Sporting Kansas City clinched their second straight Eastern Conference regular-season title with a 2-1 win over the Philadelphia Union on Wednesday. KC got a first-half goal from Jacob Peterson and a CJ Sapong winner in the 83rd minute.
Sporting KC vs. Philadelphia Union, 2012 MLS: CJ Sapong’s winner clinches East for KC
Sporting KC clinches their second straight regular-season title after getting a CJ Sapong winner in the 83rd minute.
Jamie Squire
The game appeared to be headed for a tie, which would have put KC's title hopes in question, until Sapong broke the deadlock. Taking a nice through ball from Kei Kamara, Sapong beat Zac MacMath in a 1-on-1 situation.
After a bit of a rocky start in which Jimmy Nielsen was forced to make a couple good saves, Sporting KC jumped out on top on Jacob Peterson's fourth goal of the year. Peterson finished off a nice exchange that featured some quality passing between Kei Kamara and CJ Sapong and put a sliding shot past Zac MacMath.
Sporting nearly made it 2-0 late in the first half, but this time MacMath was up to the task. Graham Zusi twice had open shots from the top of the penalty area, with his first rebounding right back out to him.
The Union did tie it up in the 54th minute when Luke Hoppenot scored off a rebound of a saved penalty. Nielsen was able to guess correctly, stopping Michael Farfan's attempt. The Union had drawn the penalty when Matt Besler tackled Danny Cruz in the box.
That seemed to breathe some life back into the Union attack. Just a few minutes later Jack McInerney hit the post on a header and Keon Daniel hit the post again just moments later.
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