Five Things is a weekly series on SportingKC.com that highlights the top storylines, players to watch and matchday programming ahead of each game throughout the season.
A daunting road test awaits Saturday when Sporting Kansas City travels to face the Chicago Fire at 5 p.m. CT. FOX Sports Kansas City and FOX Sports Midwest Plus will broadcast the match live from Toyota Park, while ESPN 94.5 (English) and ESPN Deportes KC 1480 AM (Spanish) will provide live radio calls. As Manager Peter Vermes’ men prepare for their first away date of 2018, we visit five storylines surrounding the interconference battle.
Roaddron Represents
By MLS standards, the 500-mile journey from Kansas City to Chicago is a short trek for traveling spectators. Fixtures at Toyota Park have boasted sizeable Roaddrons in the past, and Saturday should be no exception. More than 350 Sporting KC fans will be in attendance this weekend, giving the visitors a noisy contingency of support against a strong Chicago side that finished third in the Eastern Conference last season.
Good as Gold
Chicago striker Nemanja Nikolic took MLS by storm in 2017, bagging 24 regular-season goals en route to Best XI honors and the Golden Boot award as the league’s top scorer. The Hungarian was especially lethal at Toyota Park, where he tallied a remarkable 19 goals in 17 games to help Chicago post a 12-2-3 home record with a plus-27 goal differential.
Tasked with containing Nikolic is a Sporting KC backline that was breached twice in Sunday’s loss to New York City FC at Children’s Mercy Park. It marked just the second time since the start of 2017 that Vermes’ team had conceded two goals in a home game, first doing so in a 3-2 win over Chicago last July.
Midfield Might
For the second consecutive weekend, Sporting KC is set to face a World Cup champion. First it was NYCFC striker David Villa. This time around, German midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger will begin his second MLS campaign in the Windy City after helping Chicago right the ship as a vastly improved team in 2017. The 33-year-old Schweinsteiger joins MLS veteran Dax McCarty to give the Fire a formidable midfield spine, but they will face stern competition in their season opener.
On the opposite sideline, Sporting KC wields a strong midfield triumvirate of its own. While Schweinsteiger is a household soccer name across the globe, Felipe Gutierrez and Roger Espinoza carry their own World Cup credentials. Gutierrez, a Copa America champion with Chile, led all MLS players in week one with 13 duels won and seven tackles won. That’s not to mention holding midfielder Ilie, an ultra-reliable presence who combines technical skill and tactical nous as one of the team’s most important players.
Chicago Shivers
Winter weather and harrowing history suggest nothing will come easy on Saturday. The forecast calls for sunny skies, but temperatures at Toyota Park are expected to peak around 40 degrees — and that number will dip as the sun sets over the course of the game.
Even more pertinent to the matchup is Kansas City’s track record in Chicago, where the club is 4-18-2 all-time in the regular season. Sporting KC has dropped each of its last three meetings at Toyota Park, and their 18 total away defeats at Chicago are their most against any MLS opponent.
Captain’s Climb
Sporting KC captain Matt Besler continues to ascend the all-time charts for his hometown team. If the center back plays at least 79 minutes on Saturday, he will become just the third player to log 20,000 career minutes for the club in the regular season, joining current assistant coach Kerry Zavagnin (20,515) and former defender Nick Garcia (20,157). League-wide, Besler would become the eighth active MLS player to log 20,000 minutes for the same club.
