Sporting Kansas City falls behind early and was unable to comeback against the Loons.
For the first time all season, Peter Vermes changed his starting lineup for reasons other than injuries. It didn’t work. Igor Juliao, Kevin Ellis, and Soony Saad started for Sporting Kansas City and had their struggles as they fell 2-0 to Minnesota United.
For Minnesota, Abu Danladi got his first professional start and goal with this cool finish.
First pick. First start. First goal.@abudanladi9, the top pick from this year's #SuperDraft, opens the scoring! https://t.co/x5TUgdaYHY
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) May 7, 2017
Not long after that, Minnesota’s Superman doubled the lead.
These two! @Migue10Ibarra sets up @Chris_Ramirez17 to double the lead. #MINvSKC https://t.co/zRH2NUNqwV
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) May 7, 2017
If that second goal gave you deja vu, it was very similar to the first. Minnesota was able to take advantage of Juliao and Ellis on the right side of the defense. Miguel Ibarra used his speed and savvy to catch Juliao upfield and have plenty of space to send in assists.
In the second half, Graham Zusi came on for Juliao and things immediately got better for the SKC defense. They also had much more of the ball and created plenty of chances, but were unable to get past Bobby Shuttleworth who had himself a game. Shuttleworth battled through a broken nose and finished out the clean sheet for Minnesota.
Today’s Loss Proved Ike Opara’s Importance to SKC
A lot of the talking points will be of Graham Zusi’s absence leading to goals. While that was an important point, the absence of Ike Opara was noticeable. Opara has done an excellent job of cleaning up messes for SKC and keeping track of late runs into the box.
He wasn’t there to do that against Minnesota and that is how both goals happened. Zusi has been a revelation at right back and was missed in the first half. Despite that, Opara was very much needed as this loss showed that he is among the most important defenders in the league.
Next: LAFC reportedly talking with former MLS MVP for 2018 manager
Next Up For Sporting KC
It only gets harder for Sporting. Next weekend they make the trip to Orlando and will have to do so without Dom Dwyer due to yellow card accumulation. No one has been able to manage the wall in Orlando, and it will be a tough task for Sporting to do so without their top striker.