Sporting Kansas City won the team’s eighth straight home match across all competitions, tying the club record for the longest home winning streak, with a 2-1 victory over the Montreal Impact on Saturday at Sporting Park in Kansas City, Kan.
Benny Feilhaber opened the scoring in the fourth minute and earned the game-winning assist on Dom Dwyer’s goal 30 minutes later to move Sporting KC into a tie for third place in the Western Conference.
Feilhaber struck for the club’s second earliest goal of the season when he powered a left-footed shot past Evan Bush in the game’s fourth minute.
Roger Espinoza started the scoring sequence by winning the ball from Marco Donadel before immediately playing a pass into the path of Krisztian Nemeth.
Nemeth slotted a first-time pass across the penalty area for Feilhaber, who brought the sell-out crowd to its feet with a finish inside the post for his sixth goal of the year.
In search of an equalizer, Calum Mallace sent a shot wide from 25 yards out in the seventh minute and then the visitors nearly leveled the score in the 31st minute.
Ignacio Piatti picked out Dominic Oduro with an entry ball from the left flank that put Oduro in a one-on-one situation with Sporting KC goalkeeper Tim Melia, who came off his line and made a fingertip save on the attempted chip.
The moment proved pivotal when Sporting KC doubled the lead less than three minutes later. Kevin Ellis tackled the ball away from Mallace in the defensive half and Feilhaber wasted no time in playing a 50-yard through ball between both Impact centerbacks with his first touch.
The pinpoint pass sprung Dwyer on a breakaway and the Englishman made no mistake in sending his shot into the back of the net for his seventh career goal against Montreal – most among all MLS players – and a team-high 10 goals in all competitions this season.
Sporting Kansas City continued to create scoring chances in the final moments of the first half with Dwyer again leading the charge in the 41st minute. Bush was forced to make a pair of saves seconds apart, first diving low to his left to palm away Dwyer’s initial shot then recovering to turn away Dwyer’s follow-up effort with a foot save.
Feilhaber – hours after being named to the MLS All-Star game day roster for the first time in his career – came close to moving back atop the MLS assists chart on the ensuing corner kick. His delivery found Jacob Peterson in traffic but the glancing header carried inches wide of the far post.
Montreal cut the deficit in half in the 59th minute when Piatti scored his sixth of the season – and the captain’s third in the past four games – to snap Sporting KC’s 355-minute home shutout streak.
Nevertheless, the Impact would only have two attempts at a game-tying goal during a tense closing 30 minutes: Andres Romero’s volley sailed high and wide in the 72nd minute and Maxim Tissot’s header looped narrowly over the crossbar in second-half stoppage time.
Sporting KC has now won four straight in the series with Montreal and remains unbeaten at Sporting Park in 2015 (9-0-3 overall). Saturday’s game was the first of three in a seven-day span as Sporting KC now turns the team’s attention to Tuesday’s match against the Houston Dynamo in the 2015 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup quarterfinals.
Tickets and parking are included in Sporting Kansas City season ticket packages as Special Game A. Single-game tickets can be purchased online at Ticketmaster.com or by calling 888-4KC-GOAL.
– Story from Sporting KC