Sporting Kansas City vs Philadelphia Union Prediction: Sort out the defense Philadelphia!

Sporting Kansas City and Philadelphia Union are two very ambitious teams with high hopes for the new season. They both failed to win their opening game of the season and you can tell, there's a feeling of dissatisfaction in both clubs. 

Sporting Kansas City played a 1-1 draw away at Houston Dynamo and Philadelphia Union managed to hold Chicago Fire to a 2-2 draw.

The objective of both clubs in round 2 is clear and that is to get their first win of the season by all means possible.

Sporting Kansas City

Sporting Kansas City have high hopes for this game. They will be playing on home soil for the first time in the new campaign and they hope that will be a significant advantage to help them get their first win.

In their last game, they played a 1-1 draw against Houston Dynamo. They were not up to standard and they have Erik Thommy to thank for the opening goal. Kansas City head coach Peter Joseph Vermes played a traditional 4-3-3 formation in the game against Houston Dynamo. It was a tough set up for the team as they struggled to keep possession throughout the game. Statistics showed they managed just 40% possession and they had 2 shots on target and 3 corner kicks. Sporting Kansas also failed to create any big scoring chances during the game and the team had to rely on the defense to keep the game level. 

Ahead of the fixture against Sporting Kansas, Joseph Vermes may look to make a lot of changes to the squad. Daniel Sallói, Alan Pulido and Johnny Russell were subbed off at one point in the game after failing to make any significant mark on the pitch. Whether Vermes will play this front 3 once again is a huge doubt after such an abysmal display in the first game.

Philadelphia Union

Playing a draw at home on the opening day was not how Philadelphia Union imagined the season would begin but it is what it is and they need to get the first win as soon as possible.

In the first game against Chicago Fire, Philadelphia Union went behind twice and thanks to Mikael Uhre and Daniel Gazdag for both goals, they would have ended the game in a defeat. Looking at the statistics, Philadelphia Union had a much brighter game than Chicago Fire. They controlled much of the possession (54%) and they played 6 shots on target and 10 corner kicks. They also created 5 big chances and hit the woodwork once during the game. 

Philadelphia Union manager Jim Curtin deployed a 4-3-1-2 formation in the game against Chicago Fire and his instructions were to be on the front foot in attack. However conceding 2 goals is surely raising a few eyebrows already. And it is something he will need to correct ahead of the second game. The defensive fracture was another huge reason when they played a 3-3 draw with Saprissa in the CONCACAF Champions League a few days ago. So, ahead of the game against Sporting Kansas, Jim Curtin will need to make a lot of changes to the backline.

Head to Head

According to the h2h data, there's been 20 matches played in the past between Sporting Kansas City and Philadelphia Union and both clubs won 7 matches. While they drew 6 matches against each other.

Analysis and Predictions

Philadelphia Union are looking brilliant in attack and that should help them get a few goals for themselves. But defensively they are poor and you can count on them conceding at least once because of that. Sporting Kansas City looks poor in attack and Joseph Vermes might need to work on that. Either way, it's a positive game for both sides and the goalscoring tendency is high.

According to the h2h, there's been less than 2.5 goals scored in 6 of the last 7 matches and less than 4.5 cards in 8 of the last 10 matches.

• Both Teams to Score at 1.68 Odds
• Both Teams to Score at 1.66 Odds
• Daniel Gazdag to Score Anytime at 3.40 Odds