Sporting Kansas City (2-3-0, 6 points) will cross the Canadian border for a visit to Vancouver to face Whitecaps FC (0-3-1, 1 point) at 7 p.m. on Saturday at BC Place in a rematch from the 2021 MLS Cup Playoffs.
Saturday’s showdown will be locally televised on 38 The Spot with three hours of coverage beginning at 6:30 p.m. The broadcast will also 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.
Sporting Kansas City split the regular season series with Vancouver in 2021 but earned a 3-1 win over Vancouver in Round One of last year’s postseason bracket with goals from Khiry Shelton, Nicolas Isimat-Mirin and Graham Zusi.
Sporting has a commanding 11-4-4 lead in the all-time regular season series against Vancouver since the Whitecaps joined MLS in 2011 and the club has just one defeat (6-1-2) in the last nine meetings across all competition.
The lone loss in that span came in the team’s last trip to BC Place, site of the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup Final.
Vancouver secured a 2-1 home victory in October 2021 as Ryan Gauld and Russell Teibert gave the hosts a 2-0 lead before Johnny Russell pulled a goal back just before halftime for Sporting Kansas City.
Russell’s four career goals against Vancouver are the most by a KC player in the all-time series, highlighted by his hat trick in a 6-0 win over the Whitecaps in April 2018.
The club captain opened his scoring account for 2022 last week with a late match-winner in Sporting’s 1-0 win over Supporters’ Shield co-leaders Real Salt Lake.
Vancouver is coming off back-to-back road losses at Houston and LAFC, most recently dropping a 3-1 result in Los Angeles two weeks ago. Tristan Blackmon scored his first goal for the Whitecaps, striking in the 12th minute on a set piece against his club of the past four years, however Vancouver was unable to hold onto the early lead for a second straight week.
The defeat kept the Whitecaps winless through the first four matches of the season and winless in the club’s last seven overall dating back to 2021.
After being shut out in the opening two games of the campaign in cross-conference clashes against Columbus and NYCFC, Vancouver’s two goals in 2022 are fewest of any team in Major League Soccer.
While the Whitecaps are the only team without a second half goal this season, Sporting is the only team without a first half goal to date.
Sporting will also be looking for the team’s first road points of the year on Saturday after falling in Atlanta, Denver and Chicago in the first month of the campaign.
Despite having the most road wins in Major League Soccer over the past 10 seasons, Sporting has suffered losses in the team’s last five road matches, a streak that matches the longest in club history during the non-shootout era (2000 to present).
Manager Peter Vermes welcomed back the attacking trio of Russell, Khiry Shelton and Daniel Salloi last week after all three had missed the club’s previous match due to injury.
However, Designated Players Gadi Kinda (knee) and Alan Pulido (knee) remain out with long-term injuries while midfielder Uri Rosell (hamstring) and defender Kortne Ford (ankle) are questionable.
Vancouver also has four players recovering from injuries on the team’s availability report. Midfielder Caio Alexandre (foot) and defender Erik Godoy (calf) are listed as out and have yet to appear in 2022, while midfielder Ryan Gauld (adductor) and forward Brian White (calf) are questionable and missed the club’s last match.
Both sides will welcome back players from international duty this weekend, headlined by Vancouver defender Cristian Gutierrez and forward Lucas Cavallini who were part of the Canada Men’s National Team that qualified to the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
In addition, Whitecaps defender Javain Brown represented Jamaica in World Cup qualifying while Sporting KC midfielder Marinos Tzionis scored the match-winning goal for Cyprus in UEFA Nations League action and defender Logan Ndenbe started for Belgium as the country qualified for the 2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship.
- Story from Sporting KC