The New York Red Bulls and Sporting Kansas City are playing live on the MLS Cup playoffs schedule for the eastern conference knockout round and the defending champs visit Harrison in New Jersey at Red Bull Arena at 8 pm ET for the matchup and the game is on TV from ESPN2 and streaming online from WatchESPN as the postseason starts off for NY and both teams are looking to advance into the semifinals.
The two teams both had strong finishes to the season and now NY is looking to get through at home, while Sporting is looking to win the title for the second straight year. KC is hoping they can defend the title and they have to win on the road to get that done. Both teams have been in this position before and it comes after the teams finished against each other in the regular season and that was a massive match, as it gave the winner the home field for this winner take all matchup to get into the next round in the east semifinals for the MLS Cup.
KC ended up losing that game 2-0 to NY and now the Red Bulls host and they come in after having some major disappointments over the past few years. The team has not been able to advance in the playoffs since winning this game on the road back in 2011 and that ended in a defeat against the LA Galaxy. The past two seasons the team lost to the Houston Dynamo in a very disappointing matchup and the year before was against DC United and now they have the chance to make up for that with this game and the rest of the playoffs.
Last year the MLS Cup was very dramatic and that saw Sporting and Real Salt Lake go into penalties with Real falling to Sporting for the title trophy. The end of season standings had New York and Kansas City the bottom teams and they finished behind Columbus, New England and DC United, who had the best record in the east. Those teams are all looking to advance as well and the east has shown they have some tough teams coming in this time around.
Many have picked the Seattle Sounders or LA Galaxy as the favorites and they come in after leading the western conference this season. The Red Bulls have the home field here and this is now a chance for them to keep things going after winning away for the first time since back in June. The team had a seven game home winning streak and that was snapped earlier this month and now they will try and get back on track against KC. Bradley Wright-Phillips put in 27 goals this season and he will be a key player to watch and while Thierry Henry missed some training time, he should be fit and ready to go and he needs to play well for NY.
Check here for the New York Red Bulls and Sporting Kansas City live coverage from ESPN.