Sporting Kansas City vs. San Jose Earthquakes 11/22/20 - MLS Picks & Predictions

On Sunday, Sporting Kansas City hosts the San Jose Earthquakes in a MLS Cup playoffs round 1 fixture at Children's Mercy Park in Kansas City. Sporting KC was in first place entering Decision Day and with a victory would clinch the Western Conference title. Khiry Shelton scored in the first half followed by a second-half goal from Eric Hurtado to give Sporting KC the 2-0 win Real Salt Lake and a first place finish in the West.

The addition of Alan Pulido in the off-season and the emergence of midfielder Gianluca Busio as well as the signings of Gadi Kinda and Shelton have been the biggest reasons why Sporting KC finished first out west. The leading goal scorer for Sporting Kansas City is Alan Pulido with seven. Johnny Russell and Pulido were the co-leaders in assists  with five each.

San Jose had already clinched a berth in the postseason prior to Decision Day and was defeated 4-1 in its final fixture at CenturyLink Field by the Seattle Sounders. The Earthquakes gave up each of the four goals in a loss during the second half. However, San Jose had already clinched its first appearance in the postseason since 2017 and only its second since 2012. 

As recently as the beginning of October, it appeared as though San Jose would not qualify for the postseason as the Earthquakes had a winless run of eight consecutive matches but San Jose rallied and lost only two matches over its last nine. The leading goal scorer in the regular season for San Jose was Chris Wondolowski with eight and Cristian Espinoza was the leader in assists with nine.