Win and We're In

A win tomorrow and KC will qualify for the playoffs, to do so they are going to have to go through the New York Red Bulls at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park, where a sold out crowd will look to influence the result, giving KC a home advantage. The Red Bulls are on a decent run of form, they've only lost one game since their 3-0 loss to Salt Lake on 8/6. That other loss was also against Salt Lake. Since that 3-0 loss New York is 3-1-4. Since Rafe Marquez's comments bashing his teammates, New York has won two games and draw once. The Red Bulls form is certainly something to worry about as is big name forward, Thierry Henry. But the majority of the games in this stretch have been home games for the Red Bulls, so hopefully a hostile environment will work to KC's advantage.

In the mid-week friendly against Chivas, the majority of the players that you'd expect to play tomorrow didn't play much more than 45 minutes. The one big question is Aurelien Collin, who played the entire game against Chivas. There are a couple ways that Peter Vermes could choose to go. He could start Collin next to Matt Besler and have the rested Julio Cesar start in the midfield. The question there is if Davy Arnaud retains his place in the lineup or if Roger Espinoza slots back in as a starter. The other option is to put Arnaud into the midfield and possibly drop Collin to the bench with Cesar partnering Besler in the center of defense. With the line of Henry and Luke Rodgers likely starting for New York, I'd almost rather see Collin to deal with Rodgers.

Nielsen
Myers - Collin - Besler - Sinovic
Zusi - Cesar - Espinoza
Kamara - Sapong - Bravo

Number to Remember - 3 - Get the 3 points, clinch the playoff spot. Plain and simple.

Key Match Up - Seth Sinovic vs Dane Richards - Richards is a handful of speed and skill, it's going to be tough for Sinovic to really push forward having to watch Richards on the defensive side of the ball. Hopefully he'll get support from the midfield and center backs to assist with dealing with the Jamaican.

PREDICTION - This game is going to be tight, both teams are going to want the 3 points, but neither team is going to want to make that early mistake that could put them in a hole. That's a recipe for a tight game throughout. Surprisingly, Hans Backe apparently said today that he'd be content with a draw from the game. that doesn't seem like the type of comment that you want your coach making heading into a game. Maybe post game you say that you're happy with the point, but to say before the game even starts that you'll be happy for the draw just doesn't sit right with me. I hope we lay 5 down on them because of those comments. In reality it'll be tight and nail biting like most of our games are.

SKC - 2 (Bravo, Kamara)
NYRB - 1 (Rodgers)