KANSAS CITY, Kan. – The punches just kept coming, and Sporting Kansas City just kept rolling with them, until it was time for them to get up and deliver a knockout combination.
There was the passing on Sunday of principal owner Neal Patterson, who was remembered in an emotional pregame tribute. There was the 10th-minute red card to left back Seth Sinovic, which left Sporting a man down for 86 minutes in Tuesday’s Lamar Hunt US Open Cup quarterfinal against FC Dallas.
And there was the scary sight of center back Ike Opara being stretchered off (though he managed to flash a thumbs-up to the fans on the way out) and taken to a hospital for observation after a bicycle kick to the head from Maxi Urruti – which earned Urruti a second yellow, the first of two ejections for Dallas in extra time.