Friday, July 08, 2011

Busy Schedule Continues

Sporting KC continues their busy schedule tomorrow at 6:30 (notice the time) against Chivas USA. Chivas USA comes into the game on the backs of a 2-0 win on Wednesday night at the Home Depot Center against San Jose. The Goats got goals from Ben Zemanski and Nick LaBrocca to help them to the win. They have a win and a draw in their last two games. Former Wizard, Jimmy Conrad, who has missed much of the season with concussion related issues did travel to Kansas City and did help Chivas with training for the game. Conrad is still listed as doubtful on the injury report for the Goats but I know the guy is itching to get back on the field, not just in general but against KC. I know plenty of fans are excited to see Conrad return and disappointed that the former captain did not get an opportunity to be a Wizard when the stadium opened.

KC extended their unbeaten run to 11 games, the second longest in team history after their 1-1 draw with Colorado on Wednesday and will now look to tie the longest run in team history with a result against Chivas. KC will try to sweep the season series against Chivas having won the season opener 3-2 at the HDC. KC has another game this coming week in the US Open Cup so the question becomes whether there will be more squad rotation for KC. I'd expect CJ Sapong to return to the starting lineup and possibly also see Milos Stojcev return to the lineup.

Nielsen
Myers - Collin - Besler - Sinovic
Cesar - Zusi - Espinoza
Stojcev - Sapong - Bravo

Number to Remember - 10,000 - In all competitions in the entire history of MLS there have been 9,999 goals. Tomorrow KC and Chivas kickoff at the same time as DC vs New York. Whoever scores the first goal in those games will go down as the man that scored goal 10,000. KC does have a bit of history in this, as Teal Bunbury's father, Alex scored goal number 2,000 in league history. See the goal below.




Key Match Up - Roger Espinoza vs Nick LaBrocca - LaBrocca plays as a box to box midfielder mainly for Chivas and is currently their leading scorer. Espinoza has been playing well since coming back from Honduras and going up against LaBrocca will be a good match up for Espinoza.

PREDICTION - On paper this is a game that KC should be able to win, but it's also a game that could really sneak up on KC. With all the schedule congestion, I hope that KC can keep focused on this game and not look past it. And while I think Tuesday is the more important game at this point, it's still important to keep the good run of form. KC has the talent that they should be able to get the result tomorrow. Could this finally be the league game where KC actually wins a game by more than a goal? I'm not sure but if KC wants to really get into the playoffs they're going to have to score more goals at home (currently 4 goals in 4 league games).

SKC - 2 (Sapong, Bravo)
CUSA - 1 (Braun)

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