After taking a club record 13-match winless run last weekend in his first match after the departure of the long manager Peter Vermes, Sporting Kansas City sees it back-to-back victories when they host Portland Timbers on Sunday.
Dejan Joveljic scored his team-leading third and fourth goals after half time by SKC’s 2-0 victory last Saturday to visit St. Louis City. Sporting Kansas City improved to 1-5-1 by 4 points.
Vermes’s output completed a 16-year service that was the longest in MLS history.
Now interim manager Kerry Zavagnin is facing the challenge of trying to replicate a similar intense performance against Portland now that some of the feelings that are triggered by Vermes’ departure have dropped.
“The lead to last week’s play, we talked about not being able to do anything about the past, and the past doesn’t matter,” Zavagnin said. “And so we go into this week with the same idea that even though it was a positive result now, there is nothing we can do about it anymore, and then we are on to the next.”
Portland (3-2-2, 11 points) enters Sunday’s collision in better form than SKC’s last opponent-oo seal in its last four after an 0-0 draw last Saturday at Austin.
The hours have only given twice over these four matches. And before last week’s draw, Brazilian attacker Antony made his second, third and fourth goals over two comfortable wins, 3-1 homes to Houston and 3-0 victory at Colorado.
Portland-Manager Phil Neville also expects Uruguayan announcer Jonathan Rodriguez-who, as well as Antony, is primarily a left-hand side-to be available for the first time this season after a knee injury. Rodriguez scored 16 goals in 27 ML’s performances for Portland 2024.
“He has been training a session with the team. He will train again tomorrow,” said Neville Thursday about Rodriguez. “So asking him to start a game I think I am really unfair, but without a doubt we want to get him on the pitch. You just hope that Antony is now rising to that challenge, and that’s the key. You have to rise to the challenge.”
-Field level media
