By the time it ended, Sporting Kansas City’s scoring streak was the fifth-longest in Major League Soccer history, the type of achievement you’d want to see broken by an unstoppable strike, an act of uncommon will, or the proverbial moment of brilliance.
And when it comes to counterattacking, there’s not shortage of brilliance in LA Galaxy’s game. As San Jose found out in last year’s playoffs, the defending champions’ transition game is enough to see contenders out of the postseason.
It was one of those counters that ultimately saw Sporting’s streak halted at 546 minutes, with Marcelo Sarvas gifted an easy finish after the 109th assist of Landon Donovan’s career.
The video:
The goal, which put LA up 1-0, wasn’t without controversy. Talking to NBCSN’s Kyle Martino at halftime, Kansas City coach Peter Vermes was insistent that a Sarvas hand ball helped the Galaxy midfielder gain control after a midfield challenge from Oriol Rosell.
As Martino describes on the highlight, it’s not that simple. The video is inconclusive, and even if the ball did hit Sarvas’s hand, it’s not an obvious whistle. It’s one I’d like to see called, given the advantage Sarvas would have gained from the situation, but you can see the ball-to-handers speaking up.
It was only the fourth goal Kansas City has allowed this season, the first since conceded twice at Toronto on March 9. In between, the team kept five clean sheets, but on the road to the defending champions, Sporting saw their run for the record come up short.