Sunday, September 04, 2011

Monday Night Soccer

Kansas City gets to step onto the field and get the Dallas game out of their minds tomorrow when they take on the LA Galaxy. The Galaxy come into this week not having played a game since August 25th due to Hurricane Irene. They'll be without their newest designated player, Robbie Keane who returned to Europe for Ireland's Euro qualifiers during this international break. They will have Landon Donovan who traveled with the team to Kansas City after playing for the United States on Friday vs Costa Rica. The Galaxy have one of the best road records 6-3-4, almost as good as KC's 6-2-4 record at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park.

With this game being moved from the middle of August, it at least gives KC an earlier opportunity to forget about the Dallas game last week. Aurelien Collin could be back in the starting lineup after making a substitute appearance against Dallas. The big thing that KC will have to deal with tomorrow is the absence of Kei Kamara due to international duty and Teal Bunbury due to his red card he picked up against Dallas. Replacing them up top will be a challenge, the team could put Graham Zusi, Soony Saad, or even Chance Myers in one of the forward positions, while Omar Bravo fills the other, as long as Jeferson is ready to return to the lineup.

Nielsen
Harrington - Collin - Besler - Sinovic
Jeferson - Espinoza - Zusi
Myers - Sapong - Bravo

Number to Remember - 6 - That's the number of home wins KC has this season, it's also the number of road wins that LA has this year.

Key Match Up - Seth Sinovic vs David Beckham - If Beckham plays out on the right wing for LA as he did during the first game in LA, Sinovic is going to have his hands full dealing with the former English international. Roger Espinoza did in the first leg, hopefully Sinovic's good form continues.

PREDICTION - LA has the best defense in the league, and KC is going to be without two of their top 3 scorers. This is going to be a difficult game for KC to get the best of. KC is going to need CJ Sapong to break out of his recent slump and cause problems for Omar Gonzalez for KC for KC to be successful. The Galaxy are going to come at KC's defense mainly through Landon Donovan and Beckham, it's going to be a major challenge for the wingbacks. I think the large crowd expected tomorrow could help KC in the end though, but not enough to get the win.

SKC - 1 (Bravo)
LA - 1 (Donovan)

4 comments:

Nathan Martin said...

Our wing positions are real thin beyond Bravo and Kamara.

I am curious to see if Soony Saad moves out right for this game and/or in the future.

Especially since both the center forward position (Sapong, Bunbury) and the he attacking mid spot (Jeferson, Peterson) seem close to capacity going forward.

sickboy1965 said...

The Ireland match hadn't dawned on me..was looking forward to seeing Keane. Guessing Donovan will only play one half. Would like to see Saad score late winner! Go Blue!

Anonymous said...

don't let becks hear you say "former". if it were up to him he'd play in brazil 2014.

hartley said...

I am thinking Myers starts at right back while Arnaud gets the start at right forward. And if Jeferson doesn't start, then Joseph might get the start — pushing Zusi up in the middle.

Bring Harrington on for Myers after 60+. And Joseph if Jeferson starts. Then maybe Saad for Davy.

No matter the lineup, I am seeing this as a loss or tie at best.