Two teams that made significant offseason additions opened their 2018 MLS campaigns against each other, and the representatives of visitor New York City FC outshone their counterparts from Sporting
Kansas City.
A goal by MLS debutant
Jesus Medina clinched a 2-0 victory for NYCFC that handed the host as many home defeats as it accrued all of last season. (SKC was 10-1-6 at
Children’s Mercy Park.)
Designated Players
Felipe Gutierrez and
Yohan Croziet, as well as winger
Johnny Russell, got their first action for
SKC, which outshot the visitor, 18-11, and despite improving after a shaky first half rarely tested NYCFC keeper
Sean Johnson, who watched one SKC shot hit the crossbar and a
Roger
Espinoza header sail just wide of the post. The attack perked up after a pair of substitutions, including starter
Diego Rubio giving way to a lively
Daniel
Salloi.
“We didn’t play well the first half,” said defender and captain
Matt Besler in a postgame interview. “I don’t know what it was, maybe
we were almost too excited to get out there. We were a bit nervy there with some of our passes. Look, it's the first game and sometimes that stuff happens.
“The second half was much
better. We settled down and started to play a little more like ourselves. We have to move on and get better from some of the mistakes that we made.”
The new DPs nearly combined for
a spectacular goal just before the half-hour mark. Gutierrez jinked through the middle and played that most difficult chip – short-range, straight-ahead – for Croziet, who had arrowed for
goal after dropping the ball back for Gutierrez.
Croziet’s 30-yard run found space between NYCFC’s centerbacks and though his awkward lunge got a piece of the chipped ball it
rolled wide of the post. Yet the sequence showed a glimpse of what SKC lacked fin the final months of the 2017 season: a truly creative player to conjure up opportunities and a finisher to put them
away.
The trade of
Dom Dwyer to Orlando City in August stripped SKC of the latter element and as for the creativity, well, right back
Graham Zusi led the team in assists
with eight. Nobody else had more than the four contributed by Besler.
Relying on Goalkeeper of the Year
Tim Melia and Defender of the Year
Ike Opara did generate 10 shutouts
and a league-fewest 29 goals allowed. SKC finished only four points out of first place in a very even Western Conference. Yet its 40 goals ranked fewer than any other playoff team except San Jose,
which scored 39.
Croziet played only 57 minutes and was replaced by last year’s leading scorer,
Gerso Fernandes, who netted just eight goals. Gutierrez and Russell went the
full 90.
“In the second half, I thought our combination play in the attacking third was really good,” said head coach
Peter Vermes. “I thought Johnny Russell had
a very good game. He was very dangerous and gave us a lot of good looks at goal.”