A pair of MLS originals lock horns for the second time this season when Western Conference leaders Sporting Kansas City (5-2-2, 17 points) welcome the Colorado Rapids (2-3-2, 8 points) Saturday in Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kansas.
Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. and tickets are available via SeatGeek.com.
FOX Sports Kansas City and FOX Sports Kansas City Plus will televise three hours of live coverage on Saturday beginning at 7 p.m. The match will stream live on FOX Sports GO within the FOX Sports Kansas City-Midwest viewing area and on ESPN+ elsewhere across the country. Local radio broadcasts will air on Sports Radio 810 WHB (English) and ESPN Deportes KC 1480 AM (Spanish), while the Sporting KC Uphoria app will provide live updates.
The first 10,000 fans to arrive at Children’s Mercy Park on Saturday will receive a limited-edition Matt Besler bobblehead.
Sporting Kansas City enters the weekend with a two-point lead at the top of the Western Conference, having stumbled to a 1-0 loss at the New England Revolution last Saturday.
The result snapped a seven-game unbeaten run in which Peter Vermes’ men rattled off five victories and bagged 20 goals, including six in their most recent home game against Vancouver Whitecaps FC on April 20.
Vermes’ side received poor news on the injury front Tuesday when midfielder Felipe Gutierrez was ruled out two to three months after undergoing successful sports hernia surgery.
The 27-year-old Chilean scored five times in March to claim MLS Player of the Month honors, becoming just the second player in club history to net five goals in the first five games of a regular season.
Sporting KC nevertheless wields a potent attack that has amassed 12 goals over their last four home fixtures, with Scottish winger Johnny Russell notably notching a hat-trick in a 6-0 drubbing of Vancouver a fortnight ago.
Guided by first-year head coach Anthony Hudson, the Rapids are looking to rebound from a 2-1 home loss to Orlando City SC last Sunday.
Colorado took a first-half lead through Dominique Badji – who has scored five of the team’s 10 goals this season – but the Lions roared back after intermission behind goals from Cristian Higuita and Yoshimar Yotun to secure their fifth straight victory.
Colorado’s travels away from home have yielded woeful results since the start of 2017. The club is 1-16-3 on the road over the last two seasons, scoring just nine goals over the 20-game stretch. This drought includes a 3-1 setback to Sporting KC the last time they visited Children’s Mercy Park on April 9, 2017.
Badji has shouldered half of Colorado’s goal haul this season, with newly acquired forward Joe Mason also chipping in a pair of goals. Longtime U.S. international goalkeeper Tim Howard served a red card suspension against Orlando last weekend but is set to return, ranking second in MLS with a 0.96 goals against average in 2018.
The sides most recently met on March 24 of this season, scrapping to an entertaining 2-2 draw at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. Colorado jumped out to a 2-0 lead within the first eight minutes as Badji and Mason entered the scoresheet, but Sporting KC effectively controlled the rest of the game.
Gutierrez halved the deficit on 57 minutes before Diego Rubio came off the bench to bag a dramatic, 91st-minute equalizer. The visitors ended the night with a 20-8 edge in shots, including 9-2 in shots on target, and owned 62 percent of possession.
Sporting KC went 6-0-5 against Colorado from 2009-2015 (including playoffs), but has gone just 1-6-1 in the series since October 2015. The home team in the regular season series is 37-10-14 all-time, with Kansas City holding a 19-5-5 edge as host. The clubs will battle for the 76th time in all competitions on Saturday, making the Rapids the most frequent opponent in Kansas City history. Sporting KC leads the all-time series 30-28-17.
– Information from Sporting KC