Last night at Sporting Park, Sporting KC fell to BPL champions, Manchester City in the Champions Shield match up. The visiting Citizens grabbed the lead in just the 2nd minute when Bruno Zuculini picked up a loose ball and beat Andy Gruenebaum with a very well struck finish. Even though KC went down early, they actually looked pretty good and had a couple opportunities to equalize. They almost did so immediately as CJ Sapong headed a ball off the cross bar. The rebound though was cleared away. Shortly after that, Sporting thought they had equalized. A free kick by Benny Feilhaber was headed on goal by Dom Dwyer. The shot was saved but the rebound fell to Dwyer who buried it, but Dwyer was ruled to have been offside on the initial free kick, ruling the goal out. Going the other way City had a number of good opportunties to add to their lead, but Gruenebaum in KC's net came up with some good saves to keep the score at 1-0. KC finally found themselves level in the 30th minute. A nicely lofted ball by Feilhaber was well settled by Sapong inside City's box. The forward brought it down and calmly slotted the ball into the corner. A nice play from Feilhaber to pick Sapong out and a calm finish from the forward. City continued to pressure looking for a second, Aurelien Collin came up with a nice defensive play, tracking back to knock a ball away from Stevan Jovetic right before he fired a shot on goal. Unfortunately right before half time City retook the lead. After a foul by Seth Sinovic near the corner for the box, Jesus Navas played a beautiful free kick into the box where Dedryck Boyata beat Collin in an aerial dual and headed the ball past Gruenebaum and into the net to make it 2-1.
At half time, Sporting made 11 changes bringing on the reserves, including new signings Jorge Claros and Michael Kafari, later in the half, Martin Steuble entered the game as well. The reserves did well for themselves in the early going, holding their own against a City side that only made one half time change. They even created a few chances as Kafari had a shot turned away by City goalkeeper, Willy Caballero. In the 72nd Kafari was again involved, but this time at the wrong end of the field, bringing down Scott Sinclair in the box. Aleksandar Kolarov stepped up and sent Jon Kempin the wrong way, giving City a 2 goal lead. Both teams had chances the rest of the way, but it was City who grabbed a fourth in the 88th. Navas again was the creator, turning Victor Munoz, who was filling in at left back, and creating space before sliding a ball back to the top of the box where Kelechi Iheanacho slotted a shot right inside Kempin's post to make it 4-1 to City.
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