Sporting Kansas City were where they wanted to be. They had fought through five years, for 34 regular season games to grab the top seed in the Western Conference playoffs. They had endured a slump here, an injury there, disrespect and doubt from pundits. They had gutted out a 1-1 draw on the road a week earlier in leg one of the series.
Then, finally at home, they had taken Sunday’s second leg by the neck with two sterling goals right up the gut of Real Salt Lake, their archrivals. Archrivals, who, on the day, were especially combative, chopping down midfield lynchpins Ilie Sanchez and, especially, Felipe Gutierrez over and over.