KNOCKOUT ROUND
NEW YORK RED BULLS vs SPORTING KANSAS CITY
Thur., Oct. 30, 2014, Red Bull Arena, Harrison, New Jersey
(8 p.m. ET; ESPN2, ESPN Deportes in US, TSN1 in Canada)
The MLS Cup Playoffs, presented by AT&T, continue Thursday with a rematch from Sunday's regular-season finale between the New York Red Bulls and Sporting Kansas City. The Red Bulls' 2-0 win at Sporting Park gave them home-field advantage, but the club have not advanced in the playoffs since winning a Knockout Round game on the road in 2011, losing to the LA Galaxy in 2011, D.C. United in 2012 and the Houston Dynamo in 2013. Sporting Kansas City won the Eastern Conference playoffs last year, only to lose in heartbreaking fashion in a shootout in the MLS Cup final.
Which team will win this game?
REFEREE: Armando Villarreal
AR1 (bench): Peter Manikowski
AR2 (opposite): Brian Dunn
4th: Silviu Petrescu
SUSPENDED: none
WARNINGS: none
LEAGUE HEAD-TO-HEAD:
NY 20 wins (2 SO), 63 goals … KC 19 wins (2 SO), 64 goals … Ties 12
2014 HEAD-TO-HEAD:
NY 2 wins, 5 goals … KC 0 wins, 2 goals … Ties 1
AT RED BULL ARENA:
9/6: NY 2, KC 1 (Wright-Phillips 11; Henry 52 – Dwyer 54)
MLS CUP PLAYOFFS: First meeting.
NEW YORK RED BULLS
- The Red Bulls gained home-field advantage for the Knockout Round game by putting an end to a seven-game winless streak on the road in the 2-0 win at Sporting KC on Sunday. It was their first win away from Red Bull Arena since June 8; the Red Bulls had a seven-game home winning streak ended Oct. 19.
- “This was one of the more enjoyable games since I’ve been a coach, because you put a game plan out and you watch it executed, it’s a fun thing,” said Red Bulls head coach Mike Petke. “That’s not always the case, but these guys were disciplined, they did exactly what we wanted to do and I’m happy for them. We didn’t celebrate like we won anything. It’s just a good thing now we can go home and have a home game.”
- Bradley Wright-Phillips equaled the all-time MLS single-season goalscoring record with two goals, finishing the year with 27 league goals.
- “The 27 goals, they almost don’t matter now. It’s a new season for me,” said Wright-Phillips. “I want to be the top goal scorer or up there in the playoffs. I want to get as many goals as I can. It’s a new season, so that’s how I’m going to treat it. When you see me on Thursday, I’ll be as hungry ever.”
- Thierry Henry missed out on the season finale with Achilles tendon inflammation but returned to training this week.
- “You could see in the Columbus game that there were a number of players that were just a little bit off. … He was one of those guys and I think he started really feeling both of them after,” Petke said. “The reason why we left him home is really because if it was just one of them like it’s been in the past, we’d have him come and get some treatment. But the fact that both were flaring up, it was not a difficult decision.”
- The Red Bulls ended the season with two wins and a draw in their three meetings with Sporting KC. Wright-Phillips scored four of the Red Bulls' five goals vs. SKC.
- “The thing that stuck out was defensively we limited Kansas City’s chances,” said goalkeeper Luis Robles. “Realistically, they only had the one in the beginning with [Dom] Dwyer and after that we won every second ball, were chasing balls down and it was a performance that we can really be proud of.”
SPORTING KANSAS CITY
- Sporting KC begin defense of their 2013 MLS Cup title with losses in their last two regular-season matches and just two wins in their last 10 MLS games (2-7-1), four wins in their last 14 games in all competitions (4-8-2).
- “It's what we have right now,” midfielder Paulo Nagamura said. “We cannot make any excuse. We have to deal with who we have in our group now. It's a short turnaround, only four days, but we're playing the team we just played, and the guys are going to come back with a different energy and mentality, I believe.”
- Said defender Matt Besler: “We still feel we're one of the best teams in the league. We've been through a lot of experiences. We've gotten knocked out of the playoffs. We've been knocked out at home. We've won cups. We've played in [CONCACAF] Champions League. We feel like we have a lot of experience.”
- Sporting have some real injury concerns entering the Knockout Round match. Midfielder Benny Feilhaber suffered a sprained ankle in the CONCACAF Champions League match vs. Deportivo Saprissa at midweek before the season finale and is questionable. Fullback Igor Juliao suffered a hamstring strain in the same match. Both players traveled with the squad for Thursday's game.
- “Our mindset has to be on getting recovered,” SKC manager Peter Vermes said. “The difficulty we have at the moment is that we’ve played a boatload of games with a squad that’s already been depleted, and we keep trying to plug holes, and it hasn’t been easy.”
- Both teams faced CONCACAF matches at midweek before the season finale, but Sporting saw three of their first-choice back four play the full 90 minutes in that match and the MLS season finale, while New York had already been eliminated from Champions League contention and was able to rest players.
- “To me, this isn’t a bad loss from the point of view that the guys fought and tried,” Vermes said. “They’re just tired. One is you make technical or tactical errors, and the other is you make psychological errors when you’re tired, and the guys are.”
- Said fullback Seth Sinovic: “Every team has guys who are fatigued. It's late in the year. It's going to be pretty common. But that's not really an excuse for tonight. We didn't play as well as we're capable of. We got beat at our own place, and we're not happy about that. But that's all in the past now. It's a new season. It's the playoffs.”
