KANSAS CITY – Sporting Kansas City takes part in the second run of Leagues Cup this Sunday, July 28. Sporting KC is in Group D along with the Chicago Fire from MLS and Toluca out of Liga MX. This weekend, Chicago comes to Kansas City for the first game of the group.
Chicago and SKC rarely match up as they are in different conferences so this should be fun to see these two teams meet. Both Sporting and Chicago have not had good seasons at all. SKC sits at 12th in the Western Conference and Chicago is at 14th in the Eastern Conference. Chicago actually has 25 points which is one more than SKC.
Each team is taking this event very seriously as they want to salvage something from this season and it is unlikely either team will reach the playoffs so this is their best chance for a trophy.
Willy Agada has been scoring like crazy these last few weeks. He leads the team in goals this year, with nine of them in MLS play. More impressively, he has scored five goals in five games. He wants to keep this momentum going! The best part about Agada is his passion and personality. He plays with his heart, always has a smile on his face, and continues to give credit to his teammates.
Hugo Cuypers also has been good for Chicago. He has nine goals as well. This game could be a battle to see who will surpass the other in goals. Alongside Cuypers it is always exciting to see European legend, Xherdan Shaqiri. Shaqiri has not participated in a game since mid-May for Chicago, and he will not be available for Sunday’s game either.
SKC has extended its roster for Leagues Cup pulling up a few players from their reserve team, SKC2. Also, big news for SKC fans is Logan Ndembe will be back on the roster according to Peter Vermes but he will not be starting.
Sporting’s performance in last year’s Leagues Cup was pretty solid. They did well in their group games defeating Chivas but struggled against Cincinatti losing in penalties. They still made it out of the group stage but Toluca slaughtered them in the round of 32 sending SKC packing. Vermes mentioned in a recent press conference that if they had beaten Cincinnati, they might’ve been able to make a decent run but that wasn’t the case.
A win tomorrow for SKC is huge for their chances at Leagues Cup since it puts them in a great spot. Being able to play both matches at home is very important as well. SKC has built a bit of momentum in MLS play and will plan to utilize that momentum against the Chicago Fire at 8 PM CT at Children’s Mercy Park. The game is streaming on Apple TV!
