Sporting Kansas City will entertain Houston Dynamo on Saturday as both sides look for a first victory of the Major League Soccer season.
The hosts lost their opening game of the campaign, while their visitors played out a goalless draw on home turf.
Match preview
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Sporting Kansas City impressed in the MLS last term, eventually finishing in third spot in the Western Conference with 58 points from their 34 games, booking a place in the playoffs as a result.
Peter Vermes's side met Vancouver Whitecaps in the first playoff round, and they progressed with a 3-1 aggregate victory before eventually being dumped out by Real Salt Lake after a close-fought two-legged affair ended in a 2-1 defeat.
With the manager now overseeing his 14th season in charge of the Kansas outfit, they headed into the 2022 campaign with high hopes, but the Wizards did not enjoy a winning start.
Vermes's men faced the tough task of a trip to Atlanta United, and they were sent home empty-handed after a 3-1 defeat, despite Daniel Salloi pulling them back within one goal with five minutes to go before Caleb Wiley sealed the three points for the hosts.
Sporting Kansas City will now look to quickly bounce back from that disappointing start and put their first win on the board as they welcome Houston Dynamo.
On the contrary to their opponents, Saturday's visitors had to endure a dismal season last time around, winning just six of their 34 games and collecting 30 points.
That saw the Texan outfit finish at the foot of the Western Conference, and they will have certainly come into the new year with the hopes of a far more impressive showing.
Now under the management of former Sporting Kansas City midfielder Paulo Nagamura, El Naranja began with a tough game against last season's Conference runners-up Real Salt Lake, and they earned a commendable point as the game ended in a goalless stalemate.
Following that positive start, Nagamura will now look to get one over on his former club and come out of a tough start with four points from two outings.
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Team News
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Sporting Kansas City will remain without Alan Pulido and Gadi Kinda due to injuries, while Oriol Rosell was forced off in the season opener.
New signing Jose Mauri replaced him but was himself substituted before full time, despite seemingly not being injured, and we are yet to see whether he will be deployed again.
Daniel Salloi should at least take confidence from his goal last time out, and he will again operate in the front three.
Houston Dynamo are set to come in with a clean bill of health, and Nagamura has little reason to make wholesale changes after a relatively impressive performance last time out.
Tim Parker and Daniel Steres will partner up at the heart of a back four after standing strong against Real Salt Lake.
At the other end of the pitch, Sebastian Ferreira should again lead the line after his arrival from Club Libertad prior to the start of the season.
Sporting Kansas City possible starting lineup:
Melia; Zusi, Isimat-Mirin, Fontas, Ndenbe; Walter, Espinoza, Tzionis; Russell, Shelton, Salloi
Houston Dynamo possible starting lineup:
Clark; Dorsey, Parker, Steres, Lundqvist; Baird, Rodriguez, Vera, Ceren, Picault; Ferreira
We say: Sporting Kansas City 1-1 Houston Dynamo
Following their differing performances last season, the hosts would expect to come into Saturday's clash as favourites, but their confidence will be hit by last weekend's defeat.
Houston Dynamo showed resilience to earn a point against Real Salt Lake, and we see a similar outcome taking place in Kansas with the visitors holding Vermes's side to a draw.
Top tip
Sam Varley
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Sporting Kansas City win with a probability of 58.28%. A draw had a probability of 22% and a win for Houston Dynamo had a probability of 19.71%.
The most likely scoreline for a Sporting Kansas City win was 1-0 with a probability of 10.17%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.94%) and 2-0 (9.75%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (10.37%), while for a Houston Dynamo win it was 0-1 (5.42%). The actual scoreline of 1-0 was predicted with a 10.2% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 1-0 win for Sporting Kansas City in this match.
