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Sporting Kansas City vs St. Louis City Predictions on November 5

MLS: MLS Cup Western Conference First Round-Game 1- Eduard Lowen and Alan Pulido Will Play Again in the Sporting Kansas City vs St. Louis City SC on Sunday

Sporting Kansas City is in prime position to advance to the next round of the MLS Cup Playoffs. This is after they got a big win on the road against the expansion side, St. Louis City SC in game one of the best-of-three series.

Sporting Kansas City SC vs St. Louis City SC at Children’s Mercy Park

Sporting Kansas City (3-1-1)

Sporting Kansas City did finish eighth in the MLS Western Conference. However, they are making it count as they defeated St. Louis City SC 4-1 in the first game of the best-of-three series. This is what Kansas City head coach, Peter Vermes, said about Gadi Kinda after the game (source: Jonathan Sigel of MLS Soccer):

“I thought he was a force today. He was exactly the person we needed when we brought him in here to begin with. Today he showed that he’s kind of back to himself, which was very important for us.”

Kinda scored one of Kansas City’s four goals in the 4-1 win over St. Louis CITY SC. Defeating their interstate rivals, St. Louis City SC. This intensity might be because of the strong finish Kansas City had to go through in order to even make the MLS Cup Playoffs. They then had a very tough game against the San Jose Earthquakes, where they won in penalties.

Note: The draw counted above was actually a penalty shootout win against the San Jose Earthquakes above.

St. Louis City SC (2-0-3)

St. Louis City SC finished first in the MLS Western Conference as an expansion team. It is an amazing story, however, they have also lost their last three games, including game one of the playoffs against Kansas City last week. This is what the head coach of the team, Bradley Carnell of St. Louis City SC, said about the game (source: Sydney Hunte):

“We’ve punched teams in the face like this a few times, and now we know what it feels like,” St. Louis head coach Bradley Carnell said postgame. “I think part of being a champion is also knowing how to lose, so tonight, we got knocked in the face.” Carnell added: “We couldn’t really respond in the moment, so we didn’t get rewarded for the moments that we got in front of goal, and we couldn’t really quite get those critical moments in our favor to turn the game around.”

READ MORE: “In My End Is My Beginning”: St. Louis City SC Lose to Minnesota

They will need to respond quickly as another loss in the next one or two games means the incredible MLS expansion story will meet an abrupt end. The game on the road for St. Louis will be a very tough game, as St. Louis is also not playing at top form at the moment. This is very different from the start of the MLS season, where St. Louis became the first-ever expansion team to win their first five games in MLS play.

Players To Watch for Both Teams and Injuries

Both teams have notable players that fans should watch out for. With Kansas City, Alan Pulido will be the man to watch, has he leads both teams in goals with 14. As for assists, Kansas City has two co-leaders in Dániel Sallói and Erik Thommy.

Talking about St. Louis, they have a balanced scoring attack, as they have two players, Nicholas Gioacchini and João Klauss with 10 goals each in all competitions. Their assist leader for 2023 is Eduard Löwen, who dished out nine assists for his club team this year.

As for injuries, Kansas City centre-back, Kortne Ford, is out with an achilles tendon surgery (source: transfermarkt). This is while Rasmus Elm, a midfielder for St. Louis, is out with a sports hernia (source: MLSSoccer staff)

Games Between Both Teams

Both Missouri teams have faced each other two times each. St. Louis has won two times against Kansas City at home, with a 4-0, and very recently a 4-1 win in the regular season against Sporting Kansas City. However, in the only game played in Kansas City so far, St. Louis City SC lost that game 2-1 at Children’s Mercy Park.

In that game, Pulido, the leading goal scorer for Kansas City, scored both goals, which helped them secure the home win over St. Louis.

Sporting Kansas City vs St. Louis City SC Predictions on the Rivalry Game

Prediction: Sporting Kansas City 1 – St. Louis City SC 1 (Kansas City Wins 4-3 in Penalties)

This is what Sallói said about the game coming up this Sunday in Kansas City (source: Jonathan Sigal of MLS Soccer):

“We have to finish the job because I don’t want to come back here,” Sallói deadpanned.

Sporting Kansas City will look to finish the job against St. Louis City SC. This is a rare opportunity for Kansas City to knock-off a first-seeded Western Conference team so early into the MLS Cup Playoffs. Expect St. Louis to come out with everything on the line. This game really can go either way, but since Kansas City are playing at home, the crowd will help them prevail in a penalty shoot-out win at Children’s Mercy Park. It may be their biggest chance as a loss would mean returning to St. Louis for the final and deciding game of the best-of-three MLS Cup Playoffs series between these two teams.

The game starts at 5:00 PM ET (4:00 PM CST in local time) and it will be shown live on Apple TV.

 

Photo Credit: Scott Rovak-USA TODAY Sports, of a Eduard Löwen Headshot and a Alan Pulido Headshot, on October 29, 2023.

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