It didn’t go the way the ‘Caps needed it to tonight, and in truth, it wasn’t close. Marc Dos Santos begrudged their first half, opening his press conference saying “that I have to apologise to the fans for the first half. I think that’s where the game happened. It was very sloppy, lack of intensity, lack of willingness mentally... for a game that had so much importance for us.”
There were numerous early chances for Sporting, as Graham Zusi challenged Zac MacMath at his near post from a free kick. MacMath deflected that effort behind, but rather uncharacteristically, Ali Adnan’s duel with Gerso Fernandes kept going the way of the Guinean winger.