With Sporting KC head back on the road to face rivals Chicago on Sunday, I caught up with Pro Soccer Talk's Richard Farley, to preview the match. The match will kick off at 2:00 p.m. CT with live coverage available on KMCI (38 the Spot), SKCTV, UniMas, Sports Radio 810 WBH, and La Gran D 1340 AM.
Jonathon Feyerherm: What are your thoughts on Sporting KC's play this season?
Richard Farley: I write a MLS Power Rankings every week and Sporting KC has been near the top just about every week this season. Despite the fact that Peter Vermes was rotating the roster at the beginning of the year and there has been some results like the game at New England, I've been willing to look underneath that and see that the core of the team seems pretty much the same as last year. You look at some players within the team and you see potential for improvement. You see players liks Sal Zizzo fitting in very well. I think that Sporting Kc is right where they were last year or at least I expect them to be where they were last year come playoff time.
JF: What are your thoughts on Chicago season up to this point under new Head Coach Frank Yallop?
RF: Chicago's one of the more interesting teams because they just broke through with their first victory in New York. Like a number of teams in the league, I think they've been playing better than their record. They've been undermined by particular moments and not their overall play. While soccer certainly is a game of moments, you could always look at Chicago and say that once their defense gets it together they should be a decent. Last week (against NY), the defense didn't get it together but they were able to overcome that. I suppose you could see that as a positive but the one thing that Frank Yallop's team will really want to do this offeseason is totally remake that defense. To this point that makeover has been a failure. If Chicago can't find a central defense pairing that can match up with some of the more powerful teams in the league, then I'm not sure that they are going to be able to compete for a playoff spot.
JF: In past seasons, Chicago has been a counterattacking team who usually didn't have the majority of possession. What changes have you seen under Yallop in the team's style of play?
RF: I wouldn't really qualify Chicago as a counterattacking. They have players who are able to keep the ball and not really have to rely on chances in transition. One of the interesting things about Chicago is that they have someone like Harry Shipp, who ostensibly is their left midfielder but he really is playing more of a central midfield role with him and Benji Joya playing on top of Jeff Larentowicz. You have a really nice midfield trio there. They get width on the one side from Patrick Nyarko and the other side from Greg Cochrane but you really have a team that in the attacking phase doesn't set up the same way they did last year. They don't rely so much on that opportunism. They really are going to be able to not only build play but then in possession take advantage of any kind of defensive disorganization. The ability of Magee and Amarikwa to pull people into spaces, they have those players now who can take advantage of that. I think I'm a little bit hesitant to cast any firm labels on Chicago this year because it has such a weird start. I don't think we know exactly how they are going to settle in and what their style is going to be. Based on their intent so far, they seem to be a team that's very comfortable playing with the ball and not a team that's just going to let Sporting KC sit on the ball in the same way Philadelphia did. I think there's going to be a little bit more desire for Chicago to keep the ball.
JF: What are you expecting to see from Sunday's match?
RF: I expect to see Kansas City rebound, at least as far as their intensity goes.I think that's the one thing that jumps out about Wednesday's game. We can talk about match-ups and that these things just happen but they tend to happen when teams maybe lose focus a little bit or don't have the same intensity as we are used to seeing from them.
I think mentally there has to be a rebound, there's a challenge for players to do that. Because Sporting KC is entering a stretch where they'll be missing players they need to establish some kind of positivity at this point and they're capable of playing without two of their best players.
