Just three days after squaring off in MLS regular season play at Children’s Mercy Park, Sporting Kansas City and Vancouver Whitecaps FC travel to Canada for a rematch in the Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League.
The game at BC Place in Vancouver will stream live on CONCACAF’s official Facebook Page, while additional live updates will be available via the SportingKC.com Match Tracker and through the club’s official mobile app Sporting KC Uphoria. The game is at 9 p.m.
Sporting Kansas City topped Vancouver 2-0 on Saturday behind goals from Jacob Peterson and Benny Feilhaber, moving into a tie for fourth place in the Western Conference while condemning Whitecaps FC to their fourth straight league defeat. Manager Peter Vermes’ men are now 6-1-3 all-time against the Canadian club, including a five-game unbeaten run, heading into the first meeting outside of regular season competition.
Carl Robinson’s Whitecaps have struggled in recent weeks, but they enter Tuesday with a slight advantage over their MLS counterparts in Group C. While Sporting Kansas City could only muster a 2-2 draw in their CONCACF Champions League opener last week at Central FC, Vancouver claimed a 1-0 road win over the Trinidadian outfit on Aug. 2.
Consequently, a loss on Tuesday would be fatal to Sporting Kansas City’s hopes of winning the group. Vancouver would open up a commanding five-point lead with a victory and simply need a home win against underdogs Central FC to progress to next February’s quarterfinals.
Despite Sporting Kansas City’s precarious position in Group C, the club approaches the midweek fixture with no shortage of confidence, having beaten Vancouver twice at home this season while drawing 1-1 on April 27 at BC Place. Dom Dwyer bagged a brace in a 2-1 home win on March 12 before Feilhaber and Peterson were on target in Saturday’s comfortable triumph. The last time the clubs met in Vancouver, Christian Bolanos and Diego Rubio opened their MLS scoring accounts in a stalemate that saw Kendall Waston receive a red card for his second bookable offense in the 51st minute.
Amid a grueling stretch of five games in 15 days and with a cross-country trip to the Philadelphia Union looming this weekend, Sporting Kansas City may flex its depth in multiple positions. Vermes has rotated his lineup heavily over the last 10 days and is tasked with finding the right combination ahead of a two-game road trip that begins in British Columbia and ends 3,000 miles eastward in Pennsylvania.
Sporting Kansas City’s Matt Besler has returned to full fitness and played 90 minutes on Saturday, but fellow center back Ike Opara is questionable as he recovers from a heel contusion. Goalkeeper Tim Melia (back spasms), Chance Myers (hamstring) and Seth Sinovic (ankle) are likely absences through injury, while Nuno Coelho’s availability is up in the air after he was forced to exit Saturday at halftime.
A six-game winless skid in MLS has dropped Whitecaps FC to ninth in the Western Conference table. With their playoff hopes hanging by a thread, Robinson’s side will treat Tuesday’s showdown as an opportunity to salvage their 2016 campaign. Midfielder Matias Laba and defender Tim Parker, regular starters who were rested on Saturday, are probable additions to the starting lineup as Vancouver looks to take a stranglehold of Group C.
Vancouver is competing in the CONCACAF Champions League for the second straight season, having crashed from this stage last fall in a difficult group that contained first-place finisher Seattle Sounders FC and Honduran powerhouse Olimpia. Sporting Kansas City is making its third Champions League appearance over the last four years, suffering elimination in the 2013-2014 quarterfinals and the 2014-2015 group stage, and will look to snap a four-game road winless run in the tournament as well as a seven-game road winless run in all competitions.
– Story from Sporting KC