Sporting Kansas City vs. Seattle Sounders FC | 2018 MLS Match Preview

Dylan Butler

Sporting Kansas City vs. Seattle Sounders FC
2018 MLS Regular Season – Week 7
Children's Mercy Park - Kansas City
4 pm ET – April 15, 2018
WATCH: ESPN, MLS LIVE on DAZN in Canada

Two teams going in different directions clash in Kansas City with surging Sporting Kansas City, on four wins in a five-match unbeaten streak, hosting winless, and goalless, Seattle Sounders FC Sunday afternoon.

Sporting Kansas City

After a bit of a tumultuous start to the season, Sporting (4-1-1) have steadied the ship in recent weeks and are looking more like their old selves with back-to-back clean sheets, including a impressive 2-0 victory over LA Galaxy Sunday at StubHub Center.

Daniel Salloi and Johnny Russell scored five minutes apart in the second half and Tim Melia stood on his head to make a career-high 10 saves to stifle the Galaxy’s potent attack.

Russell and Melia were named to the MLS Team of the Week presented by Audi for Week 6, while Melia earned Alcatel MLS Player of the Week honors by the North American Soccer Reporters (NASR).

Sporting managed to get the desired result without Felipe Gutierrez, who was out with an injury. Coach Peter Vermes said he was impressed with how Yohan Croizet filled in.

“I thought Yohan played really well in that position,” Vermes said. “Now I knew he didn’t have 90 minutes in him, but he played really well for the time that he was in and he did a very good job. I just think with more games his rhythm is going to get better and better within the way that we play.”

Suspended: None
Suspended after next caution: None
International duty: None
Injury Report: QUESTIONABLE: M - Felipe Gutierrez (undisclosed)

Projected Starting XI
(4-3–3, right to left)
GK: Tim Melia — Graham Zusi, Ike Opara, Matt Besler, Jimmy Medranda — Roger Espinoza, Ilie Sanchez, Yohan Croizet — Johnny Russell, Khiry Shelton, Daniel Salloi

Notes: Melia has allowed just 0.2 goals on average in his six games against Seattle, lowest in MLS since 2010 (min. 4 games). … Vermes’ four wins against Seattle are tied for his fewest against any club that he has faced at least four times.

Seattle Sounders FC

Three matches, three losses, three red cards, no goals.

Clearly, it’s been a less than ideal start to the 2018 season for Seattle Sounders FC (0-3-0), which also crashed out of the Concacaf Champions League in the quarterfinals against Chivas de Guadalajara.

There’s been another week off to reflect and recharge and while that helps injured players get back in the fold, it hasn’t aided the club’s search for a rhythm.

“It’s been a bit of a dysfunctional start to our year,” Seattle coach Brian Schmetzer said. “When the guys come back, when we start playing games every Saturday then we’ll try to find our cohesion.”

The Sounders will be without outside back Kelvin Leerdam and forward Clint Dempsey due to red card suspensions. Dempsey was suspended an extra game by the MLS Disciplinary Committee on Thursday.

Suspended: D - Kelvin Leerdam, F - Clint Dempsey
Suspended after next caution: None
International duty: None
Injury Report: OUT: F - Jordan Morris (torn ACL), M - Osvaldo Alonso (quad), M - Victor Rodriguez (right knee sprain), D - Kim Kee-Hee (right calf strain); QUESTIONABLE: M - Henry Wingo (left thumb surgery)

Projected Starting XI
(4-2-3-1, right to left)

GK: Stefan Frei — Waylon Francis, Chad Marshall, Roman Torres, Nouhou Tolo — Cristian Roldan, Gustav Svensson — Handwalla Bwana, Nicolas Lodeiro, Magnus Wolff Eikrem — Will Bruin

Notes: Seattle are scoreless in last four league road games, longest streak in club history. … Seattle have accumulated three red cards in three games this season. They had five red cards total in each of the last two seasons (34 games in each season).

All-Time Series

Overall: Sporting Kansas City 5 wins, 15 goals … Seattle Sounders FC 8 wins, 14 goals … Ties 3
At Kansas City: SKC 3 wins, 12 goals … Sounders FC 4 wins, 9 goals … Ties 1
Last meeting at Kansas City: SKC 3, Sounders FC 0 (May 17, 2017)