With their attacking starting to gel coming off consecutive 3-0 games. It looks to be Seattle’s game to lose against a Sporting Kansas City missing three crucial spine players.
By Toby Dunkelberg
A months ago this matchup would’ve been very different. At the time the Sounders were in the midst of a stretch that saw them lose eight times games, while Sporting had just beaten Vancouver to rise to the top of the Western Conference. But in the intervening months the roles have reversed. Sporting has steadily fallen from Supporters Shield frontrunners to fifth in the west. Meanwhile, the Sounders have risen from missing the playoffs entirely to fighting for a top three finish.
The main culprit for the remarkable shift in positions? The same as always in MLS, injury and absences.
In August Seattle saw the return of Osvaldo Alonso, Clint Dempsey, and Obafemi Martins from injury and they were promptly inserted into a lineup that was bolstered by the summer additions of Nelson Valdez, Roman Torres, and Andreas Ivanschitz. In the span of just a couple weeks Seattle added what amounts to six DP’s to it’s starting eleven. And although Roman Torres suffered a season ending injury against San Jose, that loss is partially mitigated by Ivanschitz and Vadez looking far more impressive than most had hoped for.
The picture for Sporting Kansas City is quite the opposite. Ever since Ike Opara ruptured his achilles tendon April, SKC has been a favored destination for the injury bug. Yet despite forcing Kevin Ellis, Jalil Anibaba, and Amadou Dia into significant minutes SKC was able to stay near the top of the league due to a strong defensive presence in midfield. Roger Espinoza and Soni Mustivar were the two key pieces to Peter Vermes’ strategy of immediately winning the ball back. That tendency limited the exposure for a backline that outside of lynchpin USMNT member Matt Besler was comprised of youngsters and newcomers.
But Espinoza hasn’t seen the pitch since suffering a fracture in his left foot on August 6th. And as Sounders fans have learned defenses are much shakier without midfield support. Mustivar also missed four games in a row at about the same time and SKC hasn’t been the same since as they’ve gone 1-1-5 in their last seven
To make matters worse, due to yellow card accumulation picked up during SKC’s midweek matchup against Houston, Matt Besler and Benny Feilhaber will miss out on Sunday’s match against Seattle. Without Besler on the backline there is no calming veteran presence. The loss of Besler is not to be understated but without a doubt the loss of MVP candidate Benny Feilhaber will prove more detrimental.
SKC’s attack flows through his vision, his searching crosses, his weighted through balls, and sometimes even a the odd set piece goal. But what takes that talent from important to MVP caliber is that he’s consistently does it throughout the year and his brilliance always seems to flash right when it’s needed. Be it to start a comeback or to silence an opponents Feilhaber always comes through and without him SKC won’t be able to dictate the game as well.
It looks as though Seattle’s stumbled onto the best possible time be be visitors to Sporting Park, as without those three key starters it’s tough to predict a SKC result. And when it comes down to it there’s no reason you would. Seattle’s been the hottest team over the last four weeks, their midsummer additions look to finally be integrated into the squad, and all of their veteran talent’s back in the lineup. And then you add in that Seattle’s only once failed to get a result away at SKC and it becomes fairly obvious choice.
SCORE PREDICTION
Seattle Sounders FC 2 – 0 Sporting Kansas City
Martins (31′)
Ivanschitz (90′)
Sounders FC
Sporting Kansas City
