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Steffen Schmidt - August 3, 2023
Sporting Kansas City vs Toluca
Leagues Cup
Date: 5 August 2023, Saturday
Kick-off at 02:00 UK / 03:00 CET
Venue: Children’s Mercy Park (Kansas City).
Sporting Kansas City have completely shut down Guadalajara in the crucial group phase game to advance to the Leagues Cup knockout stage and book the last 32 round clash against Toluca on Friday evening at Children’s Mercy Park.
The Wizards ended a four-game winless thread across competitions thanks to a stunning defensive showing.
It came out of nowhere as Peter Vermes’ men had earlier conceded at least two goals in four consecutive outings in all competitions.
However, Sporting KC will now face a much tougher challenge in the likes of another Liga MX side.
They take on Toluca who have been scoring for fun lately. The Mexicans bagged four goals in each of their two Leagues Cup affairs in the group phase.
The team led by Marcos Ambriz have shown some defensive holes in the process but the attacking prowess was enough for them to claim back-to-back wins over Nashville and Colorado Rapids.
Midfielder Marcel Ruiz is the only Toluca man with a goal in both previous outings. The Mexicans do not have a standout scorer which is why we would skip any player markets for this game.
We do, however, expect to see goals on Friday knowing how poor Sporting Kansas City have been defensively in July. We have seen three or more goals in five of the last six outings they played in all competitions.
Toluca are scoring at will these days and we doubt Sporting’s leaky back line will have what it takes to keep hold of the red-hot rivals on Friday.
We can find value in backing the Mexicans to win at the 2.30 odds while the Over 2.5 goals FT pick provides a perfect alternate option at the 1.61 odds.
