SPORTING KANSAS CITY Sporting Kansas City stretched their undefeated streak to five games, reaching a scoreless draw with Seattle Sounders FC on Saturday evening at CenturyLink Field. Sporting are in a tie for fourth place in the Western Conference with 18 points from 12 matches. LAST MATCH The closest opportunity for either team came in stoppage time when Seattle goalkeeper Stefan Frei was forced to make a diving save to deny Kansas City’s Benny Feilhaber. Frei was credited with three saves in keeping the clean sheet, while Sporting goalkeeper Tim Melia recorded two saves. SKC manager Peter Vermes made two changes to the team that rolled to a 4-2 win against the New England Revolution at Sporting Park. Servando Carrasco and Jimmy Medranda came into the side, replacing Paulo Nagamura and Dom Dwyer. SPORTING KANSAS CITY (4-2-3-1): Tim Melia - Jalil Anibaba, Kevin Ellis, Matt Besler, Amadou Dia Servando Carrasco (Graham Zusi 77), Benny Feilhaber - Jimmy Medranda (Saad Abdul-Salaam 58), Soni Mustivar, Jacob Peterson (Connor Hallisey 56) - Krisztian Nemeth. TEAM NEWS Sporting extended their undefeated streak with their third draw over the last five matches, their last loss coming April 18. All three draws have come in away matches; Sporting have won nine of their last 10 matches. “To come in here and to make as many changes as we’ve had, the number of injuries that we’ve had … at that point, we had 16 players on the roster,” said SKC manager Peter Vermes. “We ended the game with three firstround draft picks from this year, two foreign players that we brought in and another two players that we brought in from there as well. So a lot of changes for our group and it was a tremendous point for us, that’s for sure.” After having started each of the first 11 matches, Dom Dwyer was unable to post after suffering an injury in prematch warmups. “If anything, it’s more precautionary than anything else. He was feeling something and it was better that he pulled himself out. We needed him and it would’ve been great if he’d have been on the field, but at the end of the day, I’m big on that you make those decisions,” said Vermes. “Sometimes you might have to sacrifice one game for 10. You have to be intelligent about it. It was a mature decision on his part.” Jimmy Medranda made his first appearance since April 5, coming into a wide midfield role, as Krisztian Nemeth took the spot as the lone out-and-out striker. Servando Carrasco made his first start since April 25, coming into a deep-lying midfield position. Graham Zusi was also able to make an appearance, coming off the substitutes’ bench for the final 13 minutes in place of Carrasco, after missing one match through concussion-like symptoms. “I'm glad that Zusi only had to go 15 minutes,” Vermes said. “I thought that was good. I really didn't want him to have to play anymore. We tried to have him not play at all, but unfortunately, with the other guys dropping out, it was something we decided we kind of had to do. He said he was ready to go.” Rookies Saad Abdul-Salaam made his second consecutive substitute appearance, and Connor Hallisey came off the bench for a third consecutive match. The club’s third first-round SuperDraft pick, Amadou Dia, started his second consecutive match at left back. “They listened very well,” Vermes said. “Those guys are incredibly coachable. They all have really good instincts on the field, and once again they were really good for us. It's great to see. It's great to see those guys getting the kind of time they are, and more importantly, the performances they're putting in.” Said Benny Feilhaber: “We got every single one of our rookies in there and they played an intricate part with the result. Everyone picked up the tactics which is very important and sometimes not so easy. A lot of good things were in this game and there are also obviously always things we can improve on. I think that will come with not only more time with everybody but also with some of our other guys coming back. We are missing a lot of players right now and that is to be expected. On Wednesday, Sporting announced they have mutually agreed to part ways with goalkeeper Luis Marin due to personal considerations. Marin started SKC’s first eight matches has not featured since allowing four goals in the 4-4 draw at Houston on April 25. Sporting also recalled Homegrown goalkeeper Jon Kempin from his loan to the NASL’s San Antonio Scorpions.
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