Mar 25, 2012; Kansas City, KS, USA; Sporting KC midfielder Graham Zusi (8) fights to control the ball against FC Dallas midfielder Jair Benitez (5) in the second half at Livestrong Sporting Park. Kansas City won 2-0. Mandatory Credit: John Rieger-US PRESSWIRE
Lots of post-game stuff to digest in your lunch hour and a few other things looking forward to tonight's big US Olympic Qualifying showdown against El Salvador.
EJ Holland writes that Ugo Ihemelu was disappointed by the loss in a game where he feels Dallas deserved a point.
"It was a disappointing game for us, but we fought," defender Ugo Ihemelu said after the match. "We gave up two big goals. It was just very disappointing. It’s one of those games where we feel like we should have at least came out of there with one point."
In the Kansas City Star, Kei Kamara said his game winning goal was like a movie and he couldn't believe it.
"I knew if he hit it that it wasn’t going to go far, so that was in my mind," Kamara said. "The whole thing was like a movie. I can’t believe it actually happened, but it felt great. It felt so great that I couldn’t even celebrate it. All I could do was stand there and let my guys tackle me."
Game highlights after the jump as well as a look around the league and some stuff to set you up for tonight's game
The Bootroom Blog has an in-depth look at Kei Kamara's game winner
In the end, this is a gem of a goal from Sporting Kansas City. The awareness, vision and work ethic the players display in making it happen puts it up as my early candidate for Team Goal of the Year. Further, it caps off a great performance that deserved a win. Finally, this goal shows what Kansas City brings to Major League Soccer this year — entertainment value.
Steve Davis drills down on Sunday evening's game, picking out Blas Perez as an effective player for Dallas.
Although he didn’t get any decent chances on goal, Blas Perez continues to show why he was one of the most under-appreciated acquisitions of the winter. Everybody knew he’d physically be a handful for MLS defenses, but today, the challenges he posed Besler and Collin resulted from his movement and passing. In the first half, he went wide (to the right of Collin), chased down a diagonal ball, and made two more small plays in the sequence to create a chance for Bryan Leyva. In the second half, his backheel flick wide to Jair Benitez put the Colombian behind a high KC line, the defender-cum-midfielder’s resulting ball through the six nearly giving Jacobson a go-ahead goal.
Kyle McCarthy's Monday MLS Breakdown is always a must read
"For me, we've started the first two games with pretty average first halves," Portland coach John Spencer said. "We played 90 minutes of decent football – the second half against Dallas and the second half against Philly – and took four points. You can't go a goal down every week and expect to win games."
Drew Epperley's "What We Learned" recap for SB Nation will also get you caught up on the weekend quite nicely.
RSL held a massive edge in possession, shots and well just everything. It just wasn't meant to be on the night.
Does this make RSL a weaker team? Absolutely not, it was one game of 34 and only their fifth regular season loss at Rio Tinto Stadium. Games like this happen but can be good for a team like RSL. Getting a tough loss out of the way early can pave a way for a long spell of success.
Looking towards tonight's game, read Brek Shea's newest blog for Goal.com
In Caleb and Jurgen Klinsmann, I've been fortunate to have two great coaches and have learned so much from both of them. I would venture to say their styles are different but both have had such a great impact on my game but at the same time both are very different in their own ways
Caleb Porter has no doubt the United States will move to the semifinals and win tonight.
“Mostly we just have to have a good performance ourselves,” Porter said. “We’re confident in our team. Players are confident we can get the job done. There is no doubt in my mind that we are going to get the result.”


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