Matchday: Sporting KC at New England

After a slight delay due to the weather in KC yesterday, the team arrived in Massachusetts last night for their match at 6:30pm CT this evening against the Revolution. The team dinner included some entertaining vocal performances by those on their first trip to New England, including Aurelien Collin and Milos Stojcev singing in their native languages and C.J. Sapong rapping with the aid of beatbox master Michael Harrington. 

SportingKC.com has much more on tonight's match and will again feature a live chat during the game, but here are a few noteworthy nuggets to set the stage for the contest:

• Neither team has recorded a shutout in six games, dating back to the 2010 season. New England's last clean sheet came against KC in the two teams' previous meeting on October 16th, while KC hasn't kept an opponent scoreless since a 2-0 win at Chicago on October 12th.
• After going unbeaten in their first four games of the 2011 season, New England enters on a two-game losing skid and have been shutout in back-to-back games. Meanwhile, Sporting KC opened the year with a 3-2 road win at Chivas USA, but have gone winless in their last three MLS matches and were held scoreless for the first time last weekend.
• New England has scored four of its five goals in 2011 in the first 30 minutes of the match. Sporting Kansas City has allowed nine goals in 2011, but none in the first 30 minutes.
• Following tonight, Sporting KC will travel to the top team in both conferences in consecutive matches. The red-hot Red Bulls will welcome Sporting KC next Saturday, followed by a trip to face the Western Conference-leading LA Galaxy on May 14th.

And last but certainly not least, this week's construction update for LIVESTRONG Sporting Park. Tonight's match marks the fifth of 10 road matches for Sporting Kansas City to start the season, but June 9th is shaping up to have been well worth the wait. Home, SWEET home...

Open publication