Sporting Kansas City look to get their first win in Livestrong Sporting Park when they take on the San Jose Earthquakes on Friday night (7:30 PM central time, Fox Soccer Channel). They will also look to get their second win a row; a season first. Also, a season first; a 5 match unbeaten run in league play is on the line.
Sporting Kansas City got a scoreless draw against rival Chicago in their stadium’s inaugural match. A few days later the stadium hosted the U.S. Men’s national team playing vs. Guadeloupe and Canada vs. Panama. This saw the first goal in the stadium’s history as Dwayne De Rosario scored a penalty for Canada. The United States was able to be the first team to win in the new stadium, after a Jozy Altidore first half goal gave them a 1-0 win over Guadeloupe.
Sporting will look to get a similar result vs. San Jose who is entering this match with 4 wins in their last 5 matches. This match pits two teams who have under preformed so far this season but are starting to get a good string of results.
Sporting will look towards Jimmy Nielson to start in goal. Jimmy missed Sunday’s match vs. FC Dallas with a red card suspension. Although Peter Vermes has started to give backup goalkeeper Eric Kronberg more playing time, it’s possible that we might see Kronberg get the starting nod instead.
On the backline, the starting combination of Chance Myers on the right, Matt Besler & Aurelien Collin in the center with Michael Harrington on the left, has worked well recently and will probably be the starters until Roger Espinoza gets back from the Gold Cup. In the midfield we should see the combination of Davy Arnaud, Graham Zusi, and the return of Stephane Auvray from the Gold Cup.
At forward, I think that C.J. Sapong, Ryan Smith and Kei Kamara will get the starts. This will have Omar Bravo, designated player, starting off the bench, after suffering an injury in the opener. Also starting from the bench should be out of form USA international Teal Bunbury who has started to slump in his sophomore season.
Overall, I think that it will be a very competitive match as both teams are starting to heat up.
PREDICTION Sporting KC 1: San Jose 2
(image courtesy of sportingkc.com)
