Sporting Kansas City face the difficult task of limiting Cristian Arango when they face Western Conference-leading Real Salt Lake in Sandy, Utah, on Saturday night.
Arango has eight goals and seven assists for Salt Lake (5-2-3, 18 points), a rate of production that has carried the Claret-and-Cobalt and pushed Arango into the league’s early MVP chatter.
“You can’t leave him alone for a second,” Kansas City coach Peter Vermes said. “So for us, it’s going to be a game of being very focused and concentrated.”
That isn’t where SKC (2-3-5, 11 points) have excelled, conceding 11 goals over a four-match winless run (0-2-2) and at least two in each contest.
That has counteracted an attack that has been finding its footing. Five SKC players have now scored multiple goals, led by Erik Thommy’s four, and the team had scored multiples in six consecutive matches prior to last weekend’s 2-1 defeat at Minnesota United.
And while Mexican striker Alan Pulido has not lived up to expectations for Kansas City in scoring, coach Pablo Mastroeni believes SKC are more threatening than people realize.
“They’ve been down in games, in quite a few games this year, and found their way back, from 2-0, from 3-0, to make it a contest,” Mastroeni said. “I think their front line is one of the more dynamic front lines that we’ll encounter.”
But all but one of SKC’s multi-goal efforts this season has come as the home side, and that was against a Toronto FC team that has been struggling with injuries and roster depth.
Meanwhile, Salt Lake’s strong start has come despite playing six of its 10 matches on the road. It continues a trend from last season when Mastroeni’s side was the rare MLS team that earned more than half of its victories as the away side.
Saturday’s clash will begin the reversal of that uneven scheduling dynamic, with the Claret-and-Cobalt playing four of their next seven league games at home.
–Field Level Media
