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PREVIEW: Sporting KC hosts Houston Dynamo looking for first regular season win since March

Theo

When: Saturday May 11 at 7:30 p.m.
Where: Children’s Mercy Park
How to watch: MLS Season Pass

Face-to-face:

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SKC: 2W-4L-5D
HOUS: 4W-4L-4D

Last result
SKC: 2-1 victory at Union Omaha (US Open Cup)
HOUS: 3-3 loss (penalties) against Detroit City FC (US Open Cup)

PREVIEW:

Sporting Kansas City returns home after a midweek trip to north Omaha that ended with a dramatic 2-1 overtime victory to advance to the round of 16 of the US Open Cup. Peter Vermes’ men welcome Houston Dynamo, who sit two places above the Western Conference.

Kansas City hasn’t won all three points in a regular season match since beating Toronto FC 3-1 on the road on March 3o, and they will look to reposition themselves in the playoffs and turn things around.

Regarding SKC’s injuries:

Questionable
Dany Rosero – Quad
Rémi Walter – Knee

Out
Logan Ndenbe – ACL
Kayden Stone – Ankle

And for Houston:

Questionable
Franco Escobar – Lower body

Out
Sebastian Ferreira – Lower body
Nelson Quinones – Knee

Kayden Pierre will be out after gaining minutes in recent games, but in all likelihood, guard duo Tim Leibold and Jake Davis will be back on the field.

The two teams met to open the 2024 season at Shell Energy Stadium on February 24. It ended in a 1-1 draw with goals from Erik Thommy and Gabriel Segal.

To this point, neither team has shown the same potential as the two teams that met in the conference semifinals in 2023. Houston, which was among the highest scoring teams in the West in 2023, n managed to find the net on only 9 occasions. during the first 10 games of the season. In the regular season, Houston is on a three-game scoreless streak, including two at home.

And as if the scoring woes weren’t enough, Houston was eliminated by USL Championship team Detroit City FC in the US Open Cup, where they tied 3-3 after 120 minutes and lost the shoot to the net. It’s safe to say the team is in a rut.

And even though the last few regular season clashes have gone Sporting’s way, there’s something about this rivalry that always brings out the best in both clubs. This might be the type of play they need to turn their season around before it’s too late.

Sporting is tied for sixth with 18 goals scored this season, but is tied for fourth in goals allowed (19). To add to that, SKC led three of their last five regular season games, but only picked up two points in that span.

Distribution: Sporting Kansas City too methodical?

But that is all in the past. I like to think that scoring in the 120th minute against a USL League One team in the US Open Cup to advance with many starters playing significant minutes is a wake-up call the team needed.

The offensive formation failed to impress by its own standards. Thommy leads the team in scoring (4) ahead of Alan Pulido (3) and Willy Agada (3). Johnny Russell has yet to find the back of the net and Daniel Salloi has scored once (sort of, FOTMOB called it an own goal).

This is a much better situation compared to Houston currently led by Ibrahim Aliyu (3), while no other scorer on the squad has scored more than one goal.

But after last season’s turnaround, it’s clear that Sporting have the talent to make a run and what better time to start the run than against these guys in orange.

A rivalry is a rivalry and even though the season opener was the official conference semifinal rematch, this game will feel like a continuation. The body language of both sides is different when they are on the field together.

Prediction:

I usually like to do reverse psychology and predict that we will lose in the hope that my negative energy will actually evoke a victory, but I am actually convinced that Sporting will pull out a victory in an important match. It might not be the biggest game of the season, but it could be one of those games that we look back on in October and look back on as a moment when the season changed.

Kansas City wins 2-0.

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