Sporting Kansas City vs FC Tulsa

When: Tuesday May 21 at 7:30pm

Where: Children’s Mercy Park

How to Watch: watch for free at mlssoccer.com

Record:

SKC: 2W-6L-5D (plus 1 Open Cup win)

FC Tulsa: 2W-3L-4D (plus 2 Open Cup wins)

Head-to-head: This will be the first time SKC and FC Tulsa face each other

Latest Results:

SKC: 

Regular Season: 2-3 loss at Austin FC

Open Cup: 2-1 Win at Union Omaha

FC Tulsa:

Regular Season: 0-5 loss at Tampa Bay Rowdies

Open Cup: 1-0 Win at Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC

SKC Chasing Cup History » https://t.co/cb5G61ddnn#USOC2024 | @SportingKC 🏆 pic.twitter.com/rjDUP1kjSV

— U.S. Open Cup (@opencup) May 20, 2024

Preview:

Current Play:

Sporting Kansas City return home on Tuesday for the Round of 16 in the US Open Cup. The team continues to struggle finding a victory with no regular season wins since March. The team currently sit 13th in the Western Conference standings, one point above the last place San Jose Earthquakes. The only semi plus side is that the team was able to find a way to win their first US Cup match this season with a 2-1 win in Omaha. However, that was not an easy win with the team having to go into extra time in order to walk away with the victory.

FC Tulsa plays in the USL Championship, the second division in the United States. They currently find themselves in 11th place of the USLC Western Conference standings, also one spot from the bottom. Tulsa lost a rough one this past weekend losing 5-0 against the Tampa Bay Rowdies. Prior to that loss though, FC Tulsa were undefeated in their previous four matches (2-0-2).

Goal Scoring:

Goal scoring for both teams has been spread out through the team. Erik Thommy is currently leading Sporting Kansas City’s Golden Boot race with four goals. Willy Agada and Alan Pulido both have three and Jake Davis, Dany Rosero and Remi Walter have two. Four other players have scored a goal each this season.

Tulsa also has spread their goal scoring out among several players. Stefan Stojanovic has three as does Phillip Goodrum. Boubacar Diallo and Milo Yousef each have two goals apiece and another four players have knocked in a goal each. Most of the goals appear to come from inside the box with 11 goals coming inside the box and only two outside.

Things to look for:

One interesting thing to be watching for from Sporting Kansas City is who is going to be on the field. The schedule for the team has become quite congested. The team played in Austin on Saturday. They play at home Tuesday and then in Portland Saturday and then have another midweek game next Wednesday before heading to Minnesota on June 1. That is a total of five games in a 14-day stretch. If the Union Omaha game is any precursor to what we will see from the team on Tuesday night you can expect to see rotation with several of the normal starting 11 on the bench to bring in some firepower in the second half.

Injuries:

Sporting KC: An injury report is not available for Tuesday as of the writing of this article. The injury report prior to the Austin match: Logan Ndenbe (knee) and Kayden Pierre (ankle) were both listed as out. Dany Rosero (quad) and Remi Walter (knee) were listed as questionable, but neither was in the 18 for the match.

It was reported on Monday that Peter Vermes does expect Dany Rosero to be available to play on Tuesday, but not Walter.

PV said Rosero should be available tomorrow but no Remi. #sportingkc

— Thad (@TheBackpost) May 20, 2024

Prediction:

Both teams are struggling at this point in their seasons and find themselves low in their league standings. It seems as though the quest for another cup for Sporting Kansas City will have to come in the shape of the US Open Cup as the MLS Cup, while not out of reach, seems like it will be a very difficult feat. Because of that, I think that Peter Vermes and Sporting Kansas City will do absolutely everything they can to win this tournament.

I know that every team that enters the tournament wants to win, especially with only eight MLS teams involved this year. FC Tulsa certainly want to win as well. They will look to be the winners of a Cupset. Two MLS team, the Houston Dynamo and Real Salt Lake, have already seen their Cup chances ended by a lower division team so it is entirely possible and not even that hard to believe that it could happen.

I do think that with the home field advantage and the higher quality players on the field that Sporting Kansas City will be able to take on FC Tulsa and come out with a win. I’m just hoping for a much more dominate performance than we saw against Union Omaha.

3-1 Sporting Kansas City win