Sporting Kansas City’s Peter Vermes will coach in his 500th regular season match Sunday at Seattle, becoming the first in Major League Soccer history to do that with one team.

But Vermes won’t dwell on the milestone, as Sporting KC (7-14-7, 28 points) enters the weekend eight points shy of the final playoff berth in the Western Conference.

Despite a goal from Alan Pulido, Sporting KC is coming off a 1-1 draw last Saturday against the host New York Red Bulls in which it allowed the tying tally in the 89th minute.

“We really should have had three points last week,” Vermes said. “Nothing is over until it’s over, but we have to keep getting points.”

The Sounders (12-9-7, 43 points), who are fifth in the West, won 4-0 at short-handed Columbus last weekend as Albert Rusnak had his first professional hat trick. Seattle got a break when Crew goalkeeper Abraham Romero was issued a red card late in the first half. With two other goalies on international duty, the Crew were forced to use a position player in net for the remainder of the game.

Rusnak scored on a free kick in first-half stoppage time immediately following the red card and added two more goals in the second half.

“I felt a little bit more pressure taking the free kick than if an actual goalkeeper was in goal,” Rusnak admitted. “I kind of felt like I had to score — it’s an outfield player.

“It wasn’t fair for him to go in goal, but it was the only solution they had.”

The Sounders are 8-2-1 in their past 11 league matches since a 2-1 defeat June 8 in Kansas City. SKC’s Alenis Vargas scored the winner in the 85th minute with Seattle down a man after Reed Baker-Whiting received a red card in the 73rd.

Sunday’s match will be the opener of a three-game homestand for the Sounders.

“We can go on a little bit of a run here,” Sounders coach Brian Schmetzer said. “That would boost everybody’s morale, and that’s what I’m hoping for.”

–Field Level Media