Sporting KC has been the top MLS team in the standings all season and the league’s only undefeated team at 7-0 coming into last night’s game against the Portland Timbers. With the Timbers in last place in the Western Conference at 1-4-1, there wasn’t much reason to suspect that Sporting’s streak would end. Unfortunately, it was Chance Myers’ own goal and Portland’s solid defense that gave the team their first loss of the MLS season.
Now at 7-1-0, Sporting KC hopes to bounce back from the let down, and Peter Vermes says the team isn’t down on their luck since they realize that they only beat themselves. They still remain as dominant as ever.
“It’s not like we didn’t have the right mentality, or our attitude was bad, or we did something poor in the game,” Vermes told MLSsoccer.com . “We didn’t have much against us. We went out on the road and took the match to them.”
As for Myers’ goal, Vermes said those are just things that happen sometimes and that the team has to perform well enough to move past such mistakes. However even with the loss, he said the team’s recent physical performance before their upcoming bye shows signs of toughness they will rely on later.
“Stuff happens sometimes,” Vermes said. “You’ve got to be able to dig out of it. You don’t want it to happen, but it does … Physically, for playing three games in eight days, we were good. That bodes some big-time dividends for us later in the season.”