As expected, Sporting Kansas City finished off the Colorado Rapids to move onto the Eastern Conference final. They held a 2-0 advantage heading into tonight's second leg against a Rapids team missing half of their starting tea due to injury. Then Aurielien Collin and C.J. Sapong added goals on a cold, rainy night at Livestrong Sporting Park and it was done. Another 2-0 win made it 4-0 on aggregate as the defending MLS Cup champions were eliminated.
Sporting Kansas City Vs. Colorado Rapids, MLS Cup Playoffs 2011: Rapids Done, Sporting Moves On
Any hope that the Rapids had went away in the 28th minute when Collin was punched, but still scored. A free kick by Graham Zusi found him unmarked in the box because the Rapids think marking players is overrated. Matt Pickens decided to do as bad a job goalkeeping as his defense did defending, coming out and missing the ball, but instead punching Collin in the head a split second after the Sporting man had nodded the ball towards goal. The ball went over the goal line, Collin hit the turf and Kansas City were in front 1-0.
The match went on with Sporting knocking the ball around, their very good forwards threatening the Rapids defense and Colorado doing very little in the way of attacking of showing any sort of competent play in the attacking half, but that’s normal for them. Eventually, Sapong headed home another Zusi free kick and Sporting were moving on while the defending champions were dead.
Sporting will host the Eastern Conference final on Sunday against the winner of the Houston vs. Philadelphia tie. The winner of Sunday’s contest will then move on to MLS Cup, to be hosted on November 20 at the Home Depot Center in Carson, CA.
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