Photo by ISIPhotos.com
By JOSE M. ROMERO
Sporting Kansas City experienced both an odd and a Saad night on its home pitch Wednesday night, with Graham Zusi scoring twice and Soony Saad adding the team's third goal in a 3-1 win over the Portland Timbers.
The odd part was goalkeeper Jimmy Nielsen being struck by a piece of an Omar Bravo bobblehead doll near his left eye as he turned to celebrate Zusi's first goal with the fans behind his net.
Nielsen went down and the game was delayed four minutes while he received stitches. He remained in the game and finished it, allowing the Timbers' lone goal in the 81st minute.
The two most important things for SKC: Nielsen seemed to be OK, and the team rebounded from a loss to Seattle at Livestrong Sporting Park in its last home match.
Sporting KC was the better team throughout the game and constantly had the ball forward in the attacking zone. Milos Stojcev had his shot deflected off the crossbar in the 18th minute, defender Eric Brunner getting a foot on it and the ball somehow not going in for an own goal.
Portland defender David Horst came up with a strong tackle to prevent Teal Bunbury from scoring in the 33rd minute, but the Timbers couldn't make enough plays either offensively or defensively to make a game of it. In the 40th minute, a throw-in from Matt Besler, who's a legitimate weapon on offense with his ability to throw the ball into the box, went to C.J. Sapong, who headed it to Bunbury for a shot that the Timbers' Troy Perkins saved. But Zusi was there to finish the loose ball and give SKC a 2-0 lead.
With Bravo out due to red-card suspension, SKC had Kei Kamara, Sapong and Bunbury as its front line.
The Timbers almost scored a fluke goal when a long ball from Rodney Wallace took a high bounce and was close to going into the net before Nielsen tracked it down. Saad, who was celebrating his 19th birthday, came on as a sub in the 63rd minute.
The Timbers' Jack Jewsbury, playing in his first game at Kansas City against his former team, had a shot blocked by Nielsen in the 65th minute.
Saad's goal in the 72nd minute was his first career MLS goal and came in his MLS debut, and on his 19th birthday. His foot hit a deflection off a Timbers defender and got past Perkins.
The bright spot for the Timbers was Bright Dike, who entered the game in the 66th minute for Kenny Cooper and and scored off a cross from Wallace. Dike had spent much of the season recovering from a preseason injury.
Sporting KC improved to 8-7-9 and remained in the thick of the playoff chase, while the Timbers dropped to 7-12-5.
