KANSAS CITY, Mo. – With the sort of season Lee Nguyen is having, Sporting Kansas City could be excused for drawing up a game plan to deal specifically with the New England Revolution midfielder in their last meeting of the regular season.
But it's been philosophy as usual for Sporting this week, manager Peter Vermes said, as his club prepares for Friday night's big Eastern Conference match at Sporting Park (8 pm ET; NBCSN, live stream at NBCSports.com).
“We never focus in on one player,” Vermes told reporters on Thursday during the club's weekly news conference. “We just try to know the tendencies of the guys that we're playing against. It's really about us and the way we play, and if we do that, I think that we give ourselves the best chance of being successful based on the way that we go about our business.”
And the way Sporting go about their business, Vermes said, always involves a strong focus on controlling the middle of the park – no matter who they're playing.
“You've got to always win the midfield,” he said. “That's always an objective for, I think, every team that plays the game. Your midfield's got to be superior to the other team. But at the same time, we've got to be strong in other areas of the field as well.”
Even if new midfield cohort Jermaine Jones has to miss Friday's match with a lingering foot injury, Nguyen still promises to present a challenge – especially to a Sporting side that might be missing defender Aurelien Collin due to an ankle injury. Nguyen has five goals and two assists in his last six matches for the Revolution, who have climbed to third place in the East and sit just three points behind second-place Kansas City.
“We both play a similar system, so the three guys going up against their three guys are going to be big,” Sporting midfielder Benny Feilhaber said earlier in Thursday's news conference. “Lee's having a fantastic season. Being able to shut him down, like Columbus were able to for the majority of their game, is something that we have to try and look to do.”
New England haven't played since that 1-0 loss to the Crew on Saturday, while Sporting are coming off a convincing 3-0 victory over Nicaragua's Real Esteli on Tuesday night in CONCACAF Champions League group play. They also have a three-match winning streak across all competitions, after dropping four straight league matches for the first time since 2011.
“They should give us a lot of momentum,” Feilhaber said. “We'll see tomorrow. Obviously, we've had two good performances in CCL and one against Chivas (a 4-0 away win on Sept. 12). We're playing against a team that's, I think, a little bit more dangerous than Chivas this game, but at the same time we're playing in front of our fans at home, and we've had a couple of good performances, so hopefully we could continue that.”
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Sporting featured a regular-heavy starting lineup against Esteli, meaning much of their XI will be playing against the Revs on two days' rest.
“We really have no alternative,” Vermes said. “You can say that you'd play a totally different team at that point, but that's not keeping us in rhythm, either. I have pretty good faith in the fact that we've been a pretty solid team when it comes to the physical aspects of the game. Our fitness side has always been a strong quality within the group, and we have to rely on that.”
Steve Brisendine covers Sporting Kansas City for MLSsoccer.com.
