The surging Seattle Sounders will try to continue their excellent away form when they visit struggling Sporting Kansas City on Saturday afternoon.
The Sounders (6-1-1, 19 points) tied the best eight-game start in club history with a 2-1 home victory over FC Dallas last Saturday, powered by first-half goals from Jesus Ferreira and Jordan Morris. Away from home, Seattle is unbeaten in its last four in the league since a loss at Real Salt Lake on Feb. 28.
The Sounders’ bright start comes despite a lengthy injury list that last weekend included center backs Yeimar and Kim Kee-hee as well as attacking midfielders Albert Rusnak and Paul Arriola. The latter three were questionable for this weekend, manager Brian Schmetzer suggested to reporters this week.
Whoever suits up, Schmetzer admitted the journey to the Midwest to play Kansas City, amid its six-match losing streak across all competitions, could be mentally challenging, especially with three big home matches against San Diego FC, the San Jose Earthquakes and the LA Galaxy to follow.
“It makes them dangerous,” Schmetzer said of Kansas City’s struggles. “… It’s a trap game in some ways. I don’t want (my team) thinking about the home games. We have to continue — because we’ve been very good on the road this year — we have to continue good road form.”
Dejan Joveljic has four goals for SKC (1-7-1, 4 points) but his teammates have combined for only three, contributing to what is now a three-match scoreless streak in all competitions.
First-year manager Raphael Wicky saw his side succumb to its worst defeat yet last weekend, a 5-0 drubbing at the hands of the Chicago Fire.
Wicky thought a scoreless first half against Chicago might have been one of his side’s top showings, only for the Fire to take the lead and begin a second-half onslaught when Philip Zinckernagel scored on the rebound of a saved penalty in the 51st minute.
“I felt like from a defensive standpoint, this has probably been the best 45 minutes from our team,” Wicky said of the first half. ” … With that, we stay in games. With that, we are competitive. And that was the plan. The plan worked really well until the penalty, and then we lose ourselves and that is obviously also a pattern.”
–Field Level Media
