Four points out of first place in Major League Soccer’s Western Conference, Sporting Kansas City (13-7-6, 45 points) returns home on Saturday to play host to Orlando City SC (7-16-3, 24 points) at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kansas.
Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. and tickets remain available via SeatGeek.com as Sporting KC continues its playoff push.
FOX Sports Kansas City Plus and FOX Sports Midwest Plus will air three hours of live coverage on Saturday beginning at 7 p.m., while listeners can follow the action live on Sports Radio 810 WHB (English) and ESPN Deportes KC 1480 AM (Spanish).
The interconference clash will stream live on FOX Sports GO for viewers on FOX Sports Midwest and on ESPN+ elsewhere across the U.S. The Sporting KC Uphoria app will provide additional in-game updates.
Supporters in attendance on Saturday will join Sporting KC to celebrate the life of Ron Newman, the club’s first head coach who died Aug. 27 at age 84.
Newman led Kansas City for over three seasons from 1996 to 1999, racking up 50 regular season wins at the helm. To honor that milestone and his lasting legacy as a soccer pioneer in America, fans are encouraged to participate in a moment of applause during the 50th minute of Saturday’s contest.
Sporting KC saw a four-game winning and shutout streak snapped in a 3-1 defeat at Seattle Sounders FC last weekend.
Forward Diego Rubio continued his brilliant run of form in the losing effort, tallying his fifth goal in as many games to give the visitors an early lead.
Rubio, who has joined the Chile Men’s National Team for a friendly at South Korea on Tuesday, will be one of three Sporting KC forwards absent this weekend due to international commitments.
Scotland winger Johnny Russell and Hungary winger Daniel Salloi have gone to Europe for the start of the inaugural UEFA Nations League.
With defender Ike Opara also sidelined because of caution accumulation, manager Peter Vermes will flex his squad’s depth on Saturday.
Recently acquired forward Krisztian Nemeth and Frenchman Yohan Croizet are in contention to feature up top, while freshly minted center back Andreu Fontas could make his MLS debut after spending the previous decade competing in his native Spain.
Striker Khiry Shelton is also available, having worked his way back from a knee injury that has kept him out since early July.
Currently occupying third place in the Western Conference, Sporting KC is four points behind leaders FC Dallas and a point behind LAFC.
Vermes’ men have a game in hand on both teams, however, and with FC Dallas and LAFC on byes this weekend, Sporting KC could jump to second with a victory.
Orlando languishes in 10th place in the East and appears set to miss the playoffs for the fourth consecutive year since joining MLS in 2015.
The Lions scrapped to a 2-2 home draw last weekend against the Philadelphia Union, receiving a ninth-minute goal from Dom Dwyer before falling behind 2-1 in the late stages.
Center back Scott Sutter salvaged a point for the hosts with a 91st-minute leveler, but it wasn’t enough to prevent Orlando’s winless drought from hitting seven games.
Saturday’s matchup will see two familiar faces return to Children’s Mercy Park.
At the forefront is Dwyer, whose 67 goals in a Sporting KC uniform are second-most in club history. Dwyer led the Kansas City frontline from his breakout season in 2014 until he was traded to Orlando last summer in exchange for allocation money.
The Englishman has been one of the lone bright spots for Orlando in 2018, leading the side with 12 goals in 19 league appearances.
Another former Sporting KC player set to return in Orlando purple is midfielder Uri Rosell. The Spaniard played 57 games under manager Peter Vermes from 2012-2014 before landing a transfer to Sporting Lisbon in Portugal. Rosell came back to MLS this year and has started 12 of 16 MLS matches for Orlando.
The Lions began the 2018 campaign brightly, rattling off six straight wins from April to May for a 6-2-1 start, but a nine-game losing skid followed to mark the end of Jason Kreis’ tenure as head coach.
Former Louisville City FC boss James O’Connor took over on June 29, but results have remained elusive for the Florida outfit. Orlando has conceded 61 goals and lost 16 matches, both the most in MLS this season, and own a 1-14-2 record since May 13.
The club has just one clean sheet to show from 26 league games and has lost nine straight away matches.
Sporting KC and Orlando have met on three previous occasions in the MLS regular season, splitting the series with one win and one draw each.
The Lions claimed a 3-1 home victory in the inaugural meeting three years ago despite Nemeth scoring his 13th of 16 goals that year for Sporting KC.
Orlando’s first trip to Children’s Mercy Park came on May 15, 2016.
Sporting KC dominated proceedings en route to a club-record 34 shot attempts, but found themselves trailing 1-0 until Dwyer and Jacob Peterson bagged late goals to secure a 2-1 triumph. The sides most recently met in May 2017 in Orlando, tying 2-2 as a Latif Blessing brace canceled out strikes from Kaka and Cyle Larin.
– Story from Sporting KC
