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While Sporting came away with a win Sunday night in Houston, they also came away with two big losses for this Sunday's match against DC United.
Both centerback Aurelien Collin and holding midfielder Oriol Rosell received their fifth yellow card of the season Sunday night, which means that they will be suspended for the next match.
Collin picked his up in the 24th minute after a bit of a late tackle on Ricardo Clark. You can see in the video below that Collin obviously did not believe he earned a card there and is visibly frustrated with the fact that he will be missing the next match.
In the 40th minute is was Rosell's turn to pick up a caution. He had been fouling in the midfield all match and the referee had finally had enough. He waited until Houston lost the advantage on the ball after the foul to bring Rosell over and show him the yellow card. This one was warranted because of Rosell's constant fouling in the midfield and it really made Rosell more careful for the rest of the match, as seen below.
This leaves Sporting Kansas City without a starting centerback and a holding midfielder for the match against DC United this Sunday. While many are thinking that this couldn't have come at a better time for Sporting given United's recent struggles, missing two starters is never a good thing.
Matt Besler has been MIA for the past three matches due to injury. If he is out again this Sunday, Sporting KC will be without both of its starting centerbacks and reigning Defender of the Year finalists. In that case, Sporting would only have two centerbacks on the roster, Lawrence Olum and Ike Opara. This may be a good opportunity for Peter Vermes to recall Yann Songo'o from Orlando City to provide some more centerback depth if indeed Besler is unavailable.
In response to the midfield I see Vermes doing what he did against Seattle when Nagamura was suspended, and that is keeping the same formation and inserting Peterson Joseph into the midfield in the place of Rosell. It worked for the match and will probably be the solution coming up this Sunday.