Preview: Sporting KC hosts St. Louis City SC

Sporting KC Matchday 27

Who:  Sporting Kansas City (7-11-8, 26 pts) vs St. Louis City (15-9-2, 47 pts)

When: Saturday, Sept 2^nd, 2023 at 7:30 p.m. CT (7:39 kickoff)

Where: Children’s Mercy Park| Kansas City

Watch:  Apple TV

English Radio | Sports Radio 810 WHB

Spanish Radio | La Grande 1340 AM

Sporting Kansas City hosts St. Louis CITY SC on Saturday evening at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City. Sporting KC enters into the match sitting 11^th in the Western Conference and needing points.  Expansion side St. Louis has had a dream inaugural season and sits comfortably in first place.

St. Louis played last weekend with a 2-1 loss at Orlando but returned home to notch a 2-1 win over FC Dallas midweek. Dallas played a man down from the 12^th minute when their keeper received a red card and held St. Louis off for 70 minutes before conceding a goal. Coach Bradley Carnell rotated a number of players between the two matches so they should not have too many tired legs.

Sporting KC has had a week of rest since easily beating the San Jose Earthquakes 3-0 at Children’s Mercy Park last weekend. Coach Peter Vermes will not have to worry about tired legs. With key players Gadi Kinda and captain Johnny Russell listed as questionable he may need to switch up his optimal lineup as well.

“We didn’t have a good performance last time; they beat us up. I think everybody understands it’s a big game for us. Obviously, in so many ways, the rivalry, and the points for us because we have to get ourselves into a playoff spot,” Vermes told media this week.

Coach thoughts on the opponent:

When asked about St. Louis, Vermes responded, “They’ve committed themselves to building a team in which they wanted to play a certain way. I think they have been very good at it in regards to how they went about it to get results. Their guys are all committed. It’s great when you can build off of a new environment. Great facilities, fan support is there and they have taken advantage of it. It’s been excellent and great for the league”

History

There is not a lot of history with St. Louis being so new to professional soccer, but the short existence of the rivalry is not in Sporting KC’s favor. The only time these two teams have faced each other was back in May.

St. Louis had a hot start to their inaugural season while SKC’s had one of the worst in their long history in MLS. St. Louis was rested and fired up for the budding rivalry while Sporting KC had a lot of travel and hard fought points off of some traditional rivals.

SKC went down early in St, Louis when the home side was awarded a penalty and the motivated fans powered them on to a decisive 4-0 victory.

Availability:

Sporting Kansas City

OUT:

DEF – Kortne Ford (Achilles Surgery)

DEF – Kayden Pierre (Hamstring Injury

QUESTIONABLE:

DEF – Graham Zusi (Hamstring Injury)

MID – Gadi Kinda (Ankle Injury)

FWD – Stephen Afrifa (Hamstring Injury)

FWD – Johnny Russell (Ankle Injury)

Saint Louis
OUT:

Jake Nerwinski (suspension)

QUESTIONABLE:
Niko Gioacchini (shoulder)

Officials

Referee: Allen Chapman

Assistant ref: Jeffrey Swartzel

Assistant ref: Brooke Mayo

4th official: Jeremy Scheer

VAR: Geoff Gamble