What We Want to Happen Today 9/3

I had completely forgotten about the Thursday night game until it was too late for a post on what we wanted to happen. Honestly there a draw would have been fine for KC. While Sporting is off this weekend for the international break there are still games to be played, with three being inter-conference match ups.

New York at Vancouver
What we want to happen - New York win

At this point in the season with the West vs East match ups, no matter where the East team is you're usually going to want to root for the team in the East. For Sporting it's a matter of keeping Vancouver behind them. This is the Whitecaps last game in hand and they sit seven points behind KC at this point. Keeping that lead at seven would keep KC with some breathing room.

Colorado at New England
What we want to happen - New England win

Catching the Rapids may be a bit of a pipe dream, but Sporting does sit just five points behind the Rapids (having played three more games though), so there is the ability to play catch up and move up the table. Some help from the Revolution at home would do KC plenty of good.

Portland at Dallas
What we want to happen - Dallas win

I hold no grand visions of Kansas City closing the 10 point gap between them and first place Dallas, mainly because there are three other teams also between KC and Dallas in the West so catching Dallas probably means one or two of those other teams remain ahead of KC. With that in mind it's about keeping the Portland Timbers in the sixth spot and having that "buffer" between KC and the red line. Although a win would technically keep Portland in sixth on tie breakers, having the point buffer is nice to have as well.

Columbus at Los Angeles
What we want to happen - Columbus win

Columbus sits in ninth in the East on 26 points, LA sits two points ahead of Sporting in the West, simply about keeping Kansas City within touching distance of the Galaxy and a potential home wild card game in the playoffs is important. Given the overall lack of results around MLS on the road this year, it appears home field advantage could be extremely important, and that starts with the wild card playoff game.

Philadelphia at Chicago
What we want to happen - Chicago win

Really there's not much to this other than the outside chance of a Kansas City vs Philadelphia MLS Cup. In that case Sporting want to keep Philadelphia from pulling further away from them, currently Philadelphia is two points ahead of Kansas City, sitting on 40 points. So as much as it'll hurt some fans, you actually want to root for the Fire in this one.