Smash and Grab: Sporting Kansas City Steals 3 From RSL

RSL keeper Jeff Attinella after conceding the match winning goal. (Deseret News)

I have so many emotions in my mind right now.  I thought that after a night's sleep I might feel a little, well a little less cranky, but that's not the case.  I think the above Deseret News picture of Jeff Attinella pretty much sums up what most of us are feeling, just absolutely gutted.

Let's dispense with a couple of things right off the bat.  Yes, the officiating was poor.  There were multiple calls missed on both sides.  I'm not going to get into the "big games should have big refs" argument because it's totally subjective.  The officiating in the league is mediocre at best no matter who is on the pitch.  While I do sympathize with fans making this argument, having Baldomero Toledo in the center circle doesn't always mean a well officiated match.  We all know this.

Let's look at what the referee got right, in my opinion, and how it affected the match.  First off, you have Wingert with an arm to the face of Kei Kamara in the opening minute. I don't think Chris meant to do it, but a yellow card was warranted.  As my pal Justin, who you know as the RSL correspondent for the Standard Examiner, noted: with Allen Chapman as the fourth official, RSL might have been lucky not to have Wingert sent off right then and there.

That put Chris on a yellow card for essentially the entire match.  Kamara is a big, physical attacker, and the chances that Wingert gets out of that match without picking up the second yellow are extremely low.  I'm not much in the habit of second guessing Coach Kreis, but in my opinion, Wingert should have been subbed at halftime.  Now as my friend Kris Lindsay points out on Twitter, you can't really do that because Wingert is your only other centerback option should either Borchers or Maund go down with an injury.  While this is true enough, I think it's the risk you take.  I'd rather run the risk of playing somebody out of position with an injury as opposed to the strong likelihood of playing a man down.  Of course, you trust your veteran players, but in the end the end it didn't work out.

The ref also got the second yellow correct, in my opinion.  It was a professional foul to stop a counter attack.  In my mind, we're up 1-0, and there are other defenders in the area.  That was a bad foul for Chris to take and in my mind, that bad decision cost RSL the match more than anything the referee could have done.

Poor set piece defense undid RSL as well, despite an amazingly poor performance from Graham Zusi, who's heart must have still been at the ESPYs.  Of course when you're minus your two starting full backs, you've got your 5th choice centerback, and your third string goalkeeper on the pitch, I guess its understandable that not everyone's going to be on the same page.  You can't lay it at the feet of Jeff Attinella though, he had another solid match.

What positives can we take away from this for RSL?  You have to learn from it and move on.  First I thought the team played another pretty good match despite missing several guys.  The Claret and Cobalt were the better side up until the red card, but that changed the match.  Several guys continued to step up, Yordany Alvarez and Lovell Palmer to name a couple.  Olmes Garcia again impacted the match positively, but it was tough for him to gain traction with RSL down a man.  Javi Morales was good, as per usual, but Sporting had him on the ground so much it was hard for him to do a lot.  I wonder how Peter Vermes would have reacted if RSL put Zusi on the ground as much as his side hit Javi?

In the end, Sporting Kansas City are too good.  You can't dodge all the bullets when when you give them that advantage, they're going to hurt you.  It was a credit to RSL that they so nearly escaped with a point, but in the end, scoreboard is what matters.

So now, here are my three stars for the match:

THIRD STAR--Jimmy Nielsen, GK, Sporting Kansas City. Though he did bumble on the RSL goal, his save late on Olmes Garcia saved a chance at points for Sporting.

SECOND STAR--Lovell Palmer, DF, RSL.  Lovell played really well last night helping the Claret and Cobalt cope with Sporting's deadly attack.  He made a couple of key tackles and clearances late that kept RSL in the match.

FIRST STAR--Javier Morales, MF, RSL.  Despite being flattened by Sporting on nearly every turn, Morales was easily the best player on the pitch last night.  His free kick created the RSL goal and he was a constant danger man.  Unfortunately in the end, it just wasn't enough for RSL.