Preview: Sporting KC puts home winning streak on the line Saturday vs. Montreal Impact

First-place Sporting Kansas City (7-4-4, 25 points) will put their club-record 16-game home unbeaten streak on the line Saturday when they welcome the Montreal Impact (4-4-4, 16 points) to Children’s Mercy Park.

The interconference clash will kick off at 7 p.m. CT, with three hours of live coverage beginning at 6:30 p.m. on FOX Sports Kansas City and FOX Sports Midwest. Listeners can follow the action on Sports Radio 810 WHB (English) and La Grande 1340 AM (Spanish), while additional live updates will be available on the Sporting KC Uphoria mobile app.

Tickets for Saturday’s matchup are on sale at SeatGeek.com, and the first 10,000 fans through the stadium gates will receive a free Rally Wear Bandana courtesy of match sponsor Mainstreet Credit Union. The Western Conference leaders are on the brink of their 400th home match in all competitions and their 800th overall since joining Major League Soccer for the inaugural 1996 campaign.

More than a year has passed since Sporting Kansas City last lost a regular season match at Children’s Mercy Park. Manager Peter Vermes’ men have rattled off 13 wins and three draws over their last 16 league fixtures at the venue, including a 3-0 rout of Minnesota United FC last Saturday that vaulted the club to the top of the West. Ike Opara, Jimmy Medranda and Saad Abdul-Salaam all opened their 2017 scoring accounts en route to a sixth straight home victory—one shy of tying the team record set in 1998 and 2000.

Faced with the sizeable task of snapping Sporting Kansas City’s unprecedented home run is the Montreal Impact, led by third-year head coach Mauro Biello and talismanic midfielder Ignacio Piatti. The 32-year-old Piatti led Montreal to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2016 and has notched six goals and two assists this season — including the assist on Blerim Dzemali’s goal in last weekend’s 1-0 victory over the New York Red Bulls.

Playing their first MLS match away from home since May 6, the Impact will hope to snap Sporting Kansas City’s 360-minute home shutout run that spans two full months. Goalkeeper Tim Melia notably leads MLS with a 0.67 goals against average, an 81.5 save percentage and a career-high eight shutouts through 15 matches. Opara has served as a prime anchor of the backline, as the club has conceded just six goals in the 13 games he has started this season.

Sporting Kansas City has held a decisive upper hand in the head-to-head series, going 4-0-1 over the last five meetings. Forward Dom Dwyer has particularly relished the fixture, scoring a remarkable nine goals in his six career appearances against the Impact — including a brace in last season’s 2-2 draw at State Saputo in Montreal.

Saturday’s showdown will test the depth of both clubs, as multiple players will miss out through international duty or injury. Seven members of Biello’s squad have left the club for national team engagements, including Swiss midfielder Dzemali, Cameroonian defender Ambroise Oyongo and 2015 MLS Defender of the Year Laurent Ciman, who has joined Belgium for World Cup Qualifying. The Impact will also be without domestic quartet Maxime Crepeau, Wandrille Lefevre, Patrice Bernier and Anthony Jackson-Hamel, who have joined Sporting KC defender Tyler Pasher on the Canada Men’s National Team.

In addition to missing Pasher, Sporting Kansas City will have to atone for the absences of U.S. Men’s National Team duo Matt Besler and Graham Zusi as well as Lebanon international forward Soony Saad.

On the injury front, Sporting KC Homegrown defender Erik Palmer-Brown will be sidelined with a thigh ailment after captaining the U.S. U-20s to a quarterfinal appearance at the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup last week. Long-term absentee Diego Rubio has been upgraded to questionable as he continues to recover from an ACL injury, while Latif Blessing (hip), Kevin Ellis (quad strain) and Roger Espinoza (lower back) are also day-to-day. Montreal, meanwhile, will have to cover for injured forward Matteo Mancosu (thigh).