Drilling down on: at Sporting Kansas City 1, LA Galaxy 0

Man of the match: Kei Kamara was again a handful, but in a match where Kansas City had 60 percent of the possession and out-passed LA 474-309 (with 77 percent accuracy), Roger Espinoza deserves a nod. Against an LA defense that was too willing to sit back, Espinoza made sure Kansas City’s play kept moving, switching the attack from his deep-lying role. When not in possession, Espinoza make it an easy day for central defenders Matt Besler and Aurelien Collin. Matched against a midfield missing David Beckham, the match was there to be controlled by Espinoza. He took advantage.

Packaged for takeaway:

• Juninho and Michael Stephens didn’t do much to challenge Espinoza. This match may go down as a learning experience for the young Brazilian. When he fully matures, this is the type of game where he’ll be expected to assert himself as the best player in the middle of the park. Today, he let Espinoza do so.
• The lack of quality in the Galaxy side was obvious from the get-go. The team had nobody in the middle with the skill on the ball to deal with a hard-working, pressing Kansas City team. Conversely, when LA tried to rush Sporting, KC was able to easily get the ball into the final third.
• LA was clearly missed David Beckham, but Landon Donovan also didn’t look 100 percent healthy. When Edson Buddle passed a ball wide mid-way through the first, it looked as if Donovan was unable to stretch a leg out to play it. With Donovan coing back from an injured quadriceps, the play made you wonder if Bruce Arena was just out of options. Later in the half, a pass forward from KC that could have been intercepted was allowed to reach its target, Donovan seemingly unable to reach for the ball.
• Buddle also looked hampered. Color commentator Taylor Twellman, when the LA forward was taken off in the second half, mentioned Buddle had received treatment for something Friday during practice. If Buddle is injured, that would explain why he looked so out-of-sync on Saturday.
• LA’s defense only allowed one goal, but they didn’t inspire a lot of confidence. On dead balls – a place where Kansas City seemed to deliberately try to exploit a perceived advantage – LA was fine, Josh Saunders making a couple of confident decisions to help A.J. DeLaGarza and Tommy Meyer; however, you got the feeling that had Kansas City pressed the physical advantages they had with Kei Kamara and C.J. Sapong, LA would have given up more than one.
• And in that sense, this match was more about what LA didn’t do than what KC did. Go down the team sheet for Sporting, and there were only a couple of players who had above average days. LA, however, looked like a limited, injured, tired team at the end of a long season. Too bad it’s only April.
• Bobby Convey had a nice assist on the only goal, but again he didn’t have much of a presence for Kansas City and was the first player subbed off. Still, the contribution on Kamara’s goal hints better days may be ahead. While it’s still unclear if he’s a good fit, a 5-0-0 Kansas City has time to figure it out.
• Credit to Taylor Twellman for his contributions when Todd Dunivant went to ground in the first half, the Los Angeles left back having gotten the worst of a head-to-head collision with Kei Kamara. Twellman, who had his All-Star caliber career cut short because of concussion-related problems, offered that the trainers needed to get Dunivant off the field so he could be assessed before being allowed to continue. Unfortunately, Dunivant was allowed to come straight back on after he made his way to the sidelines. Still, Twellman provided a reminder that head injuries need to be taken more seriously.
• And finally, here are the passing chalkboards for Espinoza and Juninho. Juninho’s passing percentage was much better, but look at the sure difference in activity rates:
  

  Espinoza	Juninho

  Espinoza’s 124 “events” (things Opta tracks) was 20 more than any other player.