There will be nothing taken for granted on Saturday by FC Cincinnati according to Pat Noonan, with Sporting Kansas City still led by interim coach Kerry Zavagnin following Peter Vermes' dismissal last month.

Vermes left the club at the end of March after a 16-tyear tenure in charge, following a disappointing start to the 2025 season in which SKC had picked up just one point from their opening six matches.

"It's a strange time. Peter [Vermes], really, he built that club in a lot of ways to what it is today. And certainly have a lot of respect for him, and what he's meant to the game in this country," FC Cincinnati head coach Noonan told the official club website.

"I know Kerry [Zavagnin] as well, and a really good guy, obviously, he's got the opportunity now to be the head coach, and won two of the last three. So, you know, the results have improved.

"I think we're not anticipating anything drastic based on what it's looked like with Kerry in charge…so we'll try to simplify it with the last three games."

Zavagnin has been in charge at KC now for three matches, having won two and lost one.

Despite the small sample size, Noonan believes he and his squad have enough to review ahead of Saturday's game.

"What we anticipate, I think, as far as them defensively is there's some similarities to Chicago with some different pressing ideas that we've seen," he explained.

"So that's something that's kind of stood out over the last couple games. I think it's about organisation for them, we haven't seen them step up in an overly aggressive way. It's clear pressing moments where their actual pressure, those numbers, that data, shows that it's increasing.

"But it's from a deeper positioning. So we'll see if that remains to be the case this weekend. With the ball, they're very good with some of the switches of play.

"How they use their front three, how they use their outside backs in overlapping moments. So, I would say those are some of the early things that have stood out."

PLAYERS TO WATCH

FC Cincinnati – Evander

Evander has scored in three straight regular-season matches for the third time in his MLS career and the first with Cincinnati. The longest run of games with a goal in Cincinnati’s MLS history is four (Lucho Acosta twice, Brandon Vázquez once).

The Brazilian is the equal second-highest scorer in MLS this season, having netted six, with five of those goals coming in his last three appearances.

Sporting KC – Shapi Suleymanov

Suleymanov has recorded an assist in three straight away matches, including setting up Manu Garcia’s 24th minute goal on Saturday. The last Kansas City player to record an assist in four straight regular-season road games was Chris Klein in 2004.

The Russian comes into this with three goal contributions in his last four MLS matches.

MATCH PREDICTION: CINCINNATI WIN

Prior to their 5-3 win away to San Jose last weekend, Sporting KC had not won in 11 straight away games in all competitions (D1 L11).

Sporting KC have not won consecutive away games in the league since a three-match run between July and August 2021.

Cincinnati, meanwhile, has won four straight regular-season matches with each win coming by a one-goal margin.

Nineteen of Cincinnati’s 24 regular-season wins since the start of the 2024 season have been by one-goal margins.

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

Cincinnati – 61.5%

Sporting KC – 18.2%

Draw – 20.3%