Sporting Kansas City returns to Children’s Mercy Park this weekend as the team prepares to face off against cross-state rivals St. Louis on Saturday night for the first time since Sporting ended St. Louis’ expansion season in Round One of the MLS Cup Playoffs in 2023. Kickoff is set for 7:40 p.m. CT and will be available to stream on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV in English and Spanish. The match will also be available on the radio locally on Sports Radio 810 WHB (English) and La Grande 1340 AM (Spanish), while tickets are available via SeatGeek.com.
1. GETTING BACK ON TRACK AT HOME
Sporting Kansas City continued the club’s trend of scoring and conceding in bunches this past weekend, playing out a 3-2 loss to Inter Miami CF in front of a club-record crowd of 72,610 at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on Saturday night.
It marked the third straight home match that the team saw an early lead slip to either draw or lose. While the team has scored multiple goals in five straight regular-season matches for the first time since 2000, the team has also conceded three goals in three consecutive home games for the first time since 2014. The team has outscored opponents 13-3 through the 64th minute and been outscored 10-1 from the 65th minute onward this season.
Despite some recent frustrations at home, Peter Vermes’ squad is unbeaten on the road in 2024 and has lost just three times in their last 14 matches dating back to last season, going 6-3-5 in that time. Sporting will see Saturday’s matchup against their cross-state rivals St. Louis inside the comfortable confines of a jam-packed Children’s Mercy Park as the perfect opportunity to get back on track at home.
2. RIVALRY WEEK
Sporting Kansas City is set to host cross-state rivals St. Louis this weekend for the first of three regular-season meetings in 2024 when the two side face off at Children’s Mercy Park on Saturday night.
Sporting and St. Louis met five times across both regular-season and postseason play in St. Louis’ expansion season in 2023, with the newcomers claiming the season series with a pair of home wins before Sporting swept them out of the playoffs in Round One.
St. Louis were dominant in their regular-season home matches, earning 4-0 and 4-1 wins at Citypark on May 20 and Sept. 30. In between, Sporting claimed a 2-1 win of their own at Children’s Mercy Park on Sept. 2 courtesy of a brace from Alan Pulido.
Sporting flipped the script in the Round One Best-of-3 series, storming to a 4-1 win at Citypark on Oct. 29 before closing out the series 2-1 at Children’s Mercy Park on Nov. 5 with Logan Ndenbe and Daniel Salloi leading the way with goals in each game.
3. SPORTING SHATTERS ATTENDANCE RECORD
Sporting Kansas City shattered the club’s attendance record this past weekend when 72,610 fans packed GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium to watch the club go toe-to-toe with a star-studded Inter Miami squad on Saturday night.
The match marked Sporting’s first appearance at Arrowhead since July 25, 2010 when the then Kansas City Wizards earned a 2-1 victory over Manchester United in a friendly match with 52,424 in attendance that proved transformational for the club’s future.
Over 20,000 more spectators filled the hallowed venue on Saturday, making it the third largest attendance for a standalone regular-season match in MLS history.
The match was also recorded the second-highest soccer attendance across the globe over the weekend, only topped by Bayern Munch’s 75,000 crowd at Allianz Arena in Germany.
Date | Match | Venue | Attendance |
July 4, 2023 | LA vs. LAFC | Rose Bowl | 82,110 |
March 5, 2022 | CLT vs. LA | Bank of America Stadium | 74,479 |
April 13, 2024 | SKC vs. MIA | Arrowhead Stadium | 72,610 |
4. THOMMY SCORES TWICE AT ARROWHEAD
Sporting Kansas City midfielder Erik Thommy showed out on the biggest stage this past weekend, scoring a pair of stunning goals in the 3-2 loss to Inter Miami CF at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
The German, playing on the right wing for the fourth consecutive match deputizing for an injured Johnny Russell, opened the scoring with the club’s earliest goal of the 2024 season when he fired a brilliant finish into the side-netting from the edge of the area in the sixth minute.
After goals from Diego Gomez and Lionel Messi had turned the game on its head, Thommy stepped up with an even better strike in the 58th minute, meeting a looping ball flush on the volley that crashed off the post into the back of the net after Luis Suarez could only half-clear a corner kick.
It marked Thommy’s first two-goal game as a Sporting player and his first brace since Nov. 19, 2016, when he played for German third-division side Jahn Regensburg. He is now tied for the team lead with three goals in 2024 and has tallied 11 goals and 15 assists across 63 appearances in all competitions since joining Sporting midway through the 2022 campaign.
5. SCORING & CONCEDING AT RAPID PACE
Sporting Kansas City has had few issues finding the back of the net in 2024, but simultaneously has struggled to keep the ball out of their own net over the past month as the team has played out a series of high-scoring matches.
There have been 20 goals scored in Sporting’s last four matches (2-3 vs. LA, 3-1 at TOR, 3-3 vs. POR, 2-3 vs. MIA) - an average of five goals per game. In club history, Sporting’s matches have averaged 2.78 goals per game.
Sporting has now scored multiple goals in five straight regular season matches for the first time since May-June in 2000, the year the team was crowned MLS Cup champions and Supporters’ Shield winners. Of concern is the fact that Sporting has now conceded three goals in their last three home matches for the first time since 2014.
