Saturday, June 25, 2016

Dwyer Continues Dominance Over Montreal

Dom Dwyer continues to love his trips north of the border. The Sporting Kansas City forward added two more to his goal total against Canadian sides, his eighth and ninth against the Montreal Impact as KC played to a 2-2 draw against the Canadian side.

The Impact were the more aggressive side early on creating the better chances with a free kick from Didier Drogba dipping just a little late in the 14th minute and then in the 16th Montreal grabbed the lead. After some good skill by Drogba, he crossed the ball to the far side for Hassoun Camara who played the ball back into the middle for Lucas Ontivero whose snap header beat Melia to give the Impact the early lead. Kansas City responded with some good possession of their own and in the 21st were back on level terms. Roger Espinoza played a really nice curled ball into the box that Dwyer was able to get a good header on and push past Evan Bush and into the net to tie the game at 1-1. Kansas City continued to have the beter of possession after the goal but were unable to find much in the way of shooting chances. The inability to create chances came back to bite Kansas City in the 38th minute when a long ball over the top was settled by Drogba and he was able to turn and go to goal. With Jimmy Medranda marking him, Drogba got into the box and appeared to catch Medranda's ankle as he went for a shot and went down leading to a penalty kick. Replays seemed to show very little contact on the part of Medranda on the play, but Ignacio Piatti stepped up and sent Tim Melia the wrong way putting the Impact in front 2-1. If Drogba's play was a foul, almost immediately at the other end of the field KC should have had a penalty of their own as Benny Feilhaber was brought down in the box but no call was made on this attempt and the two teams went into the half with the Impact up 2-1.

Down a goal at the half KC had to absorb some early pressure from the Impact in the second half as Montreal looked to put the game away early. That pressure led to counter attacking chances for Kansas City and in the 59th KC took advantage. After a long ball ahead to Dwyer he laid the ball off the Feilhaber, continuing his run up field. He received the ball back and got himself some space against his defender before firing a shot towards goal from outside the box that hit off the far post and into the net tying the game at 2-2. Back at square one both sides made attempts forward looking for an eventual winner. Ontivero had another chance with a header after a good cross from Drogba, but Melia snagged the effort out of the air. KC had a chance of their own after the Montreal defense made a mess of a cross by Medranda. Bush knocked a ball into the path of Jacob Peterson, but recovered well to deflect Peterson's effort out for a corner in a situation you thought for sure KC would score. Neither side was able to find a winner late on and KC was able to push their unbeaten run to three in league play, although only one is a win.

Wizards Man of the Match - Dom Dwyer - The guy just loves playing against Canadian teams, especially Montreal, he continues to add to his impressive goal scoring total and is now the second leading goal scorer for Kansas City all time.

Honorable Mention
- Roger Espinoza

Player Ratings -
Melia 6, Medranda 5, Olum 5, Opara 6, Abdul-Salaam 5, Mustivar 5, Espinoza 8, Feilhaber 6, Hallisey 5, Dwyer 8, Peterson 5. Subs Rubio NR, Ellis NR, Davis NR.

1 comment:

Ky said...

Super positive to see a fight from SKC to get the road point. Hopefully this is another step in a very long run of good form.

Nuno cannot come back soon enough though.