Neither the New York Red Bulls nor Sporting Kansas City are having difficulty scoring goals. Only one, however, is having any success keeping the ball out of its own net.
The Red Bulls look to continue their recent scoring binge Saturday night when they host Kansas City, which will need to defend better if it wants to end its four-match winless streak.
New York (3-1-2) wasn't living up to its own lofty expectations through four matches, totaling two goals while winning once. Suddenly, though, the Red Bulls have the look of an offensive juggernaut.
Luke Rodgers scored twice and Thierry Henry once in a 3-0 win over San Jose on April 16, then Henry had two goals in a 4-0 road victory over D.C. United on April 21.
"I told you guys at the beginning of the season, once we start to score, I think we're going to score a lot," said Henry, who appears to have overcome a nagging Achilles' injury.
The biggest problem New York coach Hans Backe has right now is a good one - figuring out a way to find time for his surplus of strikers. The diminutive Rodgers has been Henry's partner up front the past two matches at the expense of speedy young star Juan Agudelo.
Agudelo certainly hasn't disappeared. He came on for Rodgers in the 75th minute against United and capped the scoring in stoppage time.
"We have three very good strikers," assistant coach Jan Halvor Halvorsen told MLSSoccer.com. "There will be room for all three to play. ... (Agudelo) looked very hungry."
Backe hasn't said whether Rodgers or Agudelo will join Henry on Saturday, but there's another interesting subplot developing with Agudelo. He and Sporting KC's Teal Bunbury made a bet as to which striker could boast the most Twitter followers before kickoff, with the loser being forced to wear the winner's jersey for an entire day.
"(Twitter) is icing on the cake," Bunbury said. "I'm going for the win first, then the Twitter thing."
Bunbury might want to see if he can convince some of his followers to help play defense. Bunbury is tied with midfielder Kei Kamara for the team lead with three goals, but Sporting KC (1-3-1) has problems on the back end.
The club has scored 10 goals in five matches as it plays 10 straight road contests while its new arena is finished, but it has given up 12. After Kamara scored twice in a 10-minute stretch last Saturday at New England to give KC a 2-1 lead, the Revolution responded with two goals to escape with a 3-2 win.
The tying goal came after Aurelien Collin picked up his second yellow card for Sporting KC - the third time coach Peter Vermes' team has had a player sent off.
"The unfortunate thing is that this is the third game that we have lost and in all three games we have not been able to finish the game with (11) men," Vermes said.
U.S. Soccer later determined Collin's second yellow was issued in error - it should have been given to Birahim Diop - meaning the defender will be available against the Red Bulls. Diop was suspended for this match Friday.
New York outscored KC 4-0 while sweeping two matches last season.
