Who saw this coming? Philadelphia cut loose on visiting Sporting Kansas City, posting the franchise’s first four-goal win, a 4-0 smash-up of the visitors from Kansas City.
A 6-2 win for the Union over Toronto back in May of 2011 had been the club’s only previous win by a foursome. So the first win under interim coach John Hackworth was a milepost victory for the club in more ways than one.
I certainly didn’t see this coming, not judging from yesterday’s PST post about this match, where I clearly wondered if the wrong team would be run off the field. (Luckily I have a tangy barbecue sauce to help with this plate of crow.)
But can you blame me? Especially considering that Saturday’s four goals represented exactly half the total number of Philly strikes from all the other 2012 matches combined (eight of them)? And considering that Sporting Kansas City had conceded just 11 all year coming into PPL Park?
After resting three starters in Wednesday’s midweek draw at Seattle, SKC put its best available lineup on the PPL pitch, so that wasn’t a problem.
“We weren’t good. We just weren’t good tonight,” Kansas City coach Peter Vermes told MLSsoccer.com. “We were sluggish. That was the biggest thing. We just weren’t ready for the game. That’s my fault, and I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
One predominant subplot behind Saturday’s breakout was two goals from young Philly striker Jack McInerney, who had burrowed into former coach Peter Nowak’s dog house and could not find a way out. McInerney, just 19 years old, wasn’t even named to a game-day roster in May. He had not scored a goal since last August.
But he’s scoring now. Here are the highlights as McInerney scored career goals No. 5 and 6 for the Union:
.