With the MLS Cup Playoffs still a week away, there is a really important game for Kansas City soccer that isn’t happening on Decision Day. The Swope Park Rangers will take on possibly the league’s hottest team in Phoenix Rising FC.
Both of these clubs come into the USL Cup Playoffs with identical 17-8-7 records but they got there in very different ways. Phoenix started out 2-2-0 in their first seven games then their head coach, former MLS Cup winner Frank Yallop, abruptly quit. It’s not often losing your head coach works out that well. They went 1-2-0 (for a cumulative 3-4-0) before hiring Patrice Carteron.