WHO: Sporting Kansas City II, 0-2-0, 0 points, 4th place Group E

WHAT: A regular season USL Championship Group E match

WHEN: Saturday, July 25, 2020, 8:00 p.m. EDT

WHERE: Lynn Family Stadium, 350 Adams Street, Louisville, KY 40206

WATCH: This is another limited-capacity event, so if you’ve got tickets, great! If not:

TV: WBKI/The CW
Radio: 840 WHAS
Stream: WDRB Now/ESPN+

MARCH: It’s COVID-19 so we aren’t really doing that. COME ON YOU VACCINE RESEARCH SCIENTISTS! #COYVRC

WHO, AGAIN? Sporting Kansas City II, the only team in Group E doing worse than us. SKCII, f/k/a Swope Park Rangers, a much better name, is the only MLS 2 team in our group. They’re historically quite bad. This season, because of the compressed nature of the absurdly named MLS is Back tournament, guys that would have featured more in USL under normal circumstances are playing up with the first team squad in Florida. That means SKC II is probably even worse than usual.

Lil’ Sporting has only played two matches, lost both, 2-1 defeats. Saturday’s match is only SKCII’s second since the season started again. They’re playing their entire new season away. I’m not certain they aren’t looking at this new season as a throwaway. Pablo Nagamura is trying to build up his coaching resume, but the second team in Kansas City isn’t an easy place to do that.

KCII shouldn’t be a factor in the group, frankly. That’s not to say Sportin’ 2 can’t hurt you or pick up a win here and there, but if you don’t get points off of them, you’re having a bad time.

LouCity is having a bad time so far during the re-start. Despite having some decent looking games statistically, they’ve lost two in a row, both matches being decided on defensive and mental errors. City also hasn’t looked good in the second halves of either match, and in spite of playing on a much bigger pitch than normal, haven’t been as prodigious or proficient with their passing as I expected.

Case in point: City had nearly 60% of the ball against St. Louis last weekend but only attempted 473 passes. That’s a pretty decent number at Slugger Field, but I would have expected it to be higher on a bigger pitch. It’s actually less than the number completed against Pittsburgh, though the Hounds aren’t necessarily a possession-oriented team. It’s also less than City’s 2019 average (502.5).

This game should be one that City can get right in, however. Sporting 2 likes to possess the ball, too, and are actually a pretty good passing team. If they stick to that game plan, City has a chance to be quite a bit more dangerous with their pressing game, getting into lanes and creating chances off in transition. On the other hand, those are the exact same areas Morados are vulnerable, so communication and decision making in the back are once again key in this game.

It sounds simple, but it’s obviously not: shore up the back line and be more clinical in the opposing box and the points are ours. Let’s go get ’em!