FC Kansas City hosts Chicago in last regular season match

FC Kansas City will play their last match of the regular season today and can clinch home field advantage throughout the playoffs with a tie or a win. The Blues and the other three playoff teams have already been decided but final standings and home field advantage are still up for grabs.

FC Kansas City could have clinched the top spot last weekend but they saw their ten game win streak brought to a halt when they lost 1-0 in Boston in a listless effort. "We weren't putting much into the streak anyway, we just had a good spell and we were in form. We weren't saying we can't break the streak," defender Becky Sauerbrunn explained. "It was a little bit of a wakeup call, we know we can't not give 100% in a game and expect to win. It's nice to know that we have to be serious, we have to execute and make good decisions."

"A couple of things accumulated in that game, one being maybe we just weren't as on point as we should have been, poor decision making, we were a little slow, not a lot of energy," Sauerbrunn continued. "Playing at Sky Blue and then at Portland, two huge wins maybe took a little bit more out of us than we were expecting. The third game on the road, we were a little more tired than we were expecting, we just couldn't find the energy to carry us through the game."

The Blues face the Chicago Red Stars, a team that has given them some trouble this season. In their last meeting the Red Stars erased a two goal deficit in the closing minutes and stoppage time to pull out a 3-3 result.

The Blues scoring leader Lauren Holiday is looking forward to facing Chicago again. "We are ready for this game, last time we had an unfortunate result against Chicago and I think all of us are excited to play again. They fought back so hard and we know how competitive of a team they are. We are excited for that battle. Having this game at home gives more incentive and to earn a playoff bid at home is huge for us."

The Blues and Red Stars kickoff is at 3:10 PM on Verizon Wireless Field (Shawnee Mission District Stadium) in Overland Park. The La Barra KC supporters group will be joined by the KC Yard Birds and the KC Blue Crew for a pregame tailgate across from the stadium at Don Chilitos.