KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Sporting Kansas City have two more chances to translate their CONCACAF Champions League home form into MLS play before the start of the postseason. Their next opponent won't make that easy, though.
Despite their ninth-place position in the Eastern Conference table, the Chicago Fire bring a league-record 18 draws into Friday's match at Sporting Park (8:30 pm ET; MLS Live) – which makes them dangerous to Sporting's chances of taking all three points and clinching a postseason spot, according to manager Peter Vermes.
“If there's one thing that their 18 ties say, it's that they are in every match,” Vermes said on Wednesday, during the club's weekly news conference. “So their guys, I'm sure they're thinking that if they could have turned even half of those games, where they'd be with that number of points.
“So it says a lot about the team. It's not as if they were getting blown away by a lot of teams. They were in every game. Those are dangerous teams. Those are teams that when they find a way to turn those into three points as opposed to one, they become a much different team.”
Sporting have won all three of their home Champions League matches in 2014, dating back to a 1-0 home victory over eventual 2013-14 champions Cruz Azul in the first leg of the quarterfinals. But in league play at Sporting Park this year, they're 5-4-6 and haven't won since beating Toronto FC 4-1 on Aug. 16.
“Right now, we need to get a result at home,” center back and captain Matt Besler said later in Wednesday's news conference. “We haven't been as good as we need to be at home. We all know that. I think everybody deserves better when we play at home. The fans deserve wins. The fans deserve goals. There's no excuse why we shouldn't have one of the best home records in the league, and we haven't done that this year, for whatever reason.
“But we have three games left – two of them at home and one on the road – so we can start on Friday by getting a result and getting a win at home. It's about time.”
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Sporting are coming off a solid effort last week in a scoreless away draw to East-leading D.C. United, and Besler said the club can take some momentum from that match into this week's contest.
“I think we're all satisfied with how that game went,” he said. “But now, it's a new challenge. We have to be able to do that at home, and we have to be able to find a way to get results at home.”
They'll have to do it with yet another backline configuration, with left back Seth Sinovic suspended for Friday's match due to caution accumulation. But center back Aurelien Collin (ankle) and winger Jacob Peterson (hamstring), who has played at left back this season, both could make their returns on Friday.
Vermes said Collin was still listed as questionable, but added: “I'm feeling more positive today than I did yesterday that he has a chance of playing on Friday. Jake will be in the 18, I'm almost positive now.”
Steve Brisendine covers Sporting Kansas City for MLSsoccer.com.
