Sporting KC
Sporting Kansas City vs. CD Guadalajara Match Thread
Sporting Kansas City needs a win over CD Guadalajara to advance in the Leagues Cup, and they need to do it without Alan Pulido
Sporting Kansas City vs. CD Guadalajara
Time: 9:00pm CST
Location: Children’s Mercy Park, Kansas City, Kansas
How to Watch: Apple TV MLS Live
Line: Sporting KC +160, Chivas +140, Draw +240
The Teams
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Sporting Kansas City
0-0-1, 1 point
Head Coach: Peter Vermes (15th season)
Scenario: Advances with win
Injury Report: OUT: Tim Melia (quad), OUT: Kortne Ford (Achilles surgery), OUT: Graham Zusi (hamstring), OUT: Felipe Hernandez (hamstring), OUT: Willy Agada (tibia stress fracture)
CD Guadalajara
0-1-0, 0 points
Head Coach: Veljko Paunovic (2nd season)
Scenario: Advances with win
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There are more Chivas fans here by far. How does this happen 🤦♂️
I mean…it’s a near once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see one of Mexico’s Big Four play. Chivas has a huge diaspora of fans. Whereas for local SKC fans it’s a late Monday night game in a disappointing season in a tournament not every has bought into as serious.
It would be ideal to have a packed house of SKC fans but really it’s not surprising that a major continental power with generational support draws attendance in a rare appearance in the States.
Honestly I was close to making the three-hour trip because it would be amazing to see a team like Chivas live, and I’m a hard-core SKC supporter. I know an SKC-supporting family making that trip for the same reason. There’s no way in hell I’d make that trip just to see this version of SKC play at 9 pm on a Monday if the opponent was, say, Chicago.
I don’t think it reflects poorly on SKC fans, if anything it reflects poorly on SKC management for their inability to put a more compelling team on the field this and last season. And to a certain extent on MLS for scheduling these matches to cater to Mexican TV audiences (though even then I understand why; MLS already has a huge built-in advantage to playing the entire tournament at home).
I’m all-in rooting for SKC tonight. But it doesn’t surprise or bother me that the Chivas diaspora is out in force. Cultural cross-pollination is one of the unique things about global soccer and I love it. Hopefully these Chivas folks have a good time, and if they’re local, they come back to CMP for other SKC matches.
You have a good point.
As an SKC fan at the game, I can’t argue with anything you’ve said, and that makes me sad as fan that’s seen SKC at the heights they used to be
With that said, the atmosphere Chivas fans are creating are getting me more pumped than Sporting has all season
Think about it this way: St. Louis has had an amazing inaugural season so far. Their stadium is packed and raucous and earning plaudits for its culture. Yet there were tons of Club America supporters there Thursday night, for many of the same reasons I pointed out above (Big Four club, huge diaspora, rare chance to see live, etc.).
It’s partly what MLS wanted out of this tournament: to more directly expose Liga MX fans in the US to MLS. And that’s what they’re getting, and that’s probably a good thing overall, however odd it can feel in the moment to see so many visiting fans in-house. There were certainly testy comments on CITY Reddit threads about the number of CA fans there, but I choose to see it as both inevitable and long-term good in both cases.
Selling these tickets paid for our remaining home games and this year has been really not fun having season tickets so I don’t blame anyone to recover some of their losses, especially so a Chivas fan can see their favorite team maybe once in their life
This. SKC fans don’t have a lot of reasons to show up tonight. Chivas fans probably don’t get to see their team play on American soil all that often, especially not in KC. Selling our tickets was an easy decision
I just noticed that this match is simulcast on FS1, and I’m going to be pissed if we get the long-delayed kickoff that tends to come with “national” matches. The start is late enough as it is, we don’t need 20 minutes of manufactured prematch drama.
I dig the banda in the cauldron
Geez even the Cauldron can’t fill out
I’m not a fan of Shelton at all, but come on, booing players before a game like this isn’t helping anyone.
Not a great look, but at the same time, I’d feel like booing the manager that started Shelton in a match this important, too. You really think that’s a better choice than Tzionis, or Afrifa, or half a dozen other options?
I don’t disagree, but this goes back to the conversation from a month or so ago about who the boos are aimed at vs who they’re received by
Yeah, I agree with that. It’s fair not to want our players to hear boos that are even perceived as directed at them personally. Boo PV when he’s introduced if you want to make that point.
I imagine it’s tough, as a player, to hear your own fans boo you and think “must be for the GM and not me.” I have no doubts that Khiry wants to play well and contribute to wins. It’s got to be demoralizing and tough to play for the badge when you get booed relentlessly.
Agree. I’m not a big Khiry fan (as a player. As a person he’s very nice), but it’s incredibly uncool to boo him onto the pitch.
So, no PK? That’s terrible. This is going to be one of those nights.
What’s with the weird delay in letting the medical staff come out?
Going to be one of these nights with refs
That’s so frustrating. Before VAR, they’d call that a penalty immediately, but now they let it play out instead and then we lose out.
Rosero getting his dumb pass out of the way
Come on gadi!!!!!! That’s got to go in!
How does Gadi not get that in?
Right as I finish that: GOAL!!!!!
Lack of finishing is going to bite us in the ass yet again, isn’t it…
You’re welcome for the reverse jinx
Blaring PA music in every break in play is a very bad precedent. It’s not SKC, it’s a Leagues Cup thing, but it should be stamped out.
Doing it to drown out any chance of the “chant” showing up
Had not thought of that. But the lack of in-game “entertainment” is one of the things I love about soccer, as compared to all other North American sports, and I hate to see it creeping in.
Agreed. I grew up playing baseball and I used to LOVE baseball. But I hate how the game is played now and I especially hate how people just go to baseball games to drink a bit and then futz around in the outfield entertainment areas. I went with some friends a couple years ago and I think they actually saw maybe 2 innings of the game.
The best course of action would be for the refs to finally postpone a game or have opposing team fans banned from the following match. Of course CONCACAF & Fifa will never actually do that
I don’t disagree. I wish CONCACAF and FIFA would actually get tough about it, but they won’t. I suppose this is probably the next best thing.
Leibold has quietly had a very good half.
He really has. Deserved a PK too
My biggest worry right now is a lackadaisical first 10 minutes of the 2nd half, and a 25 minute end of hald bunker that never works, ever. I really hope neither worry rear their heads tonight.
Let’s hope your reverse jinx works as well as mine.
Kinda and Thommy are combining well, but they’re trying to force it every time instead of taking a shot
Perfect pass by gadi. Johnny has to do more
It’s like the ball is glued to our foot tonight. We’ve kept possession in tight spaces more times tonight than we have all season.
What the heck was Shelton doing there? Such a perfect ball to put a head on, and he tries to being it down with his….shoulder?
Such a Shelton play. Tries to bring it down to his feet, with his back to the goal and two defenders on him. At least try to flick it on target.
For real. The far side of the goal was so open, a floating header could have made it in
SKC need to work on their quick release near the goal. Lots of chances gone to waste tonight due to too many touches. And, of course, not just tonight.
That being said, it’s impressive how dominant they’ve been overall. So far.
Wow, an actual sub with an upgrade in attacking quality. Hope that’s a sign they’re not going to try turtling for 20 minutes.
Sheesh, that’s quite a bit of blood. That sucks for Liebold
His nose is broken… bruh…
Just add on 90 more secs, that’s it
We pulled out a 1-0 win. Wow
Wow. One of the best performances of the season. Just absolutely dominant.
And adding to the fun, if Toluca avoids an outright loss against Colorado tonight, they’ll be our next opponent. Might earn another round of oles?
I only got to catch the last 30 minutes but SKC looked great. JFR picked the right time to get out of his goal drought. Excellent hit as well