Sporting KC, a founding member of Major League Soccer, will travel to face a new expansion team on Sunday.
Sporting Kansas City (2-1-1, 7 points) squares off with FC Cincinnati (2-2-1, 7 points) before a nationally televised audience on ESPN and ESPN Deportes.
Sunday’s cross-conference clash will kick off at 2 p.m. CT, airing live locally on Sports Radio 810 WHB (English) and ESPN Deportes KC 1480 AM (Spanish) with The Final Whistle postgame show immediately following on 810 WHB.
Led by 11th-year manager Peter Vermes, Sporting enters the match on the heels of two vastly dissimilar results in separate competitions. A record-breaking 7-1 league win over the Montreal Impact last Saturday at Children’s Mercy Park was followed by a humbling 5-0 setback at CF Monterrey in the first leg of the Concacaf Champions League Semifinals on Thursday.
Less than 72 hours removed from a stinging loss in Mexico, Sporting will look to reclaim the magic of last weekend’s performance that saw Krisztian Nemeth record a hat-trick, Johnny Russell strike twice and Gerso Fernandes record two assists.
Vermes’ men are unbeaten in three straight regular season fixtures since falling by the slimmest of margins at first-place LAFC on March 3, and a victory at Nippert Stadium would help absorb any lingering malaise of Thursday’s Champions League defeat.
Since the beginning of the MLS expansion era in 2005, Sporting is 9-3-3 in their inaugural meetings against expansion clubs. That record is certain to change on Sunday, and FC Cincinnati’s early-season form suggests the task will be far from simple.
Since suffering a 4-1 road loss at Seattle Sounders FC in their MLS debut, FC Cincinnati has rebounded to take seven points from their last four games. That stretch includes a 3-0 home win over the Portland Timbers on March 17 and a 2-0 triumph at New England Revolution a week later.
Cincinnati head coach Alan Koch- whose coaching career began at nearby Baker University in Baldwin City, Kansas, from 2006 to 2008 – has assembled a formidable first-year roster in MLS, having guided Cincy to the second-division USL Championship’s best regular season record last year.
Seven different players have accounted for the club’s seven goals in 2019, with forward Kekuta Manneh, winger Roland Lamah, midfielder Kenny Saief and center back Kendall Waston all scoring.
FC Cincinnati’s first defeat at the raucous Nippert Stadium came last Saturday in a rain-drenched 2-0 decision against the Philadelphia Union.
The hosts mustered just five shot attempts amid brutal playing conditions as the Union bagged second-half goals through Marco Fabian and David Accam. Waston was sidelined for the match with a calf injury but figures to return to the lineup against Sporting, while Cincinnati striker Fanendo Adi will likely miss out after violating the league’s substance abuse policy earlier this week.
Sunday marks the continuation of a scheduling quirk that will see Sporting play six of seven regular season fixtures against Eastern Conference opponents. The stretch began versus Montreal and continues a week from Sunday when Vermes’ side plays host to reigning Supporters’ Shield champion New York Red Bulls in a rematch of the 2017 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Final.
After a trip to the San Jose Earthquakes on April 20, Sporting will meet New England MLS Cup holders Atlanta United FC and D.C. United in consecutive match days from April 27 to May 12.
- Story from Sporting KC