Unbeaten in eight games across all competition, Sporting Kansas City (6-2-6, 3rd place) will resume the team’s regular season campaign against Real Salt Lake (4-5-6, 9th place) at Rio Tinto Stadium in a Father’s Day edition of MLS Soccer Sunday.
The Week 16 finale will be nationally televised at 9 p.m. on FOX Sports 1 to conclude 12 straight hours of soccer coverage on the network.
The Western Conference match-up features two teams that have reached the postseason in each of the last four years, highlighted by a meeting in the 2013 MLS Cup final. Sporting Kansas City prevailed in a penalty kick shootout and is unbeaten in five straight against RSL dating back to 2012. Seven of the 11 starters for each team in MLS Cup 2013 remain on their rosters ahead of Sunday’s rematch.
The clubs have played back-to-back scoreless stalemates since squaring off in MLS Cup, including this year’s lone encounter in April at Sporting Park. Real Salt Lake was missing Designated Players Joao Plata and Sebastian Jaime, both of whom have since returned from injury, and was held without a shot on goal for only the fourth time in team history.
Real Salt Lake has been shutout seven times through 15 games in 2015, most in MLS and matching the team’s total from all of last season, but has salvaged points in four of those seven matches courtesy of 0-0 results. Goalkeeper Nick Rimando has kept the most clean sheets in MLS history (121) and, along with RSL captain Kyle Beckerman, led all active players in MLS appearances.
His counterpart on Sunday, Tim Melia, returns to face his former club after beginning his MLS career with Real Salt Lake from 2010 to 2011. Melia is unbeaten (5-0-2) with a 0.43 goals against average since becoming the starting goalkeeper for Sporting Kansas City in May and is riding a 386-minute shutout streak after recording his fourth consecutive shutout in Tuesday’s 1-0 victory over St. Louis FC (USL) in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.
Chance Myers returned to the field on Tuesday after a year-long absence and Sporting Kansas City is now set to welcome back striker Krisztian Nemeth (Hungary) and homegrown defender Erik Palmer-Brown (US U-20’s) from international duty. Nemeth, the reigning MLS Player of the Month, leads the team with six goals this season, while Benny Feilhaber is second in MLS with seven assists and has goals in three of his last four MLS matches.
Led by Jeff Cassar, Real Salt Lake has lost just twice in 25 MLS matches (including postseason) at Rio Tinto Stadium since he became head coach prior to the 2014 season. Sporting Kansas City handed RSL its first loss at the venue in 2009 and won there in the team’s most recent trip in 2013 with a 97th-minute game winner.
RSL will likely be without four central defenders — Jamison Olave, Chris Schuler, Elias Vasquez and Justen Glad — on Sunday due to injury and international duty, leaving Cassar with two available centerbacks in Phanuel Kavita and Aaron Maund. Kavita made his professional debut on Tuesday in Real Salt Lake’s 2-1 win over Seattle Sounders FC 2 (USL) in the U.S. Open Cup, replacing fellow homegrown signing Justen Glad.
Sunday’s affair will be the third MLS match in Sporting KC’s 20-year history to fall on Father’s Day and the first since 1999 when Chris Henderson set a team record with four assists in a 6-0 victory over New York at Arrowhead Stadium.
Local radio listeners can tune in to La Grande 1340 AM for the live match broadcast and/or Sports Radio 810 WHB for The Final Whistle postgame show. In-game updates will also be available at SportingKC.com/GameOn, via Twitter courtesy of @SKCGameday and through the Sporting Club Uphoria mobile app.
– Story from Sporting KC