Sporting KC v Colorado Rapids: Preview, Predictions and How to Watch

Sporting KC vs. Colorado Rapids

When: Wednesday, May 18th, 2022 at 7:30 PM CT (Kickoff 7:38)

Where: Children’s Mercy Park

How to Watch/Stream: 38 the Spot | ESPN+ (out of market) | SportingKC.com & SKC App (in market) | Sporting One App on Roku, Apple TV and Fire TV

How to Listen: La Grande 1340 AM (Spanish)

Three days. That’s all the time between a road meltdown against the Portland Timbers before Sporting Kansas City have to come home, with two suspended players, and try to prove that was out of character. Sadly, their record shows otherwise this year so far. They are just 2-7-3 in league play and one point above the last place Vancouver Whitecaps who have two games in hand. They are worst in MLS in points per game.

A 7-2 beating they took on Saturday can go one of two ways. It can be the wakeup call that their previously abysmal record somehow wasn’t. Or it can be just another bad moment in a bad season. We’ll see what team shows up on Wednesday. Maybe teams will start rotating their squad against KC since they’ve been so bad to preserve their players for better opponents.

Sporting will welcome the Colorado Rapids to town for the first time in 2022. The teams already played once in Commerce City in March when Colorado won 2-0. The Rapids currently occupy the seventh and final playoff spot in the Western Conference and have a six point advantage in the standings (it seems like it should be more) with one game in hand.

Colorado’s Recent Form

• April 16th @ Minnesota United — 1-3 Loss
• April 23rd vs. Charlotte FC — 0-0 Draw
• April 30th vs. Portland Timbers — 2-0 Win
• May 7th @ San Jose Earthquakes — 0-1 Loss
• May 14th vs. LAFC — 2-0 Win

The Rapids also have a 2-1 loss to Minnesota in the US Open Cup in there too. So they have just as a congested schedule as Sporting, so no advantages there. The difference is pretty obvious when you look at recent form or the whole season. Colorado are very good at home (4-0-2) and abysmal on the road (0-4-1). So Kansas City need to take advantage.

What’s New for Colorado Since these Teams Last Met?

As mentioned, the teams played on March 12th. Head back to our previous preview for a breakdown of the Rapids moves prior to that date. Here are the moves since that date.

IN: Colorado have two additions, but none bigger than USMNT striker Gyasi Zardes from the Columbus Crew. He arrived via trade on April 22nd and has already logged 290 minutes in four games and got his first goal against Los Angeles FC. The other move is acquiring center back Gustavo Vallecilla from FC Cincinnati via trade. The defender has 120 minutes, including one start, across four appearances.

OUT: The only subtraction is forward Andre Shinyashiki who was traded to Charlotte FC after he became a luxury with the arrival of Zardes. Shinyashiki is a promising player who won rookie of the year, but hasn’t quite had the spark since his first season in MLS.

Injuries/Availability*

Sporting KC

OUT - Alan Pulido (knee surgery), Gadi Kinda (SEI - knee surgery), Nicolas Isimat-Mirin (concussion, facial fracture), Ozzie Cisneros (hamstring), Roger Espinoza (yellow card accumulation), Robert Voloder (red card)

QUESTIONABLE - Graham Zusi (leg strain)

*This will be updated based on the official injury report. Right now this is a guess, but if I wanted to get wild with my guesses I’d add Johnny Russell who was holding his hamstring a ton against Portland.

Colorado

OUT - Braian Galván (right knee), Aboubacar Keita (torn ACL right knee), Oliver Larraz (right leg)

QUESTIONABLE - Jack Price (hamstring), Danny Wilson (hamstring)

Stats

Sporting KC

Goals: Johnny Russell (3), Remi Walter, Daniel Salloi (2), Marinos Tzionis, Roger Espinoza (1)

Assists: Felipe Hernandez (3), Cam Duke (2), Daniel Salloi, Ben Sweat (1)

Colorado

Goals: Diego Rubio (6), Mark-Anthony Kaye (3), four with one (1)

Assists: Michael Barrios (4), Lucas Esteves (3), Jack Price (2), three with one (1)

Starting XI Predictions

This will get it’s own story. Look for it closer to game day.

Predictions

Low attendance. I mean, it is a midweek game coming off one of the worst games in team history. Weather wise it’ll be pretty solid and tickets should be cheap, but it’s hard to imagine it’ll be a well attended game. But you aren’t here for attendance predications.

As for results of the game, it’s hard to have positive thoughts after Saturday’s embarrassing debacle. You would hope the team would have pride and come out and put up a fight.

I’ve sadly been saying it for weeks I can’t predict anything positive until the team shows me something. That said, I’ve predicted a bunch of draws, which is probably too positive for the way things are going right now. Catastrophic losses until proven otherwise (I don’t really believe this, but I couldn’t believe the 7-2 scoreline either — a draw is probably a much more reasonable prediction).

3-1 Colorado Win

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