The Seattle Sounders FC will have their hands full this weekend at Livestrong Park in Kansas City as they face the team with the third best record in the East in Sporting KC. While many eliminate eastern teams as lesser quality than the western squads, this Kansas City team is rolling right now in MLS play. They have not lost in thirteen straight matches in Major League Soccer action including a win over Real Salt Lake by a score of 2-0 last week. While the Sounders pulled off an almost equal streak recently, the boys suffered a 3-1 defeat at Houston last Saturday after an embarrassing 7-0 loss to Manchester United (which resulted in 30 minutes of my father-in-law absolutely slamming the Sounders and then Man U) and a 1-0 loss to San Francisco of Panama (stop stealing our cities!) in Champions League play. Note: My guess is Panama had San Francisco first. Another reason to hate the 49ers.
Without having seen Kansas City play since their last MLS defeat in Seattle (1-0 Sounders win on May 21st), it is hard for me to comment on what is making them so successful. It appears that 21 year old Canadian forward Teal Bunbury (fantastic name) is heating up quickly with goals in his past two contests. With five on the year, the back four of the Sounders will need to be solid to gain points on the road.
The back four of the Sounders has been the problem in the past few matches as the Sounders surrendered eight goals in the past three MLS matches. The injury to Jhon Kennedy Hurtado proved to be crucial in this poor spell as he exited in the 56 minute of the Timbers game and the Sounders have tried different middle backs ever since. Patrick Ianni got a shot as did Zach Scott last night in the Champions League victory. Who knows who will show up there on Saturday as well as Scott possibly playing on the outside in a battle with Leo Gonzalez and Tyson Wahl. The lack of consistency among this back four has hurt the Sounders in recent matches.
Much of the Sounders offensive success comes from the beautiful, long haired flopper known as Mauro Rosales. His ability to control the ball, see the field, and create for others is as good as any player in the MLS. When he plays well, we seem to score and score a lot. While we sat and cried early in the year about the lack of offense (see: Nate Jaqua starting), the Sounders now sit second in MLS in scoring (35 goals while the Red Bulls have 38).
Side note: is there a better midfield crew in MLS with Rosales, Friberg, Alonso, and Fernandez (imagine Zakauni instead!)
If the Sounders can get on the board in the first 30 minutes, I think Sporting Kansas City may press a bit based upon their low scoring affairs in the past and we can pull out three incredible road points. If it ends up 0-0, I will punch myself in the face and then high five myself afterwards for having to sit through a scoreless tie and still gaining a point. Of course, the other option is to simply yank the hearts and souls out of Sporting KC as we did on May 21st with a 93rd minute Jeff Parke header or the year before with the Brad Evans pretend-I-am-not-45-yards-down-field-from-the-spot throw in to Mike Fucito for a game winner. It would be fun to watch them simply retire collectively as a team at the final whistle.
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