KANSAS CITY, Kansas (AP) — D.C. United hasn’t found a way to win on the road in quite some time. A visit to Kansas City doesn’t give the club the best chance to end those woes.
Sporting Kansas City has dominated teams from the other conference at home over the past few seasons, and it will look to extend United’s road winless streak to 12 on Friday night.
D.C. is 0-2-3 as the visitor this season and 0-7-4, including playoffs, since beating Montreal 1-0 on Aug. 8. United has been outscored 22-5 during that 11-game drought.
It suffered another tough road loss last Friday when Philadelphia scored in the 91st minute to pull out a 1-0 win.
“I thought we started the game well,” defender Bobby Boswell said. “It went well for us in the first half, then they came out hot in the second half but we were able to control part of the second half. It kind of got back and forth, which we didn’t like but we gotta see that out, it’s disappointing. … We were close but unfortunately they got three points and we got nothing.”
Next up for D.C. (3-5-4) is a meeting with Sporting (5-7-2) at Children’s Mercy Park, where Kansas City is 6-0-1 against Eastern Conference teams since moving to the West in 2015.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5uIR_mb2M4
Sporting KC is also 9-0-4 in its last 13 regular-season matchups at home against interconference clubs since losing to Seattle in May 2013, when it was in the East.
“We’re coming off a pretty disappointing loss so we understand the task,” United coach Ben Olsen said. “Kansas City is having a little bit of a down year but they’re still at home, one of the toughest places to play in the country.”
D.C. ended an 0-6-3 slump at Kansas City with a 3-0 win in its last visit in August 2014. That’s part of a 2-0-2 stretch in the series for United.
Sporting is 1-3-1 in its last five at home after a 3-1 loss to Real Salt Lake on Saturday that featured some defensive miscues. Dom Dwyer scored for the second straight match to give him six goals for KC, 1-6-2 in its last nine overall.
“We weren’t helping each other, but it’s over with, it’s behind us and we have another game at home against D.C. on Friday with a short week,” goalkeeper Tim Melia said. “After these types of games, you just want to play the next day. We have to regroup, look within ourselves and move forward.”
Dwyer scored in the 45th minute in the last meeting between these teams to give Kansas City a 1-all draw in the nation’s capital last May.
Both clubs will be without key players due to international call-ups in preparation for next week’s Copa America.
D.C. forward Alvaro Saborio, who leads the team with four goals, is with Costa Rica and United States defender Steve Birnbaum is unavailable. Kansas City defender Matt Besler and midfielder Graham Zusi are also with the U.S. team.
1:00 PM Update : The match is scheduled to kick off at 8:30 p.m. at Children’s Mercy Park instead of 6 p.m.
The team said parking lots around Children’s Mercy Park will open at 3 p.m. and stadium gates will open at 6 p.m.