Two Western Conference teams that failed to make the MLS Cup playoffs last season will try to bounce back from opening-week losses when Sporting Kansas City face the Colorado Rapids on Saturday night in Commerce City, Colo.
Colorado (0-1-0, 0 points), which finished 10th last season, lost 4-0 at Seattle on Sunday while Sporting KC (0-1-0, 0 points), which finished 12th, lost at Portland 1-0 on Monday in a game that was pushed back two days due to severe weather in the area.
Both teams will limp into the contest with key injuries. The Rapids announced Monday that striker Diego Rubio — who tied a club single-season record with 16 goals to go along with seven assists last season and missed the opener — had arthroscopic surgery to remove a loose body in his right knee and would be sidelined two to five weeks.
Sporting KC will be without captain Johnny Russell for the second straight week due to a hamstring injury.
Darren Yapi, an 18-year-old homegrown talent who hit the crossbar at Seattle in his second career start, will likely take Rubio’s spot again.
Offense was only a small part of the problem for Colorado in its opener against the Sounders.
“Every time they got behind us, I thought they looked really dangerous, and I thought we didn’t handle those situations well enough,” Rapids coach Robin Fraser told the Denver Post. “I know it is going to be a big challenge with Kansas City at home, but I told them that ‘I want this to hurt.’ Because it should hurt. We also have to take it and learn from it next week.”
Sporting KC fell behind in the sixth minute at Portland on Juan Mosquera’s first career MLS goal. Kansas City finished with 12 shot attempts, 57 percent time of possession and a 11-3 edge in corner kicks but couldn’t get one past Timbers goalie David Bingham, who made four saves.
“We were all over their goal, all over them,” Sporting KC coach Peter Vermes said. “Just unfortunate we couldn’t put one in.”
Colorado is 5-0-4 in its last nine home matches and 16-4-7 all-time in home openers. Sporting KC, meanwhile, has struggled on the road, going eight straight away matches without a win (0-4-4) dating back to July 9, 2022. Four of the last five meetings between the two squads at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park have ended in a draw.
–Field Level Media
