Back At It

After having the full week off for the majority of the team, Sporting KC is back at it on Saturday when they take on Toronto FC on Saturday afternoon at BMO Field in Toronto.  After 8 weeks with two games a week KC had a full week of training ahead of the game.  And for the first time since May 27th when KC played San Jose, they'll play a team on shorter rest than them tomorrow.  Toronto played the Portland Timbers at home on Wednesday night, drawing 2-2 in that game.

Toronto was missing quite a few players on Wednesday night against Portland due to international call ups.  Those players, including Ryan Johnson, Terry Dunfield, and new signing Darren O'Dea.  Kansas City will also get to see Eric Hassli again as he was traded earlier this year from Vancouver to Toronto.  Toronto have lost 2 of their last 3 league games, but did pull off a big 5-1 win at home in the Champions League last weekend.

Other than Matt Besler, Roger Espinoza, and Graham Zusi, the rest of the Sporting team has had the entire week to train and prepare for tomorrow's game.  The rest is much needed for Kansas City after the busy schedule.  They avoided a hangover game against DC last weekend, but the goal with the lighter schedule now is to get players healthy.  The likes of Bobby Convey and Jacob Peterson, although Neven Markovic has joined the injury report this week.  The good news is that the likes of Chance Myers, CJ Sapong, and Seth Sinovic are no longer on the injury report which is a good sign heading towards the final part of the season.

Nielsen

Myers - Collin - Besler - Sinovic

Nagamura - Cesar

Espinoza

Kamara - Bunbury - Zusi

Number to Remember - 0 -  Kansas City won the very first game played at BMO Field back in 2007.  Since then, Kansas City has not won a single game in Toronto.  KC has gone a combined 0-2-3 in those games.  Zero is also the number of goals that KC has scored since the first game at BMO.  While KC has 3 draws in the 5 other games, KC has not scored since the first game.

Key Match Up - Aurelien Collin vs Eric Hassli - These two matched up when KC met Vancouver earlier this season and it was quite the physical match up.  The two of them going at it again should be more fun.  The other match up would be Collin and O'Dea on set pieces.

PREDICTION - The road is never really a friendly place for teams in MLS.  The travel is one of the main reasons for that.  But if KC wants to be considered a serious contender for the Supporters' Shield this year, beating Toronto in Toronto is something that has to happen.  While Paul Mariner has done a decent job of turning them around, they still are not a very good team.  KC should be able to get the win.  Based off of KC's history in Toronto 1 goal will decide this game.

SKC - 1 (Kamara)
TFC - 0