Sporting KC hosts the Houston Dynamo on Friday evening at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park. It's the third meeting this season between the two sides this season and 15th overall in regular season play. It's an important match with both teams fighting for position in the Eastern Conference and Sporting KC still alive in the race for the Supporters' Shield.
Head to Head
The Dynamo have the all-time advantage against Sporting KC in League play with six wins in 14 matches and three wins in seven matches at KC. Houston manager Dominic Kinnear has a career record of 8-5-7 against KC, while Peter Vermes is 2-2-3 against Houston.
Houston has scored 10 first half and 10 second half goals in the regular season series, while Sporting KC have six goals in the final 15 minutes (76-90).
Paulo Nagamura has started the most matches against Houston (14) in his MLS career, Michael Harrington has the most assists (3), and Teal Bunbury is tied with Kei Kamara for the most goals (3). Brad Davis and Bring Ching lead Houston with four goals and four assists all-time versus KC.
This Season
The two teams played to a scoreless draw at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park on July 7th before Houston won 2-1 at BBVA Compass Stadium 11 days later.
Goals
The two teams have almost identical records on headers with both scoring 10 (Dynamo have conceded one more with five). KC have more goals from crosses (nine) but Houston have scored twice as many goals from corner kicks (eight). Both teams have been shut-out six times. The Dynamo are averaging 1.43 goals scored per game (Sporting KC 1.26) but conceding 1.18 goals per game (0.89 for Sporting KC).
Sporting KC has had a player score two goals in an MLS match only once this season while Houston has had four (Will Bruin twice, Calen Carr, Macoumba Kandji).
Longest Streaks
Sporting KC have the season's longest winning streak with seven matches while Houston have the longest unbeaten streak (6-0-2).
Halftime
Sporting recently won their first MLS match of the season when trailing at half, but the Dynamo have yet to accomplish that feat (0-5-1). Both teams have seven wins when leading at halftime.
Discipline
Both teams have commited more fouls than suffered. Sporting KC has more yellow cards (45 to 26) and red cards (2 to 1) than Houston this season.
Goalkeepers
Jimmy Nielsen has an impressive 0.89 goal against average compared to Tally Hall's respectable 1.19 GAA. Nielsen has 15 wins, 11 shutouts, and 56 saves. Hall has 12 wins, 11 shutouts, and 71 saves.
Formation
Sporting KC and Houston both play a 4-3-3 formation.
