Sporting KC at Philadelphia Union
Saturday, October 18, 2014 - 6 p.m. CT
PPL Park | Chester, PA
English TV: KMCI-TV, SKCTV
Spanish Radio: La Gran D 1340 AM
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Sporting Kansas City faces the Philadelphia Union on Saturday night at PPL Park. The Eastern Conference foes will kick off at 6 p.m. CT and the match will be broadcast on KMCI-TV locally and SKCTV across the Midwest with pre-game coverage beginning at 5:30 p.m. CT.
Sporting KC enters the weekend in third place in the Eastern Conference with a regular season record of 14-11-7 and 49 points. With two games remaining in the regular season, the reigning MLS Cup champions have already secured a playoff berth but seeding for the postseason remains to be determined.
Sporting KC defeated the Chicago Fire 2-0 in the club's last outing. Graham Zusi opened the scoring with a 25-yard strike that earned MLS Goal of the Week honors. Dom Dwyer doubled the lead for Sporting KC, heading a Zusi cross past Sean Johnson in second-half stoppage time. The goal was Dwyer's 21st during the 2014 regular season, second most in MLS and a new club record for a single season.
Zusi has four goals and two assists in nine MLS regular season games played against Philadelphia, including goals in each of his last two visits to PPL Park (March 2 and Oct. 26, 2013). No team boasts more road wins this year than Sporting KC's eight (8-7-1 overall). Conversly, Philadelphia has struggled to obtain maximum points at home, winning five of 16 contests at PPL Park (5-3-8 overall) in 2014.
Saturday marks the third meeting between Sporting KC and the Union this season. The previous two contests took place at Sporting Park and resulted in a 2-1 victory for the Union on May 14 and a 1-1 draw on August 1. The home team has not won in five straight meetings between the clubs.
With the clean sheet against Chicago last weekend, Andy Gruenebaum has the longest active shutout streak in MLS at 308 minutes. However, the Overland Park, Kansas native is questionable for Saturday's match aftering suffering a right calf strain at training on Thursday. Sporting KC's injury report also includes new additions Matt Besler (out), C.J. Sapong (questionable) and Claudio Bieler (questionable).
In Philadelphia's last eight MLS matches, goalkeepers Zac MacMath and Rais M'Bolhi have each made four appearances for the Union. M'Bolhi, a 2014 FIFA World Cup veteran, was recently on international duty and helped Algeria secure their spot at the 2015 African Cup of Nations with a 3-0 win in Algeria on Wednesday. Philadelphia's leading goalscorers, Sebastien Le Toux (12) and Conor Casey (8), are both listed as questionable on this week's injury report along with defender Ethan White.
The Union were officially eliminated from playoff contention last weekend after dropping a 3-2 decision to the Columbus Crew. Philadelphia led the Crew 2-0 in the 75th minute before Columbus scored three unaswered goals to secure all three points while remaining in the race for the MLS Cup playoffs. Danny Cruz and Andrew Wenger each tallied a goal for Philadelphia in the loss.
Fans can follow Saturday's match online at SportingKC.com/GameOn or via Twitter @SKCGameday. Viewers outside of Kansas City can also watch the match via MLSsoccer.com's Stream of the Week.
