"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.
Hot off a rampant 3-0 home win over the San Jose Earthquakes, Sporting Kansas City's late-season push continues in earnest on Saturday as St. Louis visits Children's Mercy Park for the first time.
Tickets for the highly anticipated rivalry showdown are available online at SeatGeek, including standing-room only tickets, while supplies last. The match will be broadcast live on Apple TV in English and Spanish for MLS Season Pass subscribers, while local radio coverage will air on Sports Radio 810 WHB and La Grande 1340 AM with streams in the Sporting KC app. Pub partners in the Sporting Pub Network will also show all of the action.
Sporting enter the weekend in desperate need of points to aid their playoff push. St. Louis, meanwhile, is battling for first place in the West as the highest-scoring team in the league. We take a statistical look at the can't-miss matchup in our newest edition of By The Numbers, presented by Compass Minerals.
Head-to-Head
- The inaugural meeting between the clubs took place on May 20 as St. Louis earned a 4-0 win at CityPark. Indiana Vassilev bagged a brace to go with goals from Eduard Lowen and Niko Gioacchini. Jared Stroud added two assists and St. Louis goalkeeper Roman Burki made six saves for the shutout.
- Sporting are hosting St. Louis for the first time.
- A team from St. Louis has visited Children’s Mercy Park once previously. On June 16, 2015, Sporting earned a 1-0 win over second-division St. Louis FC in the 2015 U.S. Open Cup Round of 32 en route to winning the tournament title.
- Sporting have won seven major trophies in club history, while St. Louis has an empty trophy cabinet.
Sporting Kansas City
- 2023 MLS record: 7-11-8, 29 points (11th in West | 34 GF, 36 GA)
- 2023 MLS home record: 6-5-2 (23 GF, 15 GA)
- Last five MLS matches: 2-1-2 (W-T-T-L-W)
- With a 3-0 win over San Jose last weekend, Sporting have scored at least three goals in nine of the club’s last 19 regular season home matches since August 2022. The team has won each of those nine matches while posting a 3-5-2 record in the other 10 home matches scoring two goals or fewer.
- Since the start of May, Sporting lead MLS with 31 goals scored (1.94 goals per match). The team scored just three goals in its first 10 league matches through the end of April.
- In last Saturday’s 3-0 win over San Jose, Sporting executed a 38-pass sequence in the buildup to Erik Thommy’s goal. This tied the longest goal buildup in an MLS match since Opta began tracking the statistic in 2010.
- Since 2010, MLS teams have scored seven goals with buildups of 30 or more passes. Sporting has scored five of the seven, including each of the last four since 2021 and two in last Saturday’s win over San Jose (Johnny Russell’s goal culminated a 32-pass buildup).
- Sporting rank second in the Western Conference with 13 goals scored in the first 30 minutes of matches this season. Three of their five goals in Leagues Cup also came in the opening 30 minutes.
- Sporting have scored first in 11 of their last 14 matches across all competitions, posting a 5-1-5 record in those 11 games.
- Sporting goalkeeper Tim Melia has saved a penalty kick and kept a clean sheet in each of his last two appearances, a 3-0 home win over Minnesota United FC on May 13 and a 3-0 home win over San Jose last Saturday. He missed over three months of action with a quad injury before returning last weekend.
- Since starting his Sporting tenure in 2015, Melia’s 15 PK saves in the regular season are most in MLS.
- Melia has a .571 goals conceded percentage on penalty kicks (20 of 35) in the regular season, lowest in MLS regular season history among keepers with at least 20 penalties faced.
- In the 3-0 win over San Jose, Erik Thommy had a goal and an assist in the same game for the third time in his MLS career. He now has 12 goals contributions (four goals and eight assists) since the start of May in all competitions, tied with Alan Pulido for most on the team during that stretch.
- Sporting are a perfect 7-0-0 when Thommy scores in the regular season dating back to 2022. The club is also 8-0-3 this season in games he has scored or assisted a goal.
- Thommy leads Sporting with nine assists in all competitions this season.
- Midfielder Nemanja Radoja had two assists in the 3-0 win over San Jose, marking the first time in his professional career that he has assisted two goals in a single game (307 professional appearances).
- Forward Johnny Russell has scored in three of his last four home appearances at Children’s Mercy Park in all competitions.
- With a goal and an assist in the 3-0 win over San Jose, Russell became the third player in Sporting history to eclipse 100 combined goals (58) and assists (42) in all competitions.
- Forward Daniel Salloi has scored or assisted a goal in three straight regular season appearances dating back to July 12. His 3rd-minute goal last Saturday was Sporting’s fastest in the regular season since 2020 and lifted him into sole possession of fourth place in club history with 44 regular season goals.
- Salloi leads MLS in progressive passes received (287), ranks fourth in progressive carries (98), fourth in successful crosses from open play (20), seventh in expected assists (5.9), ninth in shots on target (26) and 13th in chances created (46). He also ranks second on Sporting with 13 goal contributions this season in all competitions (seven goals, six assists).
- Forward Alan Pulido has a team-high 10 MLS goals and 11 goals in all competitions this season. His 10 league goals (three shy of the MLS lead) and 11 goals in all competitions are his most for Sporting in a single season since joining the club in 2020.
- Pulido leads Sporting with 14 total goal contributions in all competitions this year (11 goals, three assists). His nine goals since the start of June are the most in MLS.
- Defender Dany Rosero has accounted for three of Sporting’s five headed goals this season in all competitions, each coming off a set piece.
- Sporting are 5-0-1 in MLS when the center back pairing of Andreu Fontas and Dany Rosero start together at home this season.
St. Louis
- 2023 MLS record: 15-9-2, 47 points (1st in West | 52 GF, 33 GA)
- 2023 MLS away record: 5-6-1 (15 GF, 19 GA)
- Last five MLS matches: 3-2-0 (L-W-W-L-W)
- With wins in six of its last eight league matches since June 24, St. Louis has a seven-point lead atop the Western Conference.
- St. Louis ranks second in MLS with 15 wins, four more than any other Western Conference team.
- St. Louis leads MLS in goals scored (52) and goals per match (2.0). Vancouver is the only other Western Conference team to eclipse 40 goals scored this season (42).
- St. Louis leads MLS with a plus-19 goal differential (52 goals scored, 33 goals conceded). The club’s plus-23 goal differential at home (37 GF, 14 GA) is also the best in MLS.
- St. Louis ranks second in MLS in shot conversion rate (14.3%), third in shots on goal per game (5.3) and eighth in shooting accuracy (48.9%).
- According to Opta, St. Louis is outperforming its expected goal differential by 23.16 goals, the largest such margin in MLS and over 10 goals more than any other team.
- According to Opta, St. Louis has outperformed its expected goal total by 17.09, the most in MLS (52 goals, 34.91 expected goals).
- St. Louis has scored 46 goals in its 15 wins this season. The team has scored just six goals in the 11 games it has failed to win (nine losses, two draws).
- St. Louis has won five away matches this season, one shy of a tie for the league lead (5-6-1 away record).
- St. Louis has two ties during the regular season, tied with CF Montreal for the fewest in MLS.
- St. Louis ranks last in MLS in average possession (44.3%).
- St. Louis ranks second in MLS with 14.4 fouls committed per match. The team’s discrepancy between fouls committed (374) and fouls suffered (273) is the largest in MLS (101).
- Forward and Kansas City native Niko Gioacchini leads St. Louis with 10 MLS goals. He also leads the team in fouls suffered (53) and ranks third on the team in key passes (27).
- Midfielder Eduard Lowen leads St. Louis in both assists (10) and total goal contributions (16) this season. His 10 assists are tied for fifth most in MLS, while his four game-winning goals are tied for fourth in the league.
- Midfielder Jared Stroud is one off the MLS lead with eight yellow cards.
- Goalkeeper Roman Burki ranks second in MLS in wins (15) and saves (96) while ranking eighth in save percentage (74.4%).
- Defender Tim Parker has a career-high four goals in 22 MLS matches this season after scoring just two goals in his first 217 regular season appearances from 2015-2022. He ranks third in MLS in clearances (117) and has a 14-6-2 record as a starter. St. Louis is 1-3-0 without him in the lineup.
- Forward Klauss scored five goals across his first five MLS appearances by the end of March. He has missed significant time since then through injury and made his return on Aug. 26 in a 2-1 loss at Orlando.
Milestones and Miscellany
- Sporting are two shy of 1,250 regular season goals in club history.
- Midfielder Remi Walter is one shy of his 100th appearance for Sporting in all competitions.
- Midfielder Felipe Gutierrez is one shy of his 50th career regular season start for Sporting.
- Goalkeeper Tim Melia has made 224 regular season appearances and starts. He is one shy of passing Nick Garcia for sixth on the club’s all-time appearances list and one shy of passing Garcia for fifth on the all-time starts list (regular season).
