Ahead of Saturday's match (7:30 p.m. CT) against Vancouver Whitecaps FC, SportingKC.com caught up with ESPN.com's Jeff Carlisle to preview the home opener at Children's Mercy Park.
What were your thoughts on Sporting KC's 1-0 win in their season opener at Seattle?
I know Seattle's record in home openers is as good as one might expect but anytime you can go to Seattle and get three points, it's not a minor result. You're going take that. Seattle gets a red card and Sporting KC was on top for 50 minutes or so but we've seen a lot of times how teams don't take advantage of being a man up. And as fortunate as the goal from Coelho might have been, I think it was a case of Kansas City getting a fantastic result and they're going to be looking forward to moving on to Saturday against Vancouver.
What did you take away from Vancouver's opening match (3-2 loss vs Montreal Impact)?
I was a little surprised to see how kind of frail they were defensively. Ousted makes an error and poor communication with defender Kendall Waston leads to a Montreal goal. There was some uncharacteristic mistakes defensively and a goal from Piatti scoring where he weaves his way through several players. Vancouver created some good chances but I was a little surprised to see them struggle defensively because last year they were quite good defensively. After the first game you never want read too much into it and last they only conceded 36 goals (tied for fewest in MLS).
It's early in the season but with how close the standings were in 2015, how important are these Western Conference meetings?
Last year, we talked about how important every game is and the difference between second and sixth was two points. You look at a team like the Galaxy and that was the difference between going on the road to Seattle and not hosting a game. For Sporting KC, they had travel to Portland and were knocked out in that crazy game. Points count just as much in March as they do in October. It's a real opportunity for Sporting KC to put a little bit of a marker down on the rest of the conference and get some separation on a team like Vancouver. If they win on Saturday, they'll be six points ahead in the standings. It's so competitive in the West that anytime you can get a win against a conference opponent, it's huge.
Tim Melia has become a steady presence for Sporting KC as the starting goalkeeper and made two key saves in the win at Seattle. What are your thoughts on his impact with the team and solidifying the goalkeeper position?
He's a guy that was very solid last season and at times spectacular. The free kick save on Dempsey (in Sunday's win at Seattle) was top drawer. I think he's getting more and more confidence and has the trust of Peter Vermes. When a goalkeeper takes over for another during a season, you always kind of wonder if this a temporary thing until the team can find a bigger name or someone else and it speaks well of Melia that he's clearly won Vermes' trust. He's going to be the guy going forward. You always like to see players seize their opportunity and I think of a guy like Clint Irwin, who was a third string goalkeeper, got a chance to play in Colorado and really took advantage of it. We'll see how Melia holds up this year. Last year was really his first year as a starter over an extended period of time in MLS and you want to see if he can maintain that consistency. By all appearances, it looks like he's doing exactly that.
