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Steve Bottjer ,

August 17, 2014 Email

Steve Bottjer



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Fresh off back to back road wins, Toronto FC arrived in Kansas City on Saturday looking to make it three away from home in a row. Considering that the Reds had never won at Sporting Park before, the Reds looked to be facing an uphill battle against the defending MLS Cup Champions.



With Jermain Defoe still out injured, TFC Head Coach Ryan Nelsen made only one change to his starting eleven, electing to go with winger Jackson at right back in place of the injured Warren Creavalle and Mark Bloom. Open Player in a New Window | Subscribe | iTunes | MP3 The Opening 45 Sporting Kansas City came out of the gate with ruthless pressure right off the bat, as the home team dominated the midfield and put the TFC back line under significant pressure for much of the opening half.



Kansas City came close to opening the scoring in the 15th minute, but Reds left back Justin Morrow made a fantastic tackle on forward Dom Dwyer to snuff out the danger.



Nelsen’s decision to start his most reckless player at right back when he had two actual defenders available came back to haunt Toronto two minutes later, when Jackson brought down Benny Feilhaber in the TFC box with a characteristically clumsy challenge. Dwyer then stepped up and buried the resulting penalty kick in an authoritative fashion.



With Sporting continuing to press and move the ball the effectively, Toronto were penalized for bringing down a second Kansas City player in the penalty area when defender Doneil Henry brought down Dwyer in the 32nd minute. One minute later, Dwyer buried his second penalty kick past Joe Bendik to put his team up 2-0.



Toronto were able to pull one back during first half injury time when Dominic Oduro delivered a perfect pass to set up Gilberto, who used a top class back heel to redirect the ball past Kansas City keeper Jon Kempin. Jackson is the most selfish player on the team it drives me insane! #TFCLive — TFC ASN (@TorontoFCasn) August 17, 2014

The Second Half Toronto came close to an equalizer early in the second half when Gilberto used a fantastic burst of pace to beat his defender and break in 1v1 on Kempin, with the Kansas City keeper ultimately coming up with a big save.



Kansas City sealed the win in the 64th minute on a brilliant goal by forward Soony Saad, who picked up a loose ball and showed excellent technical ability to blast one past Bendik.



The Reds had an excellent chance at a second goal in the 71st minute when Jackson made an excellent forward run and dribbled around Kempin only to be denied an open net by a top class recovery tackle by Aurélien Collin.



Sporting Kansas City capped off a dominant performance in the 71st minute when second half substitute C. J. Sapong took advantage of a slow to react TFC defense to redirect a corner kick past Bendik.

Man of the Match

Gilberto

The Brazilian Designated Player was Toronto’s best player on this night. He scored a brilliant goal and came close to a second at a point in the game when the outcome of the match was still to be determined. While this was an off night for Toronto, the growing confidence that Gilberto showed in this game is one positive the team can take away from the fixture.



Honourable mention On a night in which the Reds defense struggled to deal with the quality of Kansas City, left back Justin Morrow delivered another rock solid performance while being Toronto’s best defender in a losing effort. At the other end of the pitch, Dominic Oduro put in a solid shift and delivered a perfect pass to set up TFC’s only goal of the game. Toronto FC Line-up

12 Joe Bendik

2 Justin Morrow

15 Doneil Henry

17 Nick Hagglund

11 Jackson

21 Jonathan Osorio

18 Collen Warner

4 Michael Bradley

23 Dominic Oduro

19 Luke Moore

9 Gilberto



Substitutions: Lovitz for Oduro (74), Dike for Moore (78), Bekker for Bradley (83). Who is your Man of the Match?