By The Numbers presented by KDOT: #SKCvVAN - March 12, 2016

"By The Numbers" is sponsored by The Kansas Department of Transportation. Did you know that St. Patrick’s Day is one of the deadliest holidays due to the number of drunk drivers on the road? The St. Patrick’s Day holiday period from 2010 to 2014 saw the loss of 266 lives due to drunk-driving crashes in Kansas. Be safe and designate a sober driver."

Two teams who qualified for the 2015 postseason go head-to-head Saturday when Sporting KC (1-0-0, 3 points) hosts Vancouver Whitecaps FC (0-1-0, 0 points) at newly-named Children's Mercy Park. The match is set to kick off at 7:30 p.m. CT and will be televised live on KMCI-TV 38 The Spot in Kansas City and on SKCTV across the Midwest. Listeners can catch the game on Sports Radio 810 WHB and La Grande 1340 AM.

Sporting KC holds the upper hand in the regular season series with Vancouver and will look to improve upon its already impressive record in home openers. We take a statistical look at the Western Conference clash in our By The Numbers preview…

Head-to-head

• Sporting KC is 4-1-2 against Vancouver in the regular season and 2-0-1 in games at Children's Mercy Park.
• Sporting KC won both meetings in 2015, a 1-0 road result on July 12 and a thrilling 4-3 home victory on Aug. 15 that saw the club erase a two-goal deficit in the final 10 minutes plus stoppage time — a feat that had been done just once before in MLS history.
• Vancouver's lone win in the series came on Aug. 10, 2014, at BC Place. Since then, Sporting KC has gone 5-0-4 against Cascadia clubs (Portland, Seattle and Vancouver) during the regular season with seven shutouts.
• Brad Davis has recorded five assists in five regular season appearances against Vancouver, all as a member of the Houston Dynamo.
• Soni Mustivar recorded 20 interceptions in a 1-0 win at Vancouver last July, a single-game Opta-era record (2011-present). He then tallied the only two assists of his MLS career in the 4-3 triumph last August.
• Kekuta Manneh recorded the second multi-goal game of his four-year MLS career in the 4-3 thriller last year.
• Pedro Morales has scored (Aug. 15, 2015) or assisted (Aug. 10, 2014) in both of his regular season appearances against Sporting KC.

Vancouver Whitecaps FC

• 2015 MLS record: 16-13-5, 53 points (2nd in West)
• 2015 MLS road record: 7-7-3 (18 GF, 18 GA)
• 2015 postseason result: Lost to Portland Timbers in Western Conference Semifinals
• Vancouver opened its 2016 season on Sunday with a 3-2 home defeat to the Montreal Impact. Defenders Jordan Harvey and Kendall Waston scored goals on assists from Pedro Morales and Christian Bolanos, respectively.
• Vancouver led MLS in 2015 with seven road wins and 24 road points, while also conceding the fewest goals away from home (18).
• Vancouver set club records last season in wins (16) and points (53) en route to finishing second in the Western Conference, their highest finish ever.
• In 2015, Vancouver was 16-3-1 when scoring first but 0-10-2 when conceding first.
• Kendall Waston was a 2015 MLS Defender of the Year finalist, finishing third in clearances (195) 
• Kekuta Manneh ranked third in dribbles completed (70) and ninth in shot attempts (82) while being ranked No. 2 on MLS's "24 Under 24" player rankings in 2015.
• Pedro Morales has 16 goals and 16 assists over the last two seasons. His 2015 campaign was cut short due to injury but he finished fifth in 2014 with 85 chances created.
• Matias Laba was one of two MLS players in 2015 to finish with 100 tackles won (132 total, 1st in MLS) and 200 duels won (200 total, 6th in MLS).

Sporting Kansas City

• 2015 MLS record: 14-11-9, 51 points (6th in West)
• 2015 MLS home record: 10-2-5 (29 GF, 20 GA)
• 2015 postseason result: Lost to Portland Timbers in Western Conference Knockout Round
• SKC is 23-8-8 in the regular season against Canadian opponents. Their 23 combined wins against Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver are the most among American MLS teams.
• Canadian teams are 2-10-2 all-time at Children's Mercy Park. Both wins came from Montreal, most recently in June 2013.
• SKC is unbeaten in nine straight regular season games against Cascadia opponents (Portland, Seattle and Vancouver) with seven shutouts during the streak (5-0-4).
• SKC is unbeaten (1-0-4) in five MLS home openers at Children's Mercy Park, scoring five goals and conceding just two, with three shutouts. 
• SKC is 12-2-6 all-time in home openers with the lone losses coming in 1999 (Chicago Fire) and 2009 (Toronto FC).
• SKC won 14 home games in all competitions last season (14-2-5 overall), tying the club record set in 2000, 2004 and 2012.
• As a member of the Houston Dynamo last season, Brad Davis (4 goals and 10 assists) reached double-digits in assists for the seventh time in his MLS career, a feat matched only by Landon Donovan in MLS history.

Milestones and miscellany

• Brad Davis is one shy of his 41st career game-winning assist, which would tie the MLS regular season record with Landon Donovan and Steve Ralston.
• Dom Dwyer is one shy of tying Josh Wolff for third in club history with 46 goals in all competitions.
• Graham Zusi is one assist shy of tying Chris Klein for second in club history with 45 regular season assists.

Team stats (2015 regular season)

MLS rank in parenthesis (source: Opta)

Recent #SKCvVAN meetings

• Regular season record vs. Vancouver: 4-1-2
• Regular season home record vs. Vancouver: 2-0-1 (7 GF, 5 GA)