FRISCO — Although FC Dallas is unbeaten in four of its last five games, it will face an opponent that it has not beaten this season. FCD will travel to Children's Mercy Park for the second time this season to face Sporting Kansas City this weekend. Sporting is coming off an U.S. Open Cup loss to the Houston Dynamo on July 18, but it knocked Dallas out of that same Cup just over a month ago.
FCD hasn't had much success when traveling to Kansas City, and the last time Dallas came out with a win was in 2011. Since then, Dallas is 0-8-2 across all competitions when playing on the road against Sporting, and this weekend won't be any easier.
"I thought we had a decent performance when we were there, we’ve had times where it went pretty poorly there, but I don’t think that was one of them," Matt Hedges said. "I think we should be able to build on that and use it as motivation. It was a close game, but I think we could’ve done a little more."
The last time the two teams met, it looked like the match was going to head into overtime until Yohan Croizet scored a volley from outside the box to beat Jesse Gonzalez and crush FC Dallas' Open Cup dreams.
FCD will look to bounce back and forget that loss in a game where either side could have advanced to the next round of the Cup.
"After the SKC game in Open Cup, we said we are going to wait for you guys in the league play because we got an unlucky draw playing them there, we haven’t gotten a win there in a long time," Reggie Cannon said. "It’s a really tough place to play at, my first game I was struggling and was trying to find my bearings, but this time around it’s going to be different."
This weekend's matchup will be a battle between first and third place in the Western Conference. Dallas currently has a four-point cushion on the rest of the competition and is six points ahead of Sporting KC.
