Sporting Kansas City's C.J. Sapong, left, plays the ball past Vancouver Whitecaps' Jonathan Leathers during the first half of an MLS soccer game in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Saturday, April 2, 2011.

In soccer, the most vulnerable moments are the five minutes following a goal. For Sporting KC Saturday, it was 61 seconds. (Check out video highlights here)

That’s how long it took for the team to go from a solid 3-1 victory and three valuable points to a shocking loss and only one.

Teal Bunbury, who scored two goals in the game, summed it up nicely:

“It was disappointing — bottom line. We shouldn’t have let them back in the game.”

It’s true. Sporting KC should have put that game out of reach. The team should have had more players behind the ball in those final five minutes. That’s not to say everyone should have packed the box. In late game situations teams still need someone up top to control clearances. Whenever one of my teams played with a lead in the final minutes, we sent the ball to the corner and had a player essentially sit on it. The result was either a throw in, corner kick or goal kick — all great time wasters.

Sporting Kansas City's C.J. Sapong, left, plays the ball past Vancouver Whitecaps' Jonathan Leathers during the first half of an MLS soccer game in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Saturday, April 2, 2011.

Sporting KC had opportunities to hold the ball deep and let them go. There were several crosses played out of bounds and a few needless fouls committed. Watching those final seconds though, the major mistakes were made on the defensive end.

Vancouver defender Jonathan Leathers commented after the game that a lot of teams, when faced with a 3-0 deficit, would have given up. In Saturday’s case, it was the team with the 3-0 lead.

Vancouver Whitecaps' Terry Dunfield, bottom, tackles Sporting Kansas City's Milos Stojcev, top right, as Vancouver's Gershon Koffie, left, looks on during the first half of an MLS soccer game in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Saturday, April 2, 2011.

On Vancouver’s first stoppage time goal, 22-year-old C.J. Sapong was caught napping on his mark, who got in behind the defense. Then defender Matt Besler was slow getting over to apply pressure to the Whitecaps player, who had far too much time to pick out a streaking teammate for an easy tap-in goal.

It’s hard to say whether it was tired legs that made the defense so easy to get by in those final minutes.

On the second goal, which came just a minute later, defense was also the culprit. A missed clearance allowed Vancouver to gather the ball and send it into the box. The missed header and subsequent poor communication between two KC players could have been the worst part of the sequence, but on review of the cross, marking inside the box takes the cake. There are three defenders and three attacking players, but only two of the attackers were marked, and loosely. The goal scorer had a defender behind him instead of between the player and the goal. Another Whitecaps player was wide open on the far post.

The finishes still had to be there and the defensive lapses at the end of the game don’t take away from the work the offense did. Bunbury was efficient and productive. Kei Kamara did a fantastic job of holding the ball in the opponent’s offensive third. For a team missing its leading scorer, Sporting KC certainly didn’t play like it. A few tweaks on the defensive end and a few more games to establish a cohesive lineup and KC should be very dangerous going forward.

Vancouver Whitecaps' Jay Nolly lies on the field after allowing a goal by Sporting Kansas City's Teal Bunbury during the first half of an MLS soccer game in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Saturday, April 2, 2011.

They’ll have a few days to recover before taking on Houston Dynamo in a U.S. Open Cup match Wednesday. Regular season action resumes April 16.

Let’s hope this latest result doesn’t come back to haunt them come season’s end.