Sporting KC
Sporting Kansas City at Vancouver Whitecaps Match Thread
Sporting KC have struggled in the past few matches as they welcome the Vancouver Whitecaps to Children’s Mercy Park
Sporting Kansas City vs Vancouver Whitecaps
Time: 7:30 pm CST
Location: Children’s Mercy Park, Kansas City, Kansas
How to Watch: Apple TV MLS Live
Commentators: English: Christian Miles, Ricky Lopez-Espin
Line: Sporting KC -130, Vancouver Whitecaps +290, Draw +270
Referee:Â Malik Badawi
The Teams
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Sporting Kansas City
5-10-6, 21 points
11th in the West
Head Coach: Peter Vermes (15th season)
Last 5: D-W-L-D-L
Injury Report: OUT: Tim Melia (quad), OUT: Kortne Ford (Achilles surgery), OUT: Graham Zusi (hamstring), OUT: Willy Agada (tibia stress fracture), QUESTIONABLE: Kayden Pierre (hamstring), QUESTIONABLE: Logan Ndenbe (hamstring)
Vancouver Whitecaps
6-5-7, 25 points
9th in the West
Head Coach:Â Vanni Sartini (3rd season)
Last 5: L-W-D-D-W
Injury Report: OUT: Russell Teibert (left knee pain), OUT: Tristan Blackmon (right heel contusion), OUT: Javain Brown (international duty), OUT: Julian Gressel (international duty), OUT: Ali Ahmed (international duty), QUESTIONABLE: Brian White (hip strain)
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Kinda starting and Thommy on the bench. Why can’t we have them together? My money says Thommy comes on jn the 70th for Kinda, gold ole’ like for like sub.
Peter basically said there are many reasons for the various lineups he’s using in the midfield.
I don’t mind Remi out there to do the dirty work (at least the running and intercepting, he’s not the hardest of tacklers). Then Kinda or Thommy as the creative one with a spark available on the bench. I’m not sure how creative Thommy is, but he does lead the team in assists IIRC.
I’d drop Remi back to the 6 if it meant Kinda and Thommy being on together. If our midfield isn’t threatening (which it tends to be unless everything is clicking), we’re extremely predictable. We’ve hardly seen Kinda and Thommy together but when they’ve been out there together, we’ve been fun to watch.
Unpopular opinion, but I’d rather see Thommy on the wing and have PV go to Hernandez or even Espinoza if he needs to go to his bench. That would be one way to get the two of them on the field at the same time — plus, JFR doesn’t seem to be in good form right now.
I don’t disagree, I’d take that too. Our midfield doesn’t have enough creativity, technicality, or bite right now. We’ve got a little bit of each, but the lineup Vermes puts out there isn’t focused enough on accomplishing anything specific, it’s just….generic
Thommy looked better there than Russell and Shelton have all season.
Do we think Pulskamp deserves a start?
Salloi makes a run to be through, gets the ball and then slows down and turns it over. Drive to the goal, slow it down… just don’t waste it.
Noticed this too.
So far, this is looking just like the Chicago game….
Too far out for that shooting angle to work.
I don’t get the starting 11. Russell isn’t ready, which places higher burden on pulido/kinda/salloi, 2 of the 3 aren’t 90 fit to be honest. So we bench our player with the most assists? If vermes likes to go with hot players, we had the most wins without Russell on the field.
A run down the middle creates a goal. Who would have thought
Great movement from pulido to draw the defender. Great look from kinda to go forward. Even better from kinda to drive to goal and look for the run from Walter. And of course, solid finish.
That wasn’t hard, drive to goal to score. And we almost just did it again.
Stop the horseshoe of death by passing around without movement.
Happy to see remi finally get one. Hopefully that gets him going for the rest of the season
He deserves so much more than this season has given him.
Great goal! Totally agree with the Apple TV analyst — Pulido gets an invisible assist for his movement on that one.
I dig that Jacob Peterson has been more pointed in his commentary this season. With Nate, he was more rah rah cheerleader. Whereas with aly, he’s more pointed in his commentary and is more apt to say something isn’t good enough or call out play.
Just don’t take your foot off the gas… get the second goal before half.
That was pure magic from Kinda…
I don’t get the tactics. Defense hasn’t been great, so we are going to park the bus and rely on the defense. We are going to play off the counter, yet we don’t have the players to play off the counter including a guy coming off an injury on the wing that is already walking around and it’s not half time. Our goalie gets a head injury, gets his head wrapped that he constantly has to adjust out of his eye but he’s still out there.
I get not wanting to burn the window/sub. But I’d argue McIntosh shouldn’t even be out there to begin with, he doesn’t instill any confidence. Nothing looks routine, nothing is an easy save. Everything looks like he’s a below average goalie that has to give everything he has on everything coming his way. Game is screaming for speed, yet tzionis sits on the bench. If not speed, you need someone to break down the defense, yet thommy sits.
And as soon as I went to hit submit, Johnny missed a shot he would absolutely sink if he was in form.
Johnny is not ready.
Great idea with Tzionis. I would have enjoyed seeing him in. Thankfully we’re up 2 in spite of the questionable tactics.
That needs to be buried. Too many wasted chances…. as I type it liebold and pulido fix that.
There we go. That’s hugest right before the half
*huge
I like hugest
God I love thommy.
Is that really a yellow? Did Thommy even touch him?
Thommy did get ball first, and it was his first foul…. but the follow though wiped the guy out and the game was escalating. I won’t argue that yellow as it falls under reckless and potentially dangerous without intent. Honestly yellows could have been shown prior to 10 minutes in
Oh and he tackled with both feet.
Honest question, does Erik thommy smile? The ball slipping out of his hands 3 times was the closest I have seen to it.
Salloi finally goes down, but doesn’t get a PK. It’s a lose-lose for him no matter what he does
I mean there wasn’t anything there to justify him going down other than his touch
He got shoved. It was light, but in all technicality it could have been called.
The fact is that when he pushes through other fouls, he doesn’t get a call. When he goes down, he doesn’t get the call.
He was leaning from his poor touch and the ball being behind him. Then on contact he goes down. I didn’t see anything like a shove that indicated a foul. Contact? Yes. Shove? Nah. At least nothing that is foul worthy.
Salloi, you aren’t getting a penalty because you muffed your first touch.
But also, great defensive work and following the runner.
Thommy and pulido understand: you cannot rest. Bury them while you can. Do not stop attacking and give them a chance.
Why can’t Hernandez see the field…ever?
Shelton hasn’t shared his blackmail with him.
Lol yes davis, that deserves a yellow. You can’t do that.
And here we go with the wave. That stupid thing needs to die
The first 30 minutes were awful, but the rest of the game left little to complain about. Maybe this win will be a mini-slump buster.
If they can just get Johnny going, they will be dangerous game in and game out.