo Nagamura was honored by the club. It’s crazy that he’s retired and he’s younger than me by like two weeks. Regardless, it was a cool moment at halftime.

Early in the second half Sporting picked up where they left off. Gerso got in the box but he had to shoot with his non-preferred right foot, and it showed. Also worth noting that Dwyer appears to be offside so even if he gathered the spilled ball from Bingham, it probably gets called off. Noticeably the AR doesn’t have his flag up though.

Ilie Sanchez did a good job tonight breaking up the San Jose attack and he got to pay for it with a heavy foul.

A closer look.

David Bingham, on the heels of getting called into the United States National Team, had a rough night. I can’t imagine he sees the pitch for Team USA. Here Dwyer steals the ball off him and his defense bails him out. His night would get worse.

After that a nice through ball put Dwyer in on goal but he sprays his shot wide.

Next we have Zusi trying to recreate his preseason golazo only to have his shot violently blocked.

A scary moment for Sporting fans came tonight when Benny took a hand to the face. He played on for a bit but he eventually was subbed off. When he left the pitch the broadcast indicated he was saying he couldn’t see. Luckily there is some time off before the next game.

After that we had a couple of 2017 season debuts for Soony Saad and Soni Mustivar.

That Soony Saad substitution would be crucial. Soony is known for taking shots from distance and while he couldn’t have planned it like this, it worked out beautifully to give SKC a 2-0 lead.

In the excitement of Sporting going up 2-0 (the most dangerous lead) no one noticed SJ pulling one back.

It got really scary after that as the Quakes almost tied it up as the game sped towards it’s conclusion.

Ultimately Sporting would end up pulling it out with a 2-1 victory (I believe I actually had that right for once). The team had a really cool moment after the victory as they headed down to The Cauldron to celebrate.

So what do you think? Is it worth telling the story in tweets, gifs and videos? Let us know in the comments. We’ll leave you with that beautiful home opening tifo from the Cauldron. Truly amazing stuff.