Sporting Kansas City vs Seattle Sounders

When: Saturday, June 8 at 7:30 p.m.
Where: Children’s Mercy Park
How to Watch: MLS Season Pass

Head-to-Head:

Record
SKC: 2W-9L-5D
SEA: 4W-6L-6D

Last Result
SKC: 3-1 Loss at Minnesota United
SEA: 1-1 Draw vs Real Salt Lake

PREVIEW:

Peter Vermes and Sporting Kansas City return home to host Brian Schmetzer and the Seattle Sounders in search of the club’s first win since March.

SKC are coming off a 3-1 defeat to Minnesota United at Allianz Field where the Loons got out to a 3-0 lead before Johnny Russell’s solo effort from distance saved them from a shutout.

The match was the second game in a row when Vermes decided to switch of up the lineup and put a majority of the typical starters on the bench allowing some younger players to earn valuable minutes.

Unlike the prior match against Whitecaps, Sporting’s alternate lineup got off to a slow start, but once again, the introduction of the starters in the second half did very little to mount a comeback.

On the flip side, Seattle are coming off a 1-1 draw against top-of-the-table Real Salt Lake. If not for a 99th minute equalizer from RSL, the Sounders would have earned all three points.

The Sounders have only lost one of their last seven regular season matches and although they currently sit outside of the playoff picture, they are only three points behind Cascadia Cup rivals Portland Timbers in the No. 9 spot.

The Sounders aren’t exactly “on fire”, but it’s safe to say that momentum is heavily leaning in Seattle’s favor for this matchup. But if you believe in coincidence, last season, Sporting broke their 10-game winless streak at the start of the season in a match against Seattle.

As far as injuries go, Erik Thommy returned to the training ground to end the week, but his status remains unknown. Remi Walter and Dany Rosero missed out on Friday’s practice, but Vermes said Rosero is fatigued, but could be available, according to Daniel Sperry.

The Sounders will be without Cameroonian left back Nouhou, who was called up for international duty, but other than that should be as close as possible to full strength.

It remains to be seen whether Vermes will send out his alternate lineup, the typical starting lineup or some sort of combination, but the fact of the matter is that if SKC want to even sniff a chance of the playoffs and get out of a battle for the Wooden Spoon with the New England Revolution; they need to start earning points.

Russell, Daniel Salloi and Alan Pulido account for six of Sporting’s 24 goals this season. The second unit of Willy Agada, Alenis Vargas and Marinos Tzionis/Stephen Afrifa account for five goals.

Sounders forward Raul Ruidiaz has seven on his own account.

It’s obvious that fans are not happy with the product on the field, and with the Blue Hell has only seen one victory at CMP so far this season, the criticism of the club is getting loud.

In a perfect world, Sporting gets back to their competitive ways and stop dropping points and hopefully, morale around Children’s Mercy Park will increase.

But until that happens, every week for the rest of the season is an opportunity for this club to show that it still has what it takes to compete in this league.