As Sporting KC hosts the LA Galaxy in the regular season finale, I caught up with ESPN.com's Jeff Carlisle to preview Sunday's match. The match will kick off at 6 p.m. CT with live coverage available on ESPN, ESPN Deportes, WatchESPN, 99.3 FM, and La Grande 1340 AM.
Jonathon Feyerherm: What are your thoughts on Sunday's match?
Jeff Carlisle: It's surprising to see these two teams in this position heading into the playoffs. LA's spot is wrapped up but they want to be playing better and Kansas City does as well. The loss to Colorado was shocking to a lot of people. You knew it would be hard for Kansas City coming back to the West this year but it's certainly surprising for me that they're heading into the last weekend needing to get a result to guarantee their spot in the playoffs. But they are playing at home so there's that advantage and they're coming up against an LA team that structurally has some issues, especially in midfield. It's just funny how midfield chemistry is so fickle sometimes. You think to back a year ago that pairing of Juninho and Marcelo Sarvas was lights out. LA wants to find a way to get Gerrard on the field and the balance is not quite right. I think that's certainly a place where Kansas City can exploit on the attacking end and find a way to get it done.
JF: Continuing on that last point, do you see the midfield at a place where Sporting KC can have an advantage on Sunday?
JC: They can, especially in transition. You saw how Portland really punished the Galaxy and I'm sure Bruce Arena is going to address that this week. LA needs to be better in transition defensively. Everyone knows about them going forward but when they lose the ball they aren't always the quickest to get back and when you have someone with the passing ability of a Feilhaber, you can do a lot of damage and exploit that. It's going to be interesting to see how much Juninho really tries to track him and will be an interesting tactical battle.
JF: What are you expecting to see from the first 15-20 minutes of this match?
JC: I think Sporting Kansas City will be aggressive but they're going to have to be patient.They'll need that patience fused with the aggressiveness. You can be so aggressive that you are forcing things that aren't there. LA can afford to sit back a little bit and look for chances on the counter because they don't have to win this game. Kansas City wants to win this game to not leave anything to chance. I think Sporting KC will be aggressive but they're going to have to be very weary of LA's difference makers. You've seen enough times how Robbie Keane can be devastating in the open field. Kansas City's just got to make sure that when the ball's turned over they're not caught in some crazy shape where there's ton of space for LA.
JF: Sunday will be Decision Day in MLS with all the Western Conference matches starting at the same time (Sunday, 6 p.m. CT). What are your thoughts on the schedule change this season?
JC: I think it's great and adds a little bit of drama to the last day. Last days are always tricky. Sometimes everything is decided except for playoff positioning. This year, you've got the Supporters' Shield and several playoff positions still up for grabs. I think it's going to be a great day. It's a good thing for the league to have that kind of excitement and attention on the last day of the regular season.
