Sporting Kansas City

Twenty-seven MLS games into this season, the market has yet to make Sporting Kansas City favorite even once; no other club has gone unfavored. They have won six, and backing them in all 27 has cost just 2.0 units, because those six wins paid between +185 and +400.

Twenty-seven underdog prices

Not once this season has Kansas City been priced as favorite. The next most frequent underdogs, Orlando City SC and CF Montreal, have 20 games each. The shortest price Sporting carried was +150, at home to Colorado Rapids, and they lost that one 4-1. The record is 6-3-18, and the win rate of 22.2% is the league’s lowest, shared with Toronto FC and Montreal.

Why the moneyline is almost level

Blind support costs 2.0 units over 27 games, a smaller loss than 17 clubs have taken. The six wins returned 19.0 units between them: 2-1 at LA Galaxy at +380, 3-1 over the Galaxy at home at +290, 2-1 at Austin FC at +400, 2-1 over Minnesota United FC at +185, 3-1 over Los Angeles FC at +275 and 2-0 at Houston Dynamo FC at +370. The other 21 games cost a unit apiece, the three draws among them.

The road pays, the home ground does not

Away from Kansas City the record is 3-0-11 and the moneyline is 0.5 units up, better than 18 clubs. At home it is 3-3-7 and 2.5 units down. All three draws were home games: 2-2 with Columbus Crew, 1-1 with Seattle Sounders FC and 1-1 with St. Louis City SC.

April and August did the damage

April went 0-0-4 and August 0-1-4: nine units gone in two months. May (2-1-2, +3.9) and September (2-0-2, +4.45) won most of it back. The Galaxy lost both meetings, worth 6.7 units; Colorado, San Jose Earthquakes and Vancouver Whitecaps FC won both of theirs.

Sporting concede 2.41 goals a game; only FC Cincinnati concede more. They score 1.19, tied with Atlanta United FC for the fewest. The total has split 14 under and 13 over, so there is no side of it to take.

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