At 8:00 p.m. ET time tonight, Sporting Kansas City will welcome the New England Revolution to Sporting Park in a battle of Eastern Conference powers airing on NBCSN or available on NBC Sports Live Extra.
The playoff race has heated up, and both of these squads find themselves in favorable locations heading into the final month or so of regular season play. The Revolution are positioned in third place with 42 points, while Sporting sits a spot above them in second place, boasting 45 points.
[WATCH LIVE: Sporting Kansas City vs. New England Revolution]
New England has already met Sporting twice this season, with the Revs winning both matches. On Sep. 3 at Gilette Stadium, the Revolution defeated Sporting, 3-1. On April 26, the result was 2-0 in favor of Jay Heaps’ squad.
Recently, the Revs concluded a five-game win streak with a disappointing loss to the Columbus Crew, a typical Federico Higuain set-piece strike giving Columbus a 1-0 victory.
Kansas City put a stop to their four-game losing stretch in MLS competition when they blanked Chivas USA, 4-2, on Sep. 12. Since then, Peter Vermes’ side has enjoyed two CONCACAF Champions League wins over Saprissa and Real Esteli.
LINEUPS
Sporting KC: Eric Kronberg; Igor Juliao, Kevin Ellis, Matt Besler, Seth Sinovic; Paulo Nagamura, Jorge Claros, Benny Feilhaber; Toni, Dominic Dwyer, Graham Zusi
Bench — Andy Gruenebaum; Erik Palmer-Brown; Mikey Lopez, Jimmy Medranda; Claudio Bieler, C.J. Sapong, Soony Saad
New England: Bobby Shuttleworth; Kevin Alston, Andrew Farrell, Jose Goncalves, Chris Tierney; Jermaine Jones, Teal Bunbury, Daigo Kobayashi, Lee Nguyen, Kelyn Rowe; Charlie Davies
Bench — Brad Knighton; Darrius Barnes; Scott Caldwell, Steven Neumann; Tony Taylor, Diego Fagundez, Patrick Mullins