Quick-hits preview: Sporting Kansas City at Vancouver Whitecaps FC

SPORTING KANSAS CITY AT VANCOUVER WHITECAPS FC

WHEN/WHERE: 6 p.m. Saturday; BC Place, Vancouver

TV/RADIO: Fox Sports KC; 99.3 FM

ABOUT SPORTING KC (6-2-4, 22 points): The club owns the best defense in Major League Soccer, allowing 0.58 goals per game. Tim Melia is already just one shutout shy of matching a career-high (8) in a season. ... Forward Dom Dwyer is questionable with a left knee injury. He missed last weekend’s match in Orlando, and his replacement, Latif Blessing, scored twice.

ABOUT VANCOUVER (4-5-1, 13 points, 13 points): The Whitecaps return home for their first game at BC Place in more than a month. While they reside in sixth place in the Western Conference, the numbers show a more alarming trend. They have placed the second fewest shots on target in MLS, and they are allowing the second most shot attempts on a per-game basis.

BOTTOM LINE: Sporting KC should have no problem seeing a lot of the ball. The club ranks third in MLS in possession (56.6 percent per game), and Vancouver is last in the same category (43.3 percent).

PREDICTION: Sporting KC 1, Vancouver 0