Due to yellow card accumulation, Sporting Kansas City will be without their anchor in the midfield. Outside of a minor injury earlier this year (costing him two starts), Ilie Sanchez has only not started one other game since joining Sporting KC. That was all the way back in September of 2017 against the Seattle Sounders just days before the club would go on to win the US Open Cup.
Who replaces him is a big question. In those injury games earlier this year the answer was Felipe Gutierrez (until Ilie eventually subbed on each time) but the team really loses something when Gutierrez isn’t playing further up in the midfield.