Chicago Fire FC vs. Sporting Kansas City | 2020 MLS Match Preview

2020 MLS Regular Season – Week 19
Chicago Fire FC vs. Sporting Kansas City
Soldier Field – Chicago
October 17 – 3:30 PM ET

TV: Univision, TUDN

STREAMING: Twitter in US; MLS LIVE on DAZN in Canada

Chicago Fire FC are looking to extend a home winning streak to four games when they take on Sporting Kansas City at Soldier Field Saturday afternoon.

Fire FC (5W-8L-4D) are coming off a 2-1 win over D.C. United on October 11, while Sporting (9W-6L-2D) fell to FC Dallas 1-0 Wednesday night. 

This is the second meeting between the teams in 10 days with Winston Reid scoring his first MLS goal and Tim Melia denying Robert Beric from the penalty spot in a 1-0 Sporting win at Children's Mercy Park. 

Chicago Fire FC

The Week 18 match between Minnesota United and Chicago Fire FC scheduled for Wednesday night was postponed due to a suspected case of COVID-19 among the Minnesota United team delegation.

The match was postponed to allow for further testing and evaluation.

• Updated team roster
• Injury Report:
  • OUT: Jeremiah Gutjahr (M) - knee injury
  • OUT: Kenneth Kronholm (GK) - knee injury
  • OUT: Luka Stojanović (M) - knee injury
  • OUT: Brandt Bronico (M) - knee injury
  • OUT: Johan Kappelho (D) - undisclosed injury
• Suspended: None
• Suspended after next caution: Alvaro Medran (M)
• International duty:  None

Sporting Kansas City

Sporting's three-match winning streak was snapped Wednesday with a controversial 1-0 road defeat to FC Dallas. Controversial because SKC had strong appeals for a penalty on a late equalizing attempt when FCD goalkeeper Jimmy Maurer appeared to tackle Sporting midfielder Gadi Kinda near the goal line. The play was off a short corner that resulted in a rebound that fell to Kinda, whose follow-up was saved by Maurer before the scuffle took place. 

"It's utterly ridiculous that that's not a goal. If the ball doesn't enter the goal than it should be a penalty for the goalkeeper tackling Gadi Kinda, and it would be a red card. So it's one of two things: it's a goal or it's a penalty and a red card for the goalkeeper. The fact that it's not with VAR and everything else, I can not for the life of me understand how that call could be made. Because I was told explicitly by the referee that the [Video Assistant Referee] also called it a foul on our guy," said Peter Vermes in a postgame press conference.

"Sad, very sad. Points taken away from us for absolutely no reason."

• Updated team roster
• Injury Report:
  • OUT: Felipe Gutierrez (M) - knee injury
  • OUT: Graham Zusi (D) - undisclosed injury
• Suspended: None
• Suspended after next caution: Ilie Sanchez (M)
• International duty:  None

Series Matchup at Fire FC

• Fire FC: 18 wins, 51 goals
• Sporting KC: 5 wins, 26 goals
• 2 draws

Officials

• Referee: David Gantar
• Assistant Referees: Brian Poeschel, Adam Garner
• 4th Official: Silviu Petrescu
• VAR: Hilario Grajeda