Sporting Kansas City will travel to Red Bull Arena for the first time in over three years to face the New York Red Bulls in Major League Soccer (MLS) action on Saturday.
New York held onto fourth place in the Eastern Conference last weekend despite losing 2-0 to the Philadelphia Union, while Kansas City moved up to 12th in the West thanks to a 3-0 win over Orlando City.
Match preview
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The New York Red Bulls head down the stretch of the regular season well-positioned to make the playoffs for a 15th successive campaign.
With nine matches remaining, Sandro Schwarz's men are three points above New York City FC for fourth and home-field advantage in the first round of the playoffs while sitting 12 points above the post-season line.
Since the domestic season paused, though, for the Leagues Cup, the Red Bulls have not got as many positive results, currently on a four-match winless run across all competitions.
Their defeat versus the Union last weekend was the first for this side at Red Bull Arena in this competition, but New York have often bounced back following a setback, going 3-0-1 after a loss in the 2024 MLS campaign, failing to lose consecutive games.
Under Schwarz, they have played with a little more possession than we are accustomed to seeing, but they remain a potent club in transition, leading the league with 11 goals off counterattacks.
In 2024, the Red Bulls have been especially vulnerable in the early stages of matches, conceding 10 goals in the opening 15 minutes, the joint-most in MLS.
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Time is running out for Peter Vermes and Kansas City, who find themselves nine points below the playoff line out West with seven matches remaining.
They enter this contest on a two-match winning run across all competitions, without a goal conceded over that stretch, advancing to the US Open Cup final last week thanks to a 2-0 win over Indy Eleven.
An inability to maintain a strong defensive line has held them back throughout the 2024 domestic campaign, conceding the second-most goals in the Western Conference (52).
Sporting have won their previous six matches across all competitions when scoring multiple goals, but they have also suffered five MLS defeats this year when doing so.
Four of their final seven regular-season affairs take place away from home, with this team suffering an MLS-high nine defeats as the visitors in 2024.
SKC have won two of their previous three away matches against the Red Bulls at Red Bull Arena, including a 2-1 come-from-behind victory in their previous visit to Harrison in 2021.
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Team News
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In their defeat versus Philly, the Red Bulls were missing Wikelman Carmona and Peter Stroud due to knocks, while Emil Forsberg was sidelined with a sore foot.
Roald Mitchell and Serge Ngoma sat out because of knee injuries, while Felipe Carballo got his visa situation sorted out in time to feature against the Union, replacing Ronald Donkor in the second half.
Because of the international window, Lewis Morgan is away with the Scotland national team, Noah Eile was called up to the Sweden Under-21 side and Carlos Coronel will be with Paraguay.
Against Orlando City, Sporting did not have Nemanja Radoja available because of a sore groin, Memo Rodriguez was sidelined with a quad knock, while Felipe Hernandez is still unavailable due to alleged illegal betting.
This weekend, leading goalscorer Willy Agada must sit out with a red card suspension, Kayden Pierre recently transferred to Genk in the Belgian Pro League and Stephen Afrifa was called up to the Canadian team for the international window.
Jake Davis has four goal contributions in his last four games, finding the back of the net against Orlando, Remi Walter scored his third of the MLS campaign and Daniel Salloi had the other strike, becoming the fourth SKC player to eclipse 100 goal contributions with the club across all competitions, with the others being Graham Zusi, Johnny Russell and Preki.
New York Red Bulls possible starting lineup:
Meara; Duncan, S. Nealis, D. Nealis, Tolkin; Harper, Donkor, Edelman, Burke; Vanzeir, Manoel
Sporting Kansas City possible starting lineup:
Melia; Shelton, Voloder, Fontas, Leibold; Davis, Bassong; Russell, Thommy, Salloi; Pulido
We say: New York Red Bulls 1-0 Sporting Kansas City
The Red Bulls have been a resilient group all year, which should serve them well against an SKC side featuring many players who appear to be well past their prime.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Joel Lefevre
