Sporting KC snatches draw from the jaws of victory

An excellent first half turns into second half disaster as SKC surrenders a lead at home.

Sporting Kansas City came into the match with the Montreal impact looking to extend their 16 game unbeaten streak at home and stay on top of the Western Conference.

Sporting KC did come close to taking the lead in the 15^th minute when Gerso Fernandes crossed into the box where Dom Dwyer clanged it off the crossbar.

The home side took the lead in what easily had to be the play of the first half, Gerso’s goal in the 24^th minute.

Always aware Ilie Sanchez lobbed the ball forward to Gerso who positioned himself to receive the ball in front of him while holding off Montreal defender Kyle Fisher. A quick right footed shot to beat Evan Bush and Sporting Kansas City took the lead.

The second half saw Sporting KC start go get sloppy and the Montreal Impact start to take advantage of SKC’s poor possession play and passing. A scary moment in the 76th minute when Dominic Oduro broke in on goal and slid one past Tim Melia but he was quickly determined to be offside.

In a fairly standard move, Soni Mustivar came on to replace Jimmy Medranda and help close out the match but that did not turn out so well this time. An extremely ill-advised back pass set up Matteo Mancosu to go 1v1 with Melia. An easy chip and the Impact leveled the match at 1-1.

A straight red to Chris Duvall in the 86th gave Sporting KC the man advantage but little time to use that advantage.