By The Numbers presented by Compass Minerals: Sporting KC at D.C. United | March 8, 2025

"By The Numbers presented by Compass Minerals" is a season-long series that gives a statistical preview of every Sporting match. To visit the series archive, click here.

Sporting Kansas City is set to visit the nation's capital for the club's first road match at D.C. United in more than five years. Kickoff on Saturday is slated for 6:30 p.m. CT as Sporting and D.C. lock horns in a compelling cross-conference clash at Audi Field.

Saturday's showdown, pitting a pair of teams looking to rebound after frustrating campaigns in 2024, will be available to watch on Apple TV for MLS Season Pass subscribers. Among the most notable storylines, 19-year-old Sporting KC midfielder Jacob Bartlett is poised to face his older brother, D.C. United center back Lucas Bartlett, with brotherly bragging rights on the line.

As Sporting and D.C. prepare for their first head-to-head meeting in nearly three years, we take a statistical look at the fixture in our newest edition of By The Numbers presented by Compass Minerals.

Head-to-Head

• Saturday’s match could see a pair of brothers go head-to-head as 19-year-old Sporting midfielder Jacob Bartlett faces 27-year-old D.C. center back Lucas Bartlett. Both players developed in the Sporting KC Academy and have started in their team’s first two MLS matches of the season.
• Sporting and D.C. last met on Sept. 13, 2022, when Sporting cruised to a 3-0 home win behind goals from Khiry Shelton, Robert Voloder and Daniel Salloi.
• Sporting has not visited D.C. since May 12, 2019, when United claimed a 1-0 home win behind Paul Arriola’s goal in the 78th minute.
• Sporting has visited Audi Field just once since the stadium opened in 2018.
• Sporting and D.C. squared off in each of the first 24 MLS seasons from 1996-2019, but the clubs have met just once since then.
• The all-time regular season series between the clubs is dead even after 57 meetings, with both teams owning 22 wins and 13 draws.
• Sporting went 6-0-1 against D.C. from 2011-2013 but then went 1-4-3 in the series from 2014-2019.
• Sporting scored two total goals in eight meetings against D.C. from 2014-2019 before scoring three goals in the most recent meeting on Sept. 13, 2022.
• The last 12 meetings between the clubs since 2013 have produced just 16 total goals, a clip of 1.33 per match.
• Sporting has a 6-14-8 road record in 28 away matches at D.C. dating back to 1996. Sporting last won at D.C. by a 1-0 scoreline to open the season on March 10, 2012.
• Sporting has failed to score in four of its last five visits to D.C. since 2014. Sporting last scored an away goal against D.C. in a 1-1 draw on May 9, 2015.
• Sporting has scored one goal or fewer in each of its last 11 visits to D.C. since 2008. The last time Kansas City scored multiple goals at D.C. was a 4-2 victory to open the 2007 season.
• Sporting defender Khiry Shelton has six goal contributions (two goals, four assists) in just 320 regular season minutes against D.C., encompassing seven total appearances and four starts. In his two appearances against D.C. as a member of Sporting, Shelton has one goal and one assist.
• Sporting defender Robert Voloder scored his first and only MLS goal to date in Sporting’s 3-0 win over D.C. on Sept. 13, 2022.
• Sporting midfielder Memo Rodriguez has two goals in five regular season appearances against D.C., both as a member of Houston Dynamo FC.
• D.C. midfielder Jared Stroud has seven goal contributions (two goals, five assists) in just 390 regular season minutes against Sporting, encompassing six total appearances and five starts. His seven career goal contributions against Sporting are five more than against any other MLS opponent.
• Kansas City and D.C. notably met in the 2004 MLS Cup. After Kansas City took an early lead, D.C. scored three unanswered goals in the first half before holding on to prevail 3-2 for the club’s fourth and most recent MLS Cup title.

Sporting Kansas City

• 2025 MLS record: 0-2-0, 0 points (13th in West | 1 GF, 3 GA)
• 2025 MLS away record: 0-1-0 (0 GF, 1 GA)
• First Two MLS Matches: L 0-1 at Austin, L 1-2 vs. San Jose
• After being the only MLS team without a penalty kick goal during the 2024 regular season, Sporting scored from the spot last Saturday as Dejan Joveljic converted a spot kick in a 2-1 home loss to the San Jose Earthquakes.
• Sporting ranks third in MLS in progressive passes (104) and fourth in progressive carries (41). Progressive passes and carries advance the ball 10 yards closer to the opponent’s goal line or into the penalty area.
• Sporting leads MLS with 13 switches, passes that travel more than 40 yards of the width of the pitch.
• Sporting ranks fourth in MLS in touches in the attacking third per game (192).
• Sporting ranks second in MLS in dribbles into the attacking third (33) and third in dribbles into the penalty area (12).
• Sporting is tied for the MLS lead with eight yellow cards through Week 2.
• After visiting D.C. United on Saturday, Sporting will play four of its next five matches at home against fellow Western Conference opponents, a stretch running from March 15 to April 13.
• Forward Dejan Joveljic scored Sporting’s first goal of the MLS season and his first goal for the club in last Saturday’s 2-1 home loss to the San Jose Earthquakes.
• Joveljic’s goal last Saturday gave Sporting its first successful penalty kick since September 2023 after a run of five consecutive misses across all competitions.
• Joveljic had 21 goals and eight assists last season in all competitions, including a league-best six goals in the MLS Cup Playoffs as he helped LA win MLS Cup.
• Through Week 2, midfielder Manu Garcia leads MLS in shot-creating actions (14) while ranking fourth in progressive passes (19), fourth in successful take-ons (six) and ninth in successful passes into the penalty area (five).
• Joveljic and Garcia joined Sporting last month as freshly minted Designated Players, Joveljic in a cash trade from the LA Galaxy and Garcia in a transfer from Greek side Aris Thessaloniki.
• Through Week 2, forward Shapi Suleymanov ranks second in MLS in progressive passes received (30) and fifth in carries into the penalty area (six). Suleymanov joined Garcia last month as a transfer acquisition from Greek side Aris Thessaloniki.
• Only two Sporting players have played all 180 minutes of the MLS campaign thus far: goalkeeper John Pulskamp and defender Robert Voloder.
• By assisting Memo Rodriguez’s goal in a Concacaf Champions Cup loss to Inter Miami CF on Feb. 25, 19-year-old midfielder Jacob Bartlett became the youngest player in Sporting history to record an assist in an international match.
• Bartlett, who signed for Sporting as a Homegrown Player in January, is one of five players—alongside Jake Davis, John Pulskamp, Erik Thommy and Robert Voloder—to start in each of Sporting’s first four matches this season across all competitions. All but Thommy are under the age of 24.
• Through Week 2, midfielder Erik Thommy ranks third in MLS in progressive carries (11) and sixth in progressive passes received (23). He has captained Sporting in each of the club’s first four matches this season in all competitions.
• Thommy had seven regular season goals and eight goals in all competitions last season, both second most on the team behind William Agada.
• Forward William Agada led Sporting in each of the following categories last season: regular season goals (10), total goals (12), regular season goal contributions (13) and total goal contributions (16).
• During the 2024 regular season, Agada led MLS in expected goals per 90 minutes (0.76) while ranking second in non-penalty expected goals per 90 minutes (0.68) and sixth in shots per 90 minutes (4.31).
• Jake Davis has started at right back in each of Sporting’s first four matches this season across all competitions. He ranked second on the team last year with eight assists in all competitions, including three assists in Sporting’s run to the 2024 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Final.
• Davis was named Sporting’s Most Valuable Player in 2024, becoming the youngest team MVP in Sporting history (age 22) and the second SKC Academy product to earn the award after Daniel Salloi in 2021.
• Homegrown defender Ian James was a second-half substitute in Sporting’s Concacaf Champions Cup match against Miami on Feb. 25, becoming the second-youngest player to appear in a competitive match in Sporting history at 16 years, 264 days.

D.C. United

• 2025 MLS record: 0-0-2, 2 points (9th in East | 4 GF, 4 GA)
• 2025 MLS home record: 0-0-1 (2 GF, 2 GA)
• First Two MLS Matches: T 2-2 vs. Toronto, T 2-2 at Chicago
• D.C. has missed the MLS Cup Playoffs in each of the last five seasons since 2020, the second-longest active drought in MLS behind Chicago Fire FC (seven seasons). D.C. last reached the playoffs in 2019 and last won a playoff match in 2015.
• D.C. finished with a 10-14-10 record last season, placing 10th in the Western Conference and losing out on the ninth and final playoff spot to Atlanta by virtue of the goal differential tiebreaker.
• D.C. has finished with a losing record in each of the last five MLS seasons
• D.C. went 6-3-2 in its final 11 MLS matches from July 13 onward last season.
• D.C. is the only Eastern Conference team to open the 2025 season with a pair of draws, tying Toronto 2-2 in Week 1 and Chicago Fire FC by the same scoreline in Week 2.
• D.C. took early 1-0 leads in each of its first two matches this season, scoring after eight minutes in Week 1 and after four minutes in Week 2.
• D.C. is one of four MLS teams (Chicago, Orlando, Toronto) to both score and concede multiple goals in each of its first two matches.
• Forward Christian Benteke won the 2024 MLS Golden Boot award by scoring a league-high 23 goals last season. Benteke has 40 goals in 70 regular season appearances since joining D.C. in 2022.
• Benteke has scored in each of D.C.’s first two matches this season. He is one of 14 MLS players with two or more goals through Week 2 and ranks second in the league in both shots (10) and shots on target (five).
• Benteke has led MLS in aerial duels won in each of the last two regular seasons.
• Midfielder Gabriel Pirani ranked second on D.C. with six goals last season, his first full MLS campaign.
• Midfielder Jared Stroud led D.C. in MLS appearances (33) and starts (32) last season. He placed second on the team in assists (10), second in key passes (41) and third in total goal contributions (13).
• Defender Lucas Bartlett led D.C. in minutes played last season (2,741) while adding two goals and four assists. He played 14 total matches across his first two MLS seasons before starting in 31 of 32 appearances last season.
• Defender Aaron Herrera ranked third on D.C. last season in both assists (eight) and key passes (39).

Milestones and Miscellany

• Defender Robert Voloder is one shy of his 50th regular season appearance for Sporting.
• Midfielder Nemanja Radoja is 76 minutes shy of 5,000 career minutes played for Sporting in all competitions.
• Forward Dejan Joveljic is one shy of 60 total goal contributions (42 goals, 17 assists) in MLS, including playoffs.
• Forward Daniel Salloi ranks ninth in Sporting history with 256 appearances for the club in all competitions, one shy of tying former teammate Seth Sinovic for eighth on the all-time charts.