Sporting KC Loses Penalty Kick Shootout to Portland Timbers After Goalie PKs and Insane Double Post Miss
By Jason Lisk
" Seriously. Dont think I’ve ever seen a pk shootout moment to top this #PORvSKC pic.twitter.com/K2Z1Q8OGRi — Ryan Catanese (@rcatanese) October 30, 2015 "
If you didn’t stay up or have access to the Sporting KC versus Portland Timbers playoff match, you missed one of the weirdest, wildest games of the year. Portland had a 1-0 lead when Sporting KC tied it in the 87th minute. Then, Sporting KC took a lead on a ridiculous angled shot in extra time by Krisztian Nemeth (below), and appeared to have the road victory, until Portland tied it with 3 minutes left in extra time.
That only set the stage for penalty kicks. Both teams had half of their first 6 shots saved or miss the target, including Kevin Ellis hitting one post for Sporting KC when a goal would have clinched it. That was just the beginning. In the 9th round of kicks, Sporting KC’s Saad Abdul-Salaam hit not one, but two posts before the ball kicked out, with a chance to win it after a Jon Kempin save on Portland’s effort on the previous shot.
In the end, it ended as it had to, after so much ridiculousness–with goalkeepers kicking. Portland’s Adam Larsen Kwarasey buried his shot, then saved Kempin’s effort to finally end it in the 11th round.