Sporting Kansas City looks to win its third consecutive
match in Tuesday night's away visit to a strong Philadelphia team. The Union
are hot on the heels of the New York Red Bulls whilst Sporting are just not
hot.
Fans of soccer in Kansas City have been waiting a long time
for soccer to return with style and they finally got their reward with
Sporting's first win at the brand new stadium.
K.C. had been on a 10-game road trip to begin the season
while the finishing touches were done, and have now played twice at the
luxurious Livestrong Sporting Park.
The first was a dull 0-0 draw against the Chicago Fire but
in its most recent game on Friday, Sporting grabbed that historic victory,
outlasting the San Jose Earthquakes 1-0.
CJ Sapong was the hero, bagging the winner in the first-half
of action. The win extended Kansas City's unbeaten streak to five matches.
Since picking up great results over the Chicago Fire (2-1)
and Toronto FC (6-2), the Union have not won at all in their three most recent
matches.
Even worse, they head into Tuesday's game fresh off an
embarrassing, and totally unpredicted, 0-1 loss to what many consider to be the worst team in the league,
the Vancouver Whitecaps.
Perhaps a return home to the City of Brotherly Love will be
just what the doctor ordered for Peter Vermes' side.
It's a shame the soccer lines for this matchup between
Philadelphia and Kansas City had not been made available at time of writing,
but it's safe to assume that the Union will be favored.
If you don’t already then bookmark this page and come back
as we will have the soccer odds from top books below as soon as they become
available.
Three points up for the taking in Eastern Conference
battle
With Guatemala exiting the Gold Cup (losing 1-2 to Mexico - closer than I thought),
it'll be interesting to see if Carlos Ruiz returns for Philadelphia to feature
this coming Tuesday.
A veteran forward, Ruiz has scored three goals so far this
season. He's joined in the attack by Sebastien Le Toux, a Frenchman who has
been a regular in the starting XI for Sporting.
However, we've talked about this before and it's worth
touching over once more. The Union have had such a great run up until this
point because of their cohesive defense, which has only allowed 12 goals on the
year.
That is second in the entire MLS behind only Real Salt Lake.
Note that Philadelphia's form has dropped off recently though, the team now
failing to record a shutout since all the way back on April 30 versus San Jose.
Kansas City meanwhile is playing exceptionally well at the
moment and is without question a much better squad than its position in the
Eastern Conference table might suggest.
In truth, Sporting has played less games than everyone in
the standings and the team's minus-3 goal differential is better than four
other franchises that are currently higher in the race.
What that means is that this will be a tough test for the
Union, and if they head into the game over-confident and doubt K.C.'s ability,
they could very well be in for a second successive defeat.
The fact of the matter is that Sporting is in good spirits
right now and, in soccer betting, I'm banking on another respectable result up in Philadelphia. A
third straight victory for Kansas City may not be in store, but expect a tight
outcome in Tuesday's MLS action nonetheless.
FREE Pick: Philadelphia 1 Kansas City 1