About two months ago, we were all ready to hand Sporting Kansas City the Eastern Conference crown. Peter Vermes’ team was 7-0-0 and running away with the doggone thing – probably en route to a Supporters Shield and potential hosting rights for MLS Cup 2012.
Since then, however, Sporting Kansas City is a quite unfashionable 2-5-2.
The Chicago Fire, goalkeeper Sean Johnson (pictured) and sizzling attacker Marco Pappa delivered the latest hammer blow, a 1-0 win Friday over SKC in the heartland.
Johnson, the young U.S. international, was at his superhero best. Pappa scored for a second consecutive match (having also scored against the United States in the recent World Cup qualifier). So Chicago is off and running now, having won three in a row for the first time since last September.
The other take-away from last night’s 1-0 win at Livestrong Sporting Park: Chris Rolfe was on the field for 90 minutes, his first full appearance since re-signing with the club in April. That’s going to give Fire manager Frank Klopas some tremendous options going forward.
Highlights last night, including Pappa’s counter-attack goal and Johnson’s fine work in the Fire net:
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