By The Numbers: #SKCvMIN | Sept. 17, 2022

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

Sporting Kansas City will host Minnesota United at Children's Mercy Park on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. CT in the club's penultimate home match of the 2022 regular season. The match will air in its entirety on 38 The Spot, as well as in the Sporting KC mobile app and online at SportingKC.com.

In six fixtures at Children's Mercy Park, Sporting KC has defeated the Loons all six times, while conceding just one goal. Sporting's closest geographic opponent, the "Nicest Rivalry in Sports" has seen 18 matchups in all competitions since 2017 with Sporting holding the edge at 8-6-4 in the series.

Below is a statistical preview of Saturday's Western Conference matchup between Sporting Kansas City and Minnesota United.

Head-to-Head

• Sporting's 18 matches in all competitions against Minnesota since 2017 are more than any other opponent.
• porting leads the all-time regular season series against Minnesota with a 7-4-4 record.
• Sporting have won all six regular season home meetings against Minnesota, scoring 15 goals and conceding just one.
• Minnesota’s lone regular season goal at Children’s Mercy Park came in a 4-1 loss to Sporting on June 3, 2018.
• Sporting and Minnesota last met on July 13, playing to a 1-1 draw at Allianz Field. Minnesota led 1-0 at halftime on an own goal, but Johnny Russell came off the bench to equalize for Sporting in the second half.
• Russell has three goals and eight assists in 11 regular season appearances against Minnesota while forward Khiry Shelton has four goals and an assist in eight regular season appearances against them.

Sporting Kansas City

• 2022 MLS record: 9-15-7, 34 points (12th in Western Conference)
• 2022 MLS home record: 7-6-2 (20 GF, 16 GA)
• 2021 MLS Cup Playoffs: Lost to Real Salt Lake in Western Conference Semifinals
• All-time Honors: Two MLS Cups (2000, 2013), four Open Cups (2004, 2012, 2015, 2017), one Supporters' Shield (2000)
• Sporting are 4-1-2 since the start of August with a winning percentage of 71.4%, the best clip in the Western Conference and tied with FC Cincinnati for third in MLS behind Philadelphia and Montreal.
• Sporting lead the Western Conference since the start of August with 2.0 points per match.
• Sporting have posted shutouts in three of their last four matches. Sporting’s three clean sheets since Aug. 27 are the most in MLS.
• Sporting have scored multiple goals in five of their last seven regular season matches.
• Sporting have trailed for a total of only 64 minutes during their last seven matches since the start of August.
• Sporting are 8-3-2 when scoring first and 1-12-2 when conceding first this season. Similarly, Sporting are 5-2-1 when leading at halftime and 0-8-3 when down at halftime.
• Forward Johnny Russell, who leads Sporting with eight regular season goals and 10 goals in all competitions, has become the first player in Sporting history to score six goals in five consecutive regular seasons.
• Last month, forward Willy Agada became the third player in Sporting history to bag five goals in his first five MLS appearances for the club (Miklos Molnar in 2000, Felipe Gutierrez in 2018).
• Forward Daniel Salloi has scored in each of his last two home appearances at Children’s Mercy Park. He ranks second on the team with seven regular season goals and nine goals in all competitions.
• In Tuesday’s 3-0 win over D.C. United, Kendall McIntosh became the fourth Sporting goalkeeper to record a clean sheet victory in his MLS debut (Pat Harrington in 1996, Will Hesmer in 2006, Jimmy Nielsen in 2010).

Minnesota United

• 2022 MLS record: 13-12-6, 45 points (5th in Western Conference)
• 2022 MLS road record: 6-8-1 (20 GF, 25 GA)
• 2021 MLS Cup Playoffs: Lost to the Portland Timbers in Western Conference Round One
• All-time Honors: N/A
• Minnesota currently occupies fifth place in the West, five points above the playoff line with three regular season matches remaining. The Loons missed the playoffs in each of their first two seasons but have made three straight postseason appearances since 2019.
• Minnesota went 8-1-2 from June 29 to Aug. 27, but the Loons have taken just one point from their last four matches since Aug. 31, a 1-1 home draw against LAFC on Wednesday that snapped a three-game losing and goalless streak.
• Minnesota have gone 10 straight matches without a clean sheet since posting a 2-0 home win over D.C. United on July 16.
• Minnesota have four shutouts this season, third fewest in MLS ahead of only Toronto and San Jose (three each).
• Nine of Minnesota’s 13 wins have come by a single goal. Similarly, eight of their 12 losses have come by a single goal.
• Minnesota has dropped 20 points from winning position this season, fifth most in MLS.
• Midfielder Emanuel Reynoso is one of two MLS players (Hany Mukhtar) to hit double-digit goals and assists this season, notching a team-best 10 each.
• Reynoso places first in MLS in duels won (244) and corner kicks (140), second in fouls suffered (74), third in yellow cards (10) and eighth in chances created (69).
• Forward Luis Amarilla is one shy of the MLS lead with five game-winning goals. Five of his nine goals this season have been match-winners.
• Minnesota are the only club in MLS with a goal differential of zero (45 scored, 45 conceded).

Milestones and Miscellany

• Forward Johnny Russell is one shy of 50 goals in MLS competitions. Additionally, his 91 goals and assists in all competitions are sixth most in club history, one shy of tying Davy Arnaud in fifth and two shy of tying Benny Feilhaber in fourth.
• Forward Daniel Salloi’s 38 regular season goals are tied with Kei Kamara for seventh most in club history and one shy of tying Chris Klein for sixth.
• Midfielder Roger Espinoza has 42 regular season assists for Sporting, one shy of tying Benny Feilhaber for fourth most in club history.