Shared goals: Sapong and Nikolic focused on the bigger picture

There was a great moment during Saturday’s 4-0 rout of FC Dallas. CJ Sapong had loped forward to steal the ball and push it one side of the sprawling Dallas goalkeeper Jesse Gonzalez. As he continued his run into the box to apply the finish, Nemanja Nikolic was racing to the same spot, with all the predatory instincts of a natural poacher.

For a nanosecond it looked like the two might collide, like two fielders exclusively focused on the same dropping baseball — they’re strikers after all, and an open goal is a sight that can obscure the rest of the world. But in that next split second Nikolic raised his hands to clearly abandon his claim, and Sapong swept home for what would turn out to be…