Thirty four weeks of the regular season have been played and the playoff matchups are set, well with the exception of who will be playing the top seeds in either conference. For that we have two play in games this week! Let's dive in:
Eastern Conference (9) Charlotte FC at (8) New York Red Bulls It's slightly amazing that both of these teams have made the playoffs. Both teams intermittently struggled throughout the regular season and the Red Bulls playoff streak was in serious danger up until decision day. The Red Bulls will have the home crowd at their back and a group of hungry dedicated players led by young USMNT prospect John Tolkin. The young left back scored the penalty to put the Red Bulls into the playoffs. For Charlotte they will rely on their strong forwards led by Polish international Karol Swiderski and Argentinian Enzo Copetti.
Prediction: NYRB 2-1 Charlotte
Western Conference (9) San Jose Quakes at (8) Sporting Kansas City. As a midwesterner and someone who follows the Western Conference way more closely than the Eastern Conference top to bottom, I am excited about this matchup. Also of note, I've gotten to watch both of these teams live this season.
Let's first get into the visitor San Jose. For a good portion of the season San Jose sat between the fourth and seventh positions in the Western Conference. During the summer transfer window they added US International Matthew Hoppe. He looked great during the 2021 Gold Cup, played well at Schalke and then had a series of bad moves starting with a transfer to Mallorca. After only making five appearances with Mallorca he got a permanent move to Middlesbrough where he also found playing time hard to come by. This was followed by a less than desirable loan to Hibs in Scotland. Hoppe then found a late window move to San Jose on a one year loan move. Luchi Gonzalez eased him into the lineup and he has been playing pretty well.
Speaking of things Luchi Gonzalez has had to balance is whether or not Cade Cowell was going to get sold during the summer transfer window. Cowell ended up staying after having interest from multiple European clubs. Jeremy Ebobisse is another name that has been floated around as a possible candidate for a big move but ended up staying. Christian Espinosa is the heart beat of the team. He is the Quakes game changer that can score and facilitate.
Host Sporting KC made a miraculous turnaround in their season. They didn't win a game in their first ten and came storming back to qualify for the playoffs. There are a lot of reasons you could point to as to what sparked the turnaround but I'm going to give the first credit to health. Having a healthy Alan Pulido completely changes this team. He's one of the top five strikers in the league and should definitely be the comeback player of the year and get strong MVP consideration. I can confidently say there is a zero percent chance that Sporting are in the playoffs without a healthy Alan Pulido.
You also have to give credit to coach Peter Vermes. One of his biggest undoings these last two seasons were recycling veteran players that weren't producing (Zusi, Ben Sweat, heavy doses of Roger Espinosa). Obviously Zusi and Espinosa are club legends but they were definitely being depended on more than their forms would allow.
This year we've really gotten to see the emergency of Jake Davis and Logan Ndembe at the two fullback positions. At eight of the eleven positions Sporting KC are as good as anyone in the league. They have some holes at center back and Melia isn't exactly Andre Blake at this stage in his career.
Both of these teams need to keep it out of their back third to be successful. They are both much stronger on the attack than the defense.
Prediction: Alan Pulido and Erik Thommy get Sporting on the board early and Salloi and Russell put it out of reach. SKC 3-1 San Jose.
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