Two teams looking to build momentum ahead of the Concacaf Gold Cup break will lock horns Friday when Sporting Kansas City (3-5-6, 15 points) ventures north of the border to face Toronto FC (5-6-3, 18 points) in a 6 p.m. kickoff.
FOX Sports Kansas City Plus, FOX Sports Midwest Plus and FOX Sports Go will provide three hours of live coverage beginning at 5:30 p.m., while listeners can catch the action on ESPN 94.5 FM (English) and ESPN Deportes KC (Spanish). Additional in-game updates will be available via the Sporting KC App.
Manager Peter Vermes’ men are set to play their second of five away matches during the month of June, having earned a 1-1 tie at the Houston Dynamo last Saturday.
Frenchman Yohan Croizet fired the visitors ahead near the hour mark with a superb chip shot, but Houston equalized shortly thereafter through Alberth Elis.
With 14 MLS fixtures played and 20 to go, Sporting occupies 10th place in the Western Conference and sits four points below the seventh and final playoff spot.
Toronto stormed to a historic treble of trophies in 2017, winning the MLS Cup, Supporters’ Shield and Canadian Championship, but crashed back to earth last year and missed the playoffs.
Head coach Greg Vanney’s team most recently scrapped to a 1-1 road draw at Vancouver Whitecaps FC last Friday, as substitute Nick DeLeon bagged a 90th-minute equalizer to halt the Reds’ losing streak at two games.
Sporting and Toronto have experienced similar ups and downs in 2019, storming out of the gates before hitting a springtime slump.
After hammering Toluca and Independiente in the Champions League and hanging seven goals on the Montreal Impact, Sporting has earned just one win in its last 10 league matches. Toronto began the season with three straight wins but has gone 2-6-3 since then, and its current six-game winless drought is the longest active skid in MLS.
Through their highs and lows, Toronto has seen unquestioned consistency from midfielder Alejandro Pozuelo. The 27-year-old Spaniard joined TFC at the start of the season and has recorded five goals and six assists across 11 MLS appearances, ranking fourth in the league in chances created.
Sporting has ruled the head-to-head series with an iron fist. Vermes’ side is 11-1-4 in the last 16 meetings against Toronto, going unbeaten in nine straight since 2013 with a 6-0-3 record. Toronto’s 14 regular-season losses to Sporting are their second-most against any MLS opponent.
Perhaps more remarkably, Sporting is 4-0-3 in its last seven visits to BMO Field and hasn’t lost at the venue since April 2009. Toronto last beat Sporting in March 2013, a 1-0 home win at Rogers Centre. Kansas City’s five road wins in Toronto (5-3-4 overall) are the second-most in MLS history behind D.C. United’s eight.
Neither team will be at full strength on Friday, largely because national teams across the globe will take the field this weekend.
Sporting will be without European quartet Botond Barath, Krisztian Nemeth, Nico Hasler and Johnny Russell, all of whom have traveled abroad for UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying.
Toronto, meanwhile, has been stripped of numerous Concacaf Gold Cup participants, including influential Americans Jozy Altidore and Michael Bradley and Canadian Jonathan Osorio.
Sporting’s ever-improving bill of health could ease the effects of four international absences. Important contributors Gerso Fernandes, Andreu Fontas, Jimmy Medranda, Daniel Salloi and Graham Zusi have all missed time this spring, but none is on the club’s injury report going into Friday. Captain Matt Besler is questionable with a hamstring injury, while Roger Espinoza remains out as he rehabs a PCL sprain in his knee.
- Story from Sporting KC