A pair of teams near the bottom of the Western Conference standings are out to enter the upcoming All-Star and Leagues Cup break on a positive note when Sporting Kansas City plays host to St. Louis City on Saturday in the Missouri rivalry.
Sporting Kansas City (6-14-5, 23 points) sit in 12th place in the Western Conference, one spot ahead of St. Louis City (4-10-10, 22 points), who has the second-most drawn matches in the league.
SKC enter off a 2-1 road loss to the Vancouver Whitecaps on Wednesday, a defeat that ended a two-match winning streak. Willy Agada scored in the 69th minute for SKC.
Now comes the second meeting of the season between SKC and St. Louis City. The first ended in a wild 3-3 draw on April 20. St. Louis City still is looking for revenge after they were eliminated by SKC in last season’s playoffs.
“It’s two teams that need all the points they can get, so I think it’s going to be more interesting,” SKC goalkeeper Tim Melia said. “… Everyone’s going to want to be out there on the field fighting for our fans and fighting for our (playoff) lives in these moments.”
SKC leads the all-time series 3-2-1, while going 2-0-1 in three games at Kansas City. Those five previous games have included 26 total goals.
St. Louis City is on a three-match losing streak, scoring just two goals in that stretch. They enter off a 2-0 loss on the road against the Seattle Sounders on Wednesday. The game did mark the MLS debut of 17-year-old forward Mykhi Joyner.
“We have to get our mentality right,” St. Louis City interim head coach John Hackworth said. “These guys are good soccer players. There’s no doubt about that. But we have to bring them together, play collectively, and then try to go out and show our fans, ourselves, that this kind of performance is not acceptable.”
It has been a season of change for St. Louis City, who fired head coach Bradley Carnell on July 1 and traded forward Sam Adeniran to the Philadelphia Union this week for general allocation money.
While St. Louis City gave up a stoppage-time goal in their most recent meeting against SKC, they did earn a point at Kansas City for the first time.
SKC will be without defender Jake Davis and goalkeeper John Pulskamp because of international duty, while midfielder Felipe Hernandez is on administrative leave. Midfielder Memo Rodriguez (quad) and forward Johnny Russell (groin) are questionable.
St. Louis City will be without forward Joao Klauss (knee), defender Joakim Nilsson (hamstring) and midfielders Rasmus Alm (knee), Tomas Ostrak (ankle) and Celio Pompeu (leg).
–Field Level Media
