Friday, July 29, 2011

A Game After a Week Off

It's been a while since Kansas City has had a mid-week off from a game. While Omar Bravo and Matt Besler had the All Star game the rest of the team probably didn't know exactly what to do with themselves with the week off. Coming out of the week KC plays the New England Revolution tomorrow at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park, continuing their long home stand. The Revolution will be playing their third road game in a row, they've gotten four points out of those two games, winning in DC and getting a draw against Colorado. The Revolution are currently tied for the fewest goals scored this season with Toronto, scoring 19.

For the Wizards, the coaching staff was definitely not happy with the amount of time that forward, Omar Bravo got in the All Star game. The Mexican played 80 minutes against Manchester United, when Peter Vermes was hoping he'd play no more than 45 minutes against the EPL champs. The other thing that KC is going to have to deal with, is the replacing central defender, Aurelien Collin who is out with his back injury. The favorite would seem to be Julio Cesar to drop back to central defense from his defensive midfield position to partner Besler. With Cesar dropping back the midfield spot opens up, and Vermes has a decision which way he wants to go. If he wants to go with a more offensive lineup he can send out Graham Zusi who subbed on for Cesar last week. Or if he wants a lineup similar to the one that started vs TFC he can put out Birahim Diop in a defensive position.

Nielsen
Myers - Cesar - Besler - Sinovic
Jeferson - Espinoza - Diop
Kamara - Sapong - Bravo

Number to Remember - 12 - The unbeaten run is at 12, tying a club record set in 2000 during the clubs MLS Cup run. Hopefully the run this year leads the team to more silverware.

Key Match Up - Roger Espinoza vs Sharlie Joseph - Joseph will likely be the advanced midfielder in New England's midfield tomorrow night, and shutting him down is going to be a hard task for KC and seems likely that it will fall to Roger Espinoza.

PREDICTION - This is a game that Kansas City should be able to win, New England isn't a great road team, 1-6-4 on the season, they only just last week against DC picked up their first away win of the season. KC has yet to lose at home themselves. KC should be able to take care of business, but this is MLS, where unbeaten runs can end in spectacular fashion. KC is going to have to stay focused on the game to get the result.

KC - 2 (Kamara, Sapong)
NE - 1 (Joseph)

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