Previewing Houston Dynamo at Sporting Kansas City with Jimmy Mack
(image via Sporting Kansas City)
The Houston Dynamo are on the road, looking to add more points as they try and climb the Western Conference standings. We talked to our friend Jimmy Mack to get some insight on Sporting Kansas City ahead of the match.
Bayou City Soccer (BCS): Raphael Wicky has taken over as SKC head coach this season. How has he done so far this season and how is the team adapting to him and his style of play?
Jimmy Mack (JM): Sporting KC fans entered the season hoping to see improvement year-over-year. Nobody was expecting this team to challenge for trophies; however, with a new GM and head coach there was reason for cautious optimism. Seventeen games into the season, that cautious optimism is gone. Sporting sit at the bottom of the Western Conference with a league-worst -26 goal differential. It is not simply that this team is not good, but that rather they do not look competitive or as if they are getting consistently better. Sure, Wicky is only 17 games into his tenure, and he had a less than complete team to begin with. The roster construction falls squarely on the shoulders of President of Soccer Operations and General Manager David Lee, not Wicky. But nothing that Wicky has done has given SKC fans any sense that he is able to get more out of the team, nor that he is able to make necessary adjustments to make the team competitive. In fact, some Sporting fans are already calling for Wicky's job.
BCS: Even with the team struggling, Dejan Joveljoc and Manu Garcia have been a dangerous duo on offense. What has made them so good together in creating and scoring goals?
JM: Dejan and Manu are simply most talented players on the roster. Joveljic faced some questions when he moved to SKC from LA about whether he could do it without Riqui Puig or Gabriel Pec, and he has all but put those questions to bed. Manu Garcia is a talented on-the-ball midfielder who has the versatility to play in his natural attacking No. 10 position, but he can also fall back to a more defensive No. 6 position on an as-needed basis. Newly acquired winger Capita Capemba has started to show more promise in recent weeks with Sporting, which also gives Joveljic and Manu a bit more room to play with. If Capita can continue to improve, the trio can be dangerous in the attack in an otherwise lackluster Sporting KC attack.
BCS: Former Dynamo defender Ethan Bartlow is now at SKC but seems to have lost his job recently. How has he done and the rest of Sporting's defense as a whole this season as they try and figure out the right group of players?
JM: Defense continues to be a problem for Sporting KC, as it has for a number of recent years. Sporting KC's 44 goals allowed are tied for the worst in the league. Recent addition Or Blorian has taken over as a starting centerback for Sporting, but it is too early to tell how effective he can really be. Bartlow had largely been starting out of necessity for Sporting, but given how poorly the defense was performing Wicky decided to shift things up to try and improve the back line. Bartlow was not the only casualty as goalkeeper Jon Pulskamp lost his starting job to 30-year-old journeyman Stefan Cleveland. Lastly, second-year centerback Jansen Miller seems to have regressed after showing promise during his rookie campaign. All-in-all, it's clear that Sporting KC's defensive woes are far from over.
BCS: Sporting KC has been linked with a blockbuster move for Mo Salah. What does a potential move like that say about this new ownership group and their intentions and ambitions for the club?
JM: This is not the first time that Sporting KC has been linked with a major international superstar, as a few years back reports indicated that Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo had been considering SKC as his MLS destination. While I had (and still have) my doubts about the legitimacy of that possibility, the Mo Salah possibility seems like it was more real. Sporting KC's new principal owner is Peter Malouk, President and CEO of a major wealth management firm in Kansas City. According to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, Mallouk has nearly 10x the net worth that former SKC principle owner Cliff Illig did. That means when Mallouk publicly says things like he plans to spend "a lot" of money on SKC, it should be taken seriously. Specifically regarding Mo Salah, while Kansas City may not offer what Los Angeles, New York or Miami has, it does have one advantage those other cities/teams don't have: an Egyptian owner. Mallouk is the child of Egyptian and Lebanese immigrants, so perhaps the connection to Egypt is enough to at least have had serious conversations with the Egyptian superstar Mo Salah. Unfortunately for SKC fans, reports seem to indicate that Salah is on his way to Saudi club Al-Ittihad. But even being a serious contender in these conversations would be a big move for a club like Sporting KC.
BCS: Does SKC have any injury concerns heading into this match and what do you expect Sporting's lineup to look like?
JM: Sporting KC has three players listed on the injury report headed into the match: U22 defender Diego Borges is out with a quad injury, defender Justin Reynolds is out with a hamstring injury, and forward Taylor Calheira is out with an ankle injury. All three players have started a handful of games this year for SKC, so their absence may be missed. At the same time, this is the same injury report SKC had ahead of their clash with LAFC. Despite the four goal drubbing SKC took in that game, I would expect the lineup to be somewhat similar. My expected lineup is:
FW: Joveljic, Capita, Calvin Harris
MF: Manu Garcia, Lasse Berg Johnsen, Jake Davis
DEF: Zoran Bassong, Wyatt Meyer, Or Blorian, Emir Karic
GK: Stefan Cleveland
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We want to thank Jimmy for his time and wish our friends in Kansas City the best of luck tonight.
