Preview: Sporting KC kicks off CONCACAF Champions League campaign Tuesday at Central FC

As the 2016 MLS regular season nears the home stretch, Sporting Kansas City welcomes yet another major competition to its docket. The 2016-17 Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League group stage kicked off a fortnight ago and resumes Tuesday when Sporting Kansas City's faces Central FC of Trinidad and Tobago at 7 p.m. CT. The match at Ato Boldon Stadium in Couva will stream live in English on CONCACAF's official Facebook Page, while Univision Deportes Network will air a Spanish-language telecast.

Sporting Kansas City is the last of five MLS teams to begin its respective Champions League campaign. FC Dallas, Portland Timbers, New York Red Bulls and Vancouver Whitecaps FC are all off to winning starts, and Manager Peter Vermes' men will look to follow suit in Group C against the two-time defending champions of the TT Pro League.

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The Central FC Sharks have yet to start their 2016-17 domestic league campaign and suffered a 1-0 home defeat to Vancouver in their CCL opener on Aug. 2. That result puts the impetus on Sporting Kansas City to emerge from Couva with a victory and keep pace with Whitecaps FC atop Group C.

Faced with multiple injuries and just three days removed from a 2-2 draw at FC Dallas, Sporting Kansas City travels to Trinidad and Tobago with roster reinforcements. Swope Park Rangers defender Amer Didic and winger Tyler Pasher signed short-term loan deals late last week, adding depth to a squad that will play five games over 15 days, four of which on the road.

Midfielders Roger Espinoza and Soni Mustivar served one-game suspensions on Saturday but will be available for selection Tuesday as Sporting Kansas City plays its first Champions League match since October 2014. Their additions bolster a team that will miss Matt Besler (MCL strain), Justin Mapp (calf strain), Tim Melia (back spasms) and Chance Myers (hamstring strain) through injury. Center back Ike Opara is also in doubt after suffering a foot injury in the 35th minute of Saturday's draw.

Led by head coach Zoran Vranes, Central FC has enjoyed tremendous success since its founding in 2012. The Sharks have claimed two straight TT Pro League titles and are two-time defending champions of the CFU Club Championship, a tournament contested by the best clubs from the Caribbean Football Union. Central FC are making their second appearance in the CONCACAF Champions League, having crashed from the 2015-16 group stage last fall after finishing second behind LA Galaxy.

The Central FC roster includes eight players who have earned at least one cap for the Trinidad and Tobago Men’s National Team over the last 12 months. The club received a boost last week when Kenwyne Jones, a 31-year-old striker on loan from 2017 MLS expansion team Atlanta United FC, was added to its Champions League squad. Jones wears the captain’s armband for Trinidad and Tobago, having featured prominently in the English Premier League for most of the last decade with Southampton, Sunderland and Stoke City among others.

The 10,000-seat Ato Boldon Stadium is more than 2,800 miles southeast of Kansas City, meaning Tuesday will be Sporting KC's furthest competitive match away from home since 2002 when the club visited W Connection, another Trinidadian outfit, in the CONCACAF Champions' Cup.

The CONCACAF Champions League is an international tournament comprised of the best teams from North America, Central America and the Caribbean. The 2016-17 group stage divides the 24 teams into eight groups of three and is contested in a round-robin, home-and-away, four-game format that runs from August through October. Sporting Kansas City punched their ticket via the 2015 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup championship, ousting the Philadelphia Union in a penalty shootout following a 1-1 draw last September.

Additional in-game updates will be available via the SportingKC.com Match Tracker and through the club's official mobile app Sporting KC Uphoria.

Sporting KC 2016-17 CONCACAF Champions League Schedule