Sporting Kc Face a Disheartened Portland Timbers Side

Sporting Kc will travel to the pacific northwest on Saturday night to take on the Portland Timbers at Jeld-Wen Field. Sporting will have to make the long trip to Portland without "Mr.Captain Fantastic" Davy Arnaud, who has a hernia injury and will likely miss 6 weeks. Despite their captain being injured Sporting Kc will enter the match with high hopes, going undefeated in the past 8 league games. While Portland haven't won a game since May 21st. Both teams are 7th place in their respective conferences, but Sporting Kc seem to be the more dominant side heading in to the match.

Should Sporting Kc win their match on Saturday it could push them up to 4th  place, depending on the other results around the league on Friday and Saturday.

Projected Lineup

Key Match-Ups


Sapong vs. Brunner/Danso
Sapong will have to come up against two of the biggest center backs in all of MLS. However Sapong himself will impose a threat to Portland's back line. Whoever can win most of the aerial challenges should be able to control the ball.

Myers vs. Alhassan 
The speedy Ghanaian will look to go at Sporting's back line all night. Myers will have the difficult task of marking him, but Alhassan will have to be mindful Myers runs down the flank. 

Collin vs. Cooper
It seems as if Collin is in the key match-ups every week, but yet again he will have to mark another strong CF in Kenny Cooper. Both players are quite strong but Cooper likes to play with the ball at his feet instead of getting flicks on to other players like Hassli or Lenhart. Collin will have to be careful when diving in to tackle the ball away from Cooper, he's a skillful player.


Prediction
Sporting Kc - 2 (Sapong, Bravo)
Portland Timbers - 2 (Jewsbury, Cooper)

Sporting Kc Set to Battle Last Place Vancouver

The Vancouver Whitecaps will travel to LSP on Saturday night to face Sporting Kc at 7:30 CT, and will look to pass on the unwanted MLS "wooden spoon" to Sporting Kc. Both teams are currently in last place of their respective conferences and will look to climb up the league standings. A win for either team could potentially see them move up at least 1 space to 8th place(Vancouver), or up 4 places to 5th place(Sporting Kc). It's a huge game for both teams.

Sporting Kc seem the more dominant side heading into the game,  going undefeated the past 6 games and letting in only 2 goals in those games. Meanwhile, the Whitecaps are coming off of a huge 1-0 victory over the Philadelphia Union last Saturday and will look to test Sporting Kc.

Sporting Kc will have Honduras international Roger Espinoza back from Gold Cup duty, but will likely not feature in the starting XI for Saturday night's game, while French CB Aurelien Collin should find himself back at the heart of defense after missing out on SKC's midweek game at Philly due to suspension. 

Predicted Lineup:

Important Match-Ups

Sassano/Diop v. Chiumiento 

The two Sporting Kc CDM's will look to stop any attacking play from the creative Swiss CAM, a player who has jump-started a lot of the Whitecaps attack this year.

Collin v. Hassli

Collin will again have to mark another big striker, and somehow prevent him from getting too close to SKC's goal.  

Prediction

Sporting Kc - 3 (Sapong x 2, Bravo)

Vancouver - 1 (Hassli) 

-SKC's offense finally finds their stride and let's it rip on poor old Vancouver. But Hassli has another wonder goal.

Sporting Kc Face Off Against The Philadelphia Union

*First off before you read this article check out the poll to the right, it's extremely important that you vote for the one you think is the best name, thanks guys! Enjoy.*


Sporting Kc head north to face off against one of the newer teams in the league, the Philadelphia Union. Although they are one of the most recent expansion teams in MLS they've done quite well this season, netting 16 goals and only conceding 12.They also have a solid 22 points in only 14 games, giving them 2nd place in the Eastern Conference.

Sporting Kc will be without some of their marquee players. Including Ryan Smith and Aurelien Collin. Meaning that we should see the same formation we've seen the past few games, except Collin comes out and Cesar will come in, along with fellow CB Matt Besler.

As far as the game itself goes I think Sporting Kc have a chance. They're on a role and the're defense is looking very good (we'll see what effect Cesar has on that). Philadelphia on the other hand are win-less in three and seem to be having trouble scoring goals. But Philly are undefeated at home this season so let's not get too excited.

Lineup

Prediction
Sporting Kc - 2 (Sapong, Bravo)
Philadelphia - 1 (Mwanga)