by Brian Turrel
Sporting Kansas City goalkeeper Tim Melia gave away and then saved a penalty kick in the first minute on the way to earning a shutout in Sporting’s 1-0 victory Wednesday night over the Chicago Fire.
Sporting’s lone goal was scored in the 67th minute by defender Winston Reid. Forward Johnny Russell earned a corner kick from the Chicago defense and then curled the kick toward the back post where the tall, imposing Reid waited to head it in from close range for his first MLS goal. Reid also anchored the defense, leading the team with seven interceptions.
Kansas City struggled to find offense in the first half. Striker Alan Pulido, who scored twice in the previous match, was called up to the Mexican national team and will be away from the club until late October. Manager Peter Vermes placed midfielder Gadi Kinda into the striker role, but Chicago was able to prevent Kansas City from playing the ball forward to him.
In the second half, Vermes shook up the formation, moving Kinda back to a midfield role and pushing Khiry Shelton forward. The move paid off as Sporting quickly created more chances and put pressure on the Chicago defense.
As Reid explained after the game, “The first half was a bit back and forth and in the second half, even though they had the ball, we had numerous amounts of chances on the counterattack to score.”
The Chicago penalty kick was earned just 30 seconds into the game. Melia hit a weak clearance directly to Chicago’s Fabian Herbers and then quickly fouled Herbers to smother his shot attempt. Robert Beric took the penalty kick, but was denied by Melia, who dove low and to his right to parry away the shot. Having blocked 11 of the 25 penalty kicks he’s faced in regulation (and 4 of the last 5), Melia has the lowest career penalty conversion percentage of any MLS goalkeeper.
The win pushes Kansas City up to second place in the MLS Western Conference as the regular season winds down. Sporting will play again at home against Nashville SC at 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
