Sporting KC v New York Red Bulls: Preview, Injuries & Predictions

Sporting KC vs New York Red Bulls

When: Saturday, September 7th, 2024 at 6:30 PM CT (6:40 kickoff)

Where: Red Bull Arena

How to Watch/Stream: Apple MLS Season Pass

Things have been looking up lately for Sporting Kansas City. Most recently they beat Indy Eleven (USL Championship) to advance to the US Open Cup finals, where they’ll look to lift their record tying fifth trophy. They even won their last MLS game against Orlando City where they rolled out a unique lineup (though, I suppose most of them are unique because they’ve rarely repeated a starting XI this year).

If you go back until the end of June, when they defeated Austin FC 2-0, they are 7-4-1 in all competitions. A record, that if repeated over the course of the season, would be more than good enough to make them a playoff team.

The trouble is, literally all of those wins, except Orlando, are against teams below the playoff line (unless you include Indy, who are firmly in the USLC playoffs right now). It’s Austin, Dallas twice, San Jose, Chicago, Orlando and Indianapolis.

Looking back over the whole season, outside of the aforementioned win over Orlando, there are just two other wins against one of the 18 (!!) teams above the playoff line. Those are from June 8th when they defeated a 10-man Seattle Sounders team and Toronto FC on March 30th. Both teams are currently 8th in their respective conferences, a position that wouldn’t have been a playoff spot as recently as 2022.

On Saturday, Sporting KC will be looking for just their third road win of the season in their 14th attempt. All of this is to tell you what you already know. Making the playoffs is extremely unlikely. SKC would need to win the vast majority of their games or get extremely lucky with results above them.

The first impediment to that goal is the New York Red Bulls. RBNY are the “best of the rest” in the Eastern Conference behind powerhouses Inter Miami, FC Cincinnati and the Columbus Crew in 4th place. Sporting KC previously played the Red Bulls on a regular basis when they were in the East. The teams are a dead even 22-22-14 against one another. Kansas City have even won two of the last three road games there, but it’s stretched over so many seasons it is irrelevant. This KC team is not that KC team.

What’s new for the Red Bulls in 2024?

There has been a shift in New York. No, they haven’t abandoned their youth development setup, but they’ve finally padded their roster with some spending to push the team over the hump.

IN: The headliner is Designated Player Emil Forsberg. Already familiar with the system due to his time at RB Leipzig (Germany), he has made an immediate impact this year. The team also went added another DP in Felipe Carballo from Gremio (Brazil) in the summer window on loan. They added defender Noah Eile from Malmo (Sweden) who leads the team in minutes and U-22 forward Dennis Gjengaar, who’s mostly appeared as a sub.

OUT: Failed DP Luquinhas was transferred to Fortaleza (Brazil). Homegrown forward Tom Barlow was traded to the Fire. Successful midfielder Frankie Amaya was sold to Toluca (Mexico). And 18-year-old Bento Estrela was sold to CP Portugal at the end of the transfer window for an undisclosed fee. He was the fourth youngest player in league history when he was signed at 14 and he never made an MLS appearance, but was a contributor in MLS Next Pro. Overall, the team has moved on or loaned out 13 players since the end of last season.

Kansas City’s Form

• July 28th vs. Chicago Fire (Leagues Cup) – 2-1 Win
• August 5th vs. Toluca (Leagues Cup) – 1-2 Loss
• August 9th @ Columbus Crew (Leagues Cup) – 0-4 Loss
• August 24th vs. Orlando City – 3-0 Win
• August 27th vs. Indy Eleven (US Open) – 2-0 Win

RBNY’s Recent Form

• July 20th vs. FC Cincinnati – 3-1 Win
• July 27th vs. Toronto FC (Leagues Cup) – 0-0 Draw (PK loss)
• July 30th @ Pachuca (Leagues Cup) – 1-1 Draw (PK loss)
• August 24th @ Charlotte FC – 1-1 Draw
• August 31st vs. Philadelphia Union – 0-2 Loss

Injury/Availability Report

Official injury reports aren’t available until matchday minus one in the late afternoon/early evening, so here are last week’s report as we wait for today’s news (and two weeks ago for SKC). 

Sporting KC:

• OUT – Nemanja Radoja (groin), Felipe Hernandez (administrative leave), Stephen Afrifa (Int. Duty – Canada), Joaquin Fernandez (groin), William Agada (red card)
• QUESTIONABLE – Logan Ndenbe (hamstring)

Vermes on Radoja's injury: "He's gonna be out for a little while. His groin is not great. He's gonna be out for a while." #SportingKC

— KC Soccer Journal (@KCSoccerJournal) September 5, 2024

RBNY:

• OUT – Emil Forsberg (lower leg), Roald Mitchell (knee), Carlos Coronel (Int. Duty – Paraguay), Noah Eile (Int. Duty – Sweden), Lewis Morgan (Int. Duty – Scotland), Aidan Stokes (Int. Duty – USA U-17s)
• QUESTIONABLE -Wiki Carmona (thigh), Kyle Duncan (knee)

Suspensions

Sporting KC: William Agada (red card)

• Suspended Next Yellow: Nemanja Radoja, Jake Davis

RBNY: Sandro Schwarz (Technical Staff yellow card accumulation)

• Suspended Next Yellow: None

Stats

Sporting KC

Goals: Willy Agada (9), Erik Thommy (5), Alan Pulido, Johnny Russell (4), Stephen Afrifa, Jake Davis, Remi Walter (3), Dany Rosero, Alenis Vargas, Memo Rodriguez, Daniel Salloi (2), Nemanja Radoja, Robert Castellanos, Marinos Tzionis, Tim Leibold (1)

Assists: Rodriguez (6), Russell, Pulido (5), Radoja, Thommy (4), Salloi, Leibold, Davis (3), Agada, Khiry Shelton, Walter (2), Stephen Afrifa, Andreu Fontas, Robert Voloder, Zorhan Bassong, Kayden Pierre, Vargas (1)

RBNY

Goals: Lewis Morgan (12), Emil Forsberg, Elias Manoel (6), Cameron Harper (5), Wikelman Carmona (3), Dante Vanzier (2), seven with one (1)

Assists: Vanzier (9), Manoel, Morgan, Dylan Nealis (4), Frankie Amaya, Carmona, Noah Eile, Forsberg (3), Sean Nealis (2), six with one (1)

Predictions

At this point in Sporting KC’s season, the only focus is winning the US Open Cup. All eyes and efforts should be on September 25th in Los Angeles against LAFC. The team can’t abandon the games leading up to it, but the health of everyone should be paramount. Being in form wouldn’t be a bad idea, but with only playoff teams in the way (RBNY, Seattle, Colorado and Minnesota), running the table is not going to happen.

So, take care of the players. Keep developing some of the youth players. Keep trying out guys to see who is sticking around since a large roster upheaval has been hinted at in recent weeks.

RBNY are 7-1-5 at home. Winning there will be tough. With no William Agada due to suspension, the team will also almost be forced to start DP Alan Pulido who is having a very down year. The team did loan Alenis Vargas to SKC II last week and he played striker in a 4-0 win, but all signs point towards Pulido starting. That means the team likely needs to play a possession style that suits him better and won’t have the flexibility to give New York the ball (something they desperately don’t want to have) and counter over the top to Agada.

Anything can happen in MLS though.

PREDICTION: 2-1 Red Bulls Win