Sporting Kansas City (2-7-3, 9 points) will play host to the Colorado Rapids (4-4-3, 15 points) at 7:30 p.m. CT on Wednesday at Children’s Mercy Park in a rematch with last year’s top team in the Western Conference.
Tickets are available online at SeatGeek.com and the first 5,000 fans in attendance will receive a “Two States, One City, One Club” poster.
Wednesday’s match will be locally televised on 38 The Spot with three hours of coverage beginning at 7 p.m. The broadcast will stream live on SportingKC.com and in the Sporting KC app for viewers in Kansas and Missouri (excluding St. Louis area per MLS policy), as well as ESPN+ for out-of-market subscribers. Radio commentary will also be available from Sports Radio 810 WHB (English) and La Grande 1340 AM (Spanish).
After playing three times each in 2020 and 2021, Sporting and Colorado will meet for a second and final time in the 2022 regular season on Wednesday. The Rapids prevailed 2-0 on March 12 with goals from Canadian international Mark-Anthony Kaye and Chilean striker Diego Rubio.
Rubio, who spent three seasons in Kansas City from 2016 to 2018, leads the Rapids with six goals this season including goals in four of his last five MLS matches. His three game-winning goals are most in MLS this year and the 29-year-old has also struck the post a league-high four times.
The Rapids are coming off a 2-0 victory over Supporters’ Shield leaders Los Angeles FC on Saturday behind a pair of penalties converted by Rubio and Gyasi Zardes, who was acquired from the Columbus Crew last month.
Colorado held LAFC to a season-low two shots on goal as William Yarbrough lowered his MLS career goals against average to 1.10, which ranks fourth best in MLS history among goalkeepers with 1,000 minutes played.
While Sporting Kansas City aims to snap a seven-game winless streak in the regular season, Colorado will be in pursuit of the club’s first road win since Halloween of 2021. The Rapids are 0-6-1 away from home in all competitions this year but are boosted by the return of midfielder Jack Price who leads the team with 17 chances created despite missing two recent matches due to injury.
Sporting will be without a slew of players on Wednesday as Robert Voloder (red card) and Roger Espinoza (caution accumulation) serve one-game suspensions, and seven additional players battle injuries. Alan Pulido, Gadi Kinda, Nicolas Isimat-Mirin and Ozzie Cisneros have all been ruled out, while Graham Zusi, Johnny Russell and Khiry Shelton are questionable to play a role.
The injuries come as Sporting reaches the midpoint of a grueling stretch with seven games in 22 days. On Tuesday, the club called up Sporting KC II winger Julian Vazquez via a Short-Term Agreement as an additional attacking option alongside Daniel Salloi, Marinos Tzionis and Nikola Vujnovic.
Salloi scored in the club’s most recent MLS home match on April 30, while Tzionis and Vujnovic each scored at Children’s Mercy Park last week in a thrilling U.S. Open Cup victory. Tzionis leveled the match with a dramatic equalizer in the 98th minute and, most recently, came off the bench to score his first MLS goal on Saturday to give the 20-year-old Cypriot international goals in back-to-back matches.
Kansas City and Colorado have met 85 times in all competitions, more than any other Sporting opponent, dating back to each team’s Major League Soccer debut on April 13, 1996. Sporting leads the all-time regular season series 28-25-18, including a 22-6-6 record at home against the Rapids which is the team’s best regular season home record against any MLS charter club.
- Story from Sporting KC