Sporting KC and FC Dallas, the two teams atop the Western Conference standings entering this weekend, go head-to-head Sunday for the chance to claim first place in the Supporters’ Shield standings.
The match at Toyota Stadium marks the first of Sporting KC’s three straight road games to close out April. The nationally televised match will be broadcast live at 6 p.m. on FS1 and FOX Deportes, with a live radio broadcast on La Grande 1340 AM.
Sporting KC comes off a narrow home loss Wednesday night, where manager Peter Vermes’ men fell 2-1 to the Colorado Rapids on the 20th anniversary of the teams’ inaugural match.
FC Dallas, meanwhile, comes off a 3-1 victory over the Portland Timbers on Wednesday. FC Dallas (4-1-2, 14 points) currently sits atop the Western Conference, two points ahead of second-place Sporting KC (4-2-0, 12 points). Sunday’s match will be the first of three regular season meetings between the teams this year.
Last season, all four match-ups between Sporting KC and FC Dallas resulted in a multi-goal win for the home team.
FC Dallas came out on top in the first meeting at Toyota Stadium, triumphing 3-1 in March. Sporting KC responded with three straight wins at Children’s Mercy Park, winning handily in May with a 4-0 victory and taking home another three points with a 3-1 victory in September.
Sporting KC also beat FC Dallas 6-2 in July during the club’s run to the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup title. Such high-scoring games are not uncommon in meetings between Kansas City and Dallas. Eleven of the past 13 meetings across all competitions have produced three or more goals.
Despite Sporting KC’s recent string of injuries, last Saturday’s match against the New York Red Bulls saw the return of central defender Ike Opara, who also played 90 minutes against Colorado on Wednesday.
Captain Matt Besler and Brad Davis have recently recovered from concussions, with Davis entering Wednesday’s game as a substitute in the second half. Davis is also one game shy of his 400th career MLS match An appearance on Sunday would make him the fifth player in MLS history to reach 400 games played.
FC Dallas enters the weekend with an MLS-best 13 goals scored and owns a 27-6-5 regular season home record since the start of 2014.
Oscar Pareja’s side is the only team in MLS to have three players with at least three goals — Maxi Urruti, Michael Barrios and Tesho Akindele, who has scored in three straight games. Sunday could also see the return of midfielder Mauro Diaz, who leads MLS with four assists but has missed three straight matches with a leg injury.
– Story from Sporting KC