Dallas are looking to extend their unbeaten run to five games when they host Sporting Kansas City at Toyota Stadium on Saturday.
The Toros scored two second-half goals last week to defeat Austin FC 2-0, while the Wizards were eliminated from the Leagues Cup this week, losing 6-1 to Leon in the quarter-finals.
Match preview
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Three days removed from a hard-fought 1-1 draw with the Seattle Sounders, Dallas continued to impress, shutting out Austin on Saturday and moving to within two points of Los Angeles FC in the playoff race in the Western Conference.
Luchi Gonzalez has emphasised to his team the importance of staying humble while also maintaining a desire and hunger to get better, and the Toros have got a lot better over the last few weeks.
If they can avoid losing this weekend, it would be the longest unbeaten streak for the club since the 2018 campaign, when Dallas had unbeaten runs of seven, six and five games in the regular season.
Their strong play of late has been quite the surprise as it seemingly came out of nowhere for a team that looked destined to miss the playoffs for the first time since 2017.
Dallas got the ball rolling with an emphatic 4-0 win over the Los Angeles Galaxy in late July, and their confidence has only blossomed from there, as they went on to beat Sporting KC the following week, 2-1.
The Toros know that they need to stay focused and sharp to get above the playoff line, but they will go into this match full of confidence, knowing that they are unbeaten at home in 2021.
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Kansas City may be the top team in the Western Conference right now, but the second-highest scoring side in MLS did not look very formidable on Tuesday when they were trounced by Leon in the Leagues Cup.
While he expressed a desire to win everything, manager Peter Vermes is accepting the blame for their debacle versus the Mexicans, saying that he was not willing to risk overworking some of his players who have had a very demanding schedule of late.
Tuesday was their fourth game in 11 days, so Vermes gave a lot of his regulars a rest, making five changes to the starting 11 from their previous match with the Colorado Rapids.
You can expect to see many of their veterans back this weekend, but it will be interesting to see how this team respond psychologically after watching the KC youngsters buckle under the pressure on Tuesday.
After losing at home for the first time all season in their last meeting with Dallas, the Wizards would love nothing better than to repay the favour to the Toros this weekend.
Kansas City are not in danger of missing the postseason at this stage of the year, but their next couple of games are against some desperate teams who are fighting hard in the playoff race, so Vermes and his side will need to match their opponent's intensity.
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Team News
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Gonzalez made one change to the Dallas starting 11 versus Austin, inserting Andres Ricaurte into the lineup in place of Edwin Cerrillo, while the team will be missing Beni Redzic with an ankle sprain and Justin Che with a lower leg injury.
Bressan will miss this match with a yellow card suspension, so we could see Matt Hedges return to the starting 11 in central defence, and the club announced that they are loaning home-grown Dante Sealy to the PSV Eindhoven U-23 team for the remainder of this season until June 2023 with an option to buy.
Midfielder Szabolcs Schon assisted on both of their goals against Austin and was named to the MLS Team of the Week, while Ryan Hollingshead scored his second goal of the year last week, and surpassing Zach Loyd for the fourth-most appearances in club history (181).
Vermes started six Academy products in their Leagues Cup match with Leon, as midfielder Ozzie Cisneros made his debut for the senior side, Jaylin Lindsey and Kaveh Rad started on the backline, with Grayson Barber, Wilson Harris and Daniel Salloi forming an all-home grown attacking trio.
Khiry Shelton sat out of their last match with an abdomen issue, Felipe Hernandez is still unavailable for personal reasons and llie is eligible to return after missing their game against the Colorado Rapids with a yellow card suspension.
John Pulskamp started in midweek, replacing Tim Melia, while defender Graham Zusi has been contributing a lot lately, notching four assists in his last three MLS matches and Luis Martins began their fixture last week on the bench after starting in their opening 17 games.
Dallas possible starting lineup:
Maurer; Nelson, Burgess, Hedges, Hollingshead; Ricaurte, Obrian; Pomykal, Jara, Schon; Pepi
Sporting Kansas City possible starting lineup:
Melia; Zusi, Fontas, Martins, Isimat-Mirin; Kinda, Espinoza, Walter; Russell, Salloi, Pulido
We say: Dallas 1-1 Sporting Kansas City
Dallas seem to be finally coming into form and have not been intimidated despite playing some superior sides lately, and Luchi Gonzalez has never lost to Peter Vermes in his managerial career with the Toros, going 5-0-1.
Kansas City were embarrassed at the Leagues Cup this week, but this team are resilient and always seem to bounce back, plus a lot of their attacking threats got to rest in midweek, so they should be refreshed and eager to remain on top of the Western Conference table.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Dallas win with a probability of 41.63%. A win for Sporting Kansas City had a probability of 32.68% and a draw had a probability of 25.7%.
The most likely scoreline for a Dallas win was 1-0 with a probability of 9.74%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (8.82%) and 2-0 (7.04%). The likeliest Sporting Kansas City win was 0-1 (8.43%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.19%). The actual scoreline of 0-2 was predicted with a 5.3% likelihood.
