Worn out from a run of five games in 15 days, their playmaker suspended and two other first-choice midfielders hurt, Sporting Kansas City were still 10 minutes and stoppage time away from taking three points on the road.
That's the positive SKC manager Peter Vermes focused on – not his club's conceding twice down the stretch, giving up 11 goals over their last three matches and taking back-to-back losses for the first time this year.
“The effort was fantastic,” Vermes told reporters in a conference call after Sporting's 3-1 loss to Columbus Crew SC. “For what they've had to deal with over the last couple of weeks and the number of games we've played, that was a tremendous effort by the boys – the different guys in the lineup, the different way we had to play, guys out of position. Yeah, tremendous.”
Those comments stood in marked contrast to Vermes' displeasure with his club – including calling his backline's play “horrific” – after they were embarrassed 5-0 at home by the San Jose Earthquakes on Wednesday.
“We played the way we wanted to play,” Vermes said on Saturday, “and everybody's effort was good.”
With club assists leader Benny Feilhaber serving a red card suspension and Roger Espinoza and Soni Mustivar sidelined by injury, Vermes dropped winger Graham Zusi into a deep-lying midfield spot and started Marcel de Jong – usually a left back -- on the wing.
Both of them responded with goals – de Jong for the first time with Sporting – as the visitors took a 2-1 lead into the 80th minute before conceding Tony Tchani's set-piece equalizer and Jack McInerney's 88th-minute putback for the Crew SC match-winner.
De Jong, who roofed Saad Abdul-Salaam's cross for a 1-0 lead in the 14th minute, was making his first start of the month. Zusi's 62nd-minute strike from the top left corner of the penalty area came in his first start since August 1, although he came on as a second-half sub on Wednesday against the Earthquakes after missing three matches across all competitions with a calf strain.
“That was a great goal [by Zusi], a fantastic goal, and it put us in a great position,” Vermes said. “We were leading with 10 minutes to go, maybe 13 with stoppage time. We were solid up to that point.”
With no scheduled midweek match for the first time in three weeks, Vermes said he would give his club a couple of days off before beginning training for next Saturday's match at Colorado (9 pm ET, MLS LIVE).
“We should be back in the swing of the rhythm,” he said, “and hopefully get some guys back from injury as well.”
Steve Brisendine covers Sporting Kansas City for MLSsoccer.com.
