After a weekend off from play, FC Dallas returns to action Saturday night when they take on rivals Sporting Kansas City in a big must-win match to kick off the month of June.
Chad Smith of KC Soccer Journal helps preview Sporting ahead of Saturday's return match between the two clubs. Be sure to give Chad and the gang at KC Soccer Journal a follow.
Injury report
Last weekend, Sporting KC were missing six players, likely the most they’ve had out since the beginning of the season. And even players, like the aforementioned Davis, are back but not fully available. The team’s likely third highest paid player Nemanja Radoja hasn’t played a game in a month with a quad injury, and that was only a 12 minute sub appearance. Erik Thommy popped up injured last week with a groin injury and his status is unknown. Dany Rosero returned from injury just to immediately go down again with an ankle injury. And Robert Voloder is definitely out after clavicle surgery.
Recent Form
The team has been very up and down in recent weeks. They pulled off only their second road win two weeks ago in Houston before heading to Los Angeles and losing 3-1. Before that, it was a run of three straight draws. The preceding seven games were alternating wins and losses. The team that lost 2-1 in Dallas earlier this year has improved greatly after the firing of Peter Vermes and the instillation of Kerry Zavagnin as interim coach.
Projected Starting Lineup/Formation
4-3-3: Pulskamp, Shelton, Miller, Fernandez, Ndenbe, Bartlett, Bassong, Garcia, Suleymanov, Joveljic, Salloi
There are some questions around this lineup for sure. Jake Davis just returned from injury and only played 30 minutes last week, but he could supplant Zorhan Bassong. And right back has been a perpetual rotation between Khiry Shelton and Andrew Brody.
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Key players to watch out for
As is the case with most teams in MLS, you need to watch the Designated Players. The team only has two of them in Dejan Joveljic and Manu Garcia. Joveljic is a known quantity in MLS and has scored 10 goals in 17 games after arriving as the first cash transfer in MLS from the LA Galaxy. Feeding much of that success is Spanish #10, Garcia. His numbers don’t leap off the page (two goals, five assists), but he makes the offense hum. If he’s in form, everyone else has a chance of being elevated.
One thing Sporting does better than anyone else in MLS
Right now, I’m not sure there is anything Sporting KC does better than anyone else. Instead, I’ll go to something they are second best at, behind only Inter Miami, which should count at first because of Lionel Messi.
Sporting KC are 2nd in the league in goals minus expected goals (G-xG) and the non-penalty version of that stat. They are +7.4 and +7.5 respectively. That does mean they are vastly outperforming the number of goals they should have scored. They do have the 2nd lowest xG in the league, so we’ll see if they regress to the mean.
