After a 1-0 win in the club’s home opener last weekend, Sporting Kansas City (1-1-0, 3 points) will return to the road this weekend to face the Colorado Rapids (1-1-0, 3 points) at 8 p.m. on Saturday at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colorado.
The Western Conference clash will air live on 38 The Spot with three hours of coverage starting at 7:30 p.m. The match will also be the first to stream live on SportingKC.com and the Sporting KC mobile app for viewers in Kansas and Missouri (excluding St. Louis area per MLS policy), while out-of-market fans can watch via ESPN+. In addition, ESPN 94.5 FM and La Grande 1340 AM will carry the match locally for listeners, and Sporting Kansas City’s official pub partners will be showing the match throughout the Midwest.
Sporting Kansas City claimed the club’s first win of the 2022 campaign — and the club’s first 1-0 win since 2020 — last Saturday at Children’s Mercy Park as Remi Walter scored in the 60th minute and Tim Melia made three saves for the shutout to extend Houston’s 26-game road winless run.
The Rapids also picked up their first points of the year in their home opener last Saturday, bouncing back from a 3-0 loss at LAFC in Week 1 to prevail 3-0 over Atlanta United FC.
Former Sporting KC striker Diego Rubio opened the scoring in the 33rd minute before a pair of former first round SuperDraft selections, Jonathan Lewis and Andre Shinyashiki, added goals in the second half.
Lewis, a member of the U.S. Men’s National Team’s last two Concacaf Gold Cup squads, and Shinyashiki, Major League Soccer’s Rookie of the Year in 2019, are part of a Colorado attack that is spearheaded by Rubio. The Chilean center forward began his MLS career in Kansas City from 2016 to 2018, however, is listed as questionable for Saturday’s match due to injury, as is Sporting KC center forward Khiry Shelton after starting the team’s first two matches with designated player Alan Pulido sidelined for the season.
Sporting acquired Montenegrin international striker Nikola Vujnovic on a season-long loan in February and the 25-year-old arrived in Kansas City this week after scoring 16 goals for FK Vozdovac in Serbia over the last two seasons. Vujnovic bolsters a Sporting frontline that features two of the top wingers in Major League Soccer with MLS All-Star Daniel Salloi and club captain Johnny Russell on opposite flanks.
Salloi’s 17 non-penalty goals since the start of 2021 are tied with LA Galaxy forward Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez for most in MLS and his 32 career regular season goals are eighth most among active MLS players who have not scored a penalty goal.
Coincidentally, Rubio ranks fourth on that list with 35 career goals without a penalty while fellow Rapids forward Michael Barrios is second with 39 career goals.
Both original members of Major League Soccer since the league’s inaugural season in 1996, Sporting KC and Colorado will renew the regional rivalry on Saturday.
Sporting has played Colorado a total of 70 times in the MLS regular season, more than any other opponent, and holds the advantage in the all-time series with a 28-24-18 record against the Rapids, including a 4-1-5 record since the start of the 2018 season.
However, Sporting KC is just 5-18-12 when playing away to Colorado in the regular season and 1-6-8 all-time at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in the regular season.
Sporting has walked away with a draw in each of the past four visits but is winless in the last eight road matches in the series (0-4-4) dating back to the club’s lone win at the venue on March 29, 2014.
The Rapids finished atop the conference standings for the first time ever in 2021, thanks in large part to a 9-1-7 home record. Colorado currently boasts the league’s longest home unbeaten streak – and the second longest such streak in club history – with a run of 17 regular season home matches without a loss since suffering a 3-1 defeat to expansion side Austin FC in last year’s home opener on April 24, 2021.
Like Sporting, Colorado fell at home after conceding a late goal in the Western Conference semifinals of the 2021 MLS Cup Playoffs. Similar heartbreak awaited the Rapids in this year’s Concacaf Champions League as Colorado was eliminated in a penalty shootout in February after its home-and-away series with Guatemalan club Comunicaciones ended in a 1-1 deadlock.
Colorado’s offseason was highlighted by two major moves. The Rapids transferred Auston Trusty, the team’s Defender of the Year, to Arsenal FC in the English Premier League with an agreement for Trusty to remain with the Rapids on loan until this July.
In addition, Colorado traded U.S. Men’s National Team midfielder Kellyn Acosta to LAFC in exchange for more than $1 million in general allocation money.
The Rapids will also be without centerback Aboubacar Keita and winger Braian Galvan on Saturday after both players underwent knee surgeries recently to repair torn ACLs.
In addition, centerback Danny Wilson was replaced at halftime in the Rapids most recent match and is listed as questionable on the club’s player availability report.
Sporting Kansas City manager Peter Vermes, who led the Rapids to an appearance in the 1997 MLS Cup in his first of three seasons with Colorado as a player, will be without Pulido (knee) as well as midfielders Gadi Kinda (knee) and Uri Rosell (hamstring) on Saturday.
- Story from Sporting KC