The 10 straight away match “Odyssey” for Sporting Kansas City has turned from a manageable challenge to a complete nightmare. They will look to right the ship as they visit Thierry Henry and the New York Red Bulls on Saturday. After early season struggles with converting their chances and goal scoring opportunities, New York has won their last 2 matches, outscoring their opponents 7-0.
Sporting KC received a little bit of good news this week as Aurelien Collin’s red card from last week was rescinded and Collin will be available for this weekend’s match. As it turns out, the offense that Colin received the red card for was actually committed by Birahim Diop. No word on if Diop will serve any suspension. The backline will also be bolstered by the return of Julio Cesar from red card suspension.
Those returns are really good news for Sporting as they will have their hands full with all the attacking options of New York (Thierry Henry, Juan Agudelo, Dane Richards, Dwayne DeRosario, and Luke Rodgers). This will mean that every defender will be needed at the top of their game on Saturday.
This is a very rare week where Sporting will look to have very minimal changes to lineup as they will have Jimmy Nielson as starting Goalkeeper. They will also have Michael Harrington on the right side of back line. Collin and Matt Besler will more than likely start at central defender. Once again, Roger Espinoza will start at the left fullback position.
In the midfield I would expect to see Davy Arnaud and Milos Stojcev starting; making sure to push the ball up top and connect with forwards. I would expect to see Birahim Diop benched, if not suspended, for the incident last week and poor run of form. I think it is much more likely to see Stephane Auvray or Craig Rocastle starting and playing a more defensive role than what Diop plays.
Up top should remain unchanged, from the last few weeks. Omar Bravo is still recovering from surgery and will still miss a few more weeks. This leaves the combination of Teal Bunbury, C.J. Sapong, and Kei Kamara as the forwards. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Ryan Smith starting on the bench again after making a return last week and playing a few late minutes.
Overall Sporting need a result soon. They have lost 3 out of the last 4 and are sinking fast. Unfortunately, they are playing the most difficult part of their schedule here with road trips to New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Colorado in successive weeks. They play arguably four of the five best teams in MLS in a row, all on the road, and need at least 4 points if they want to be in good position to make the playoffs. Their incredibly poor run of form recently is the reason they are in this position.
(image courtesy of Getty Images)
