Sporting Kansas City will welcome the San Jose Earthquakes to Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kansas, at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday for the 1,000th match in club history across all competitions.
Tickets for the match are available via SeatGeek.com.
The Western Conference clash will be locally televised on 38 The Spot with three hours of coverage beginning at 7 p.m. The broadcast will also stream live on SportingKC.com and in the Sporting KC app for viewers in Kansas and Missouri (excluding the St. Louis area per MLS policy), as well as ESPN+ for out-of-market subscribers. In addition, the match will air live on Sports Radio 810 WHB and La Grande 1340 AM.
Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes will participate in his 662nd MLS match as a player or coach on Saturday, tying Jason Kreis for the most in league history.
Vermes played seven seasons in Major League Soccer from 1996 to 2002 and has become the longest tenured head coach with one club in MLS history as Sporting’s manager for 14 seasons since August 2009.
Like Vermes, Sporting Kansas City midfielder Roger Espinoza is on the cusp of a major career milestone as the World Cup veteran is 15 minutes shy of eclipsing 25,000 minutes played in MLS competitions.
Espinoza has assists in two of the team’s last three matches as Sporting has scored 11 goals in their past three regular season matches, equaling a feat that had been accomplished just once previously in club history during the inaugural 1996 MLS campaign.
No other MLS club has scored more goals in its last three regular season matches as Sporting currently leads the league in goals per match (3.67) and shots on goal per match (8.3) during the month of August.
Sporting has started strong during the offensive outburst, becoming the first team in MLS history to score three first-half goals in three consecutive regular season matches.
In those three matches, no player has scored more often than newcomer Willy Agada. The 22-year-old Nigerian striker struck twice in the team’s 4-2 win over Portland last Sunday and now leads the league with five goals in the month of August. He is the second player in club history to score five goals in the span of three regular season matches and on Saturday will have a chance to write his name in the record books as the first SKC player all-time to score six goals within his first six MLS appearances.
Sporting and San Jose will both be aiming to win back-to-back games for the first time this season on Saturday. The Earthquakes snapped a six-game winless skid last weekend in impressive fashion with a 2-1 victory over Supporters’ Shield leaders LAFC courtesy of goals from Benji Kikanovic and Cade Cowell.
Matches involving San Jose have averaged the most goals (3.69) in Major League Soccer this season. Jeremy Ebobisse ranks fifth in MLS with a team-leading and career-high 14 goals, while winger Cristian Espinoza is tied for third in MLS with 11 assists. Defensively, San Jose has conceded more than two goals per game this year, which is most in the Western Conference. That average includes a league-high 2.4 goals per road match, as the Earthquakes are 1-8-4 away from home in 2022.
Sporting Kansas City is 7-1-5 against San Jose in the last 13 competitive meetings dating back to 2016 and the team has gone 13-1-3 in 17 home matches with the Earthquakes in all competitions since 2004. The clubs last met on May 22 in a 1-1 draw at PayPal Park as Johnny Russell and Jackson Yueill traded goals.
Sporting will be missing four players on Saturday as Kortne Ford (suspension), Gadi Kinda (knee), Tim Melia (hamstring) and Alan Pulido (knee) remain unavailable. San Jose will travel to Kansas City without Brazilian defender Nathan as the centerback serves a one-game suspension for caution accumulation.
Following Saturday’s match, fans will receive mini soccer balls from a sponsor.
