Saturday night in Kansas City, the Vancouver Whitecaps will face the bottom team in the MLS table, as they travel to take on Sporting KC.

It has been a challenging year for Raphael Wicky’s side, and it has only been made more difficult by the very recent departure of star frontman Dejan Joveljić, who was shipped off to the Seattle Sounders.

SKC sits near the bottom of most statistical categories, having allowed a joint-league-worst 51 goals against, while scoring just 20 goals, eight of which came from the aforementioned Joveljić. While the lack of attacking production has certainly been an issue, the biggest problem for Wicky’s side has been at the other end of the pitch.

As KC Soccer Journal noted earlier this season, Sporting have struggled to settle on a consistent backline, with Wicky moving between a back four and a back three while working with a relatively inexperienced group of centre-backs. At one point, only Ethan Bartlow had significant starting experience among the club’s five central defenders. That instability has left Sporting vulnerable when their aggressive attacking approach breaks down, particularly in transition, and has been a major factor in a defence that has shipped 51 goals. The recent addition of Colombian centre-back Moisés Mosquera from FC Juárez should provide some much-needed experience to the group, but this remains a defence that Vancouver should feel confident attacking.

Central midfielder Manu García has been a solid mainstay in the middle of the park for Wicky’s side, but otherwise, this is a very thin roster that lacks both the depth and top-end talent to really compete with the majority of good MLS sides.

Sporting have also made two major attacking additions in August, with André Luiz arriving from Olympiacos in a club-record $18 million transfer, while 21-year-old midfielder Owen Wolff was acquired from Austin FC for $4.5 million guaranteed, with the deal potentially reaching $7.6 million. However, neither Luiz nor Wolff are expected to be available this weekend, meaning Mosquera is the only one of Sporting’s three recent additions expected to feature against Vancouver. With Joveljić now gone, Sporting will therefore be without both their leading scorer and their two biggest attacking additions as they look to turn around the league’s lowest-scoring attack.

In terms of news and notes from Vancouver, Jeevan Badwal has returned to training and will be available this weekend, while Ralph Priso will miss this match with his ankle issue. New signing Aleksa Cvetković was also spotted at training this week in Vancouver, but the earliest date for his debut is currently to be determined. Meanwhile, multiple other signings appear to be close on the horizon, with the Whitecaps continuing to add pieces as the summer window winds down.

The recent form also heavily favours Vancouver. The Whitecaps have gone 2-1-2 in their last five MLS matches, while Sporting KC have lost four of their last five, with a draw against Houston the lone exception. Vancouver are also coming off a dominant 5-0 win over FC Dallas, while SKC fell 2-1 to Atlanta United in their most recent outing. The Whitecaps already showed what they can do against this group earlier this season, cruising to a 3-0 victory at BC Place in the reverse fixture.

Looking at the match itself, it feels like this one could come down to the opening 25 to 30 minutes. We saw it earlier this year at BC Place: once the Whitecaps found an early goal, the match was essentially over, with Vancouver able to settle into cruise control from there. If Sporting KC can weather that early pressure, however, and find opportunities on the counter, you never know what might happen.

All things considered, I see this as a tidy 2-0 road win for Vancouver.