Sporting Kansas City hits the road this weekend for a visit to reigning MLS Cup champions Columbus Crew at Lower.com Field on Saturday night. Kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m. CT and will be available to stream in English and Spanish on MLS Season Pass via Apple TV. The match will also be available on the radio locally on Sports Radio 810 WHB (English) and La Grande 1340 AM (Spanish).
1. GOALS FLOWING IN BOTH DIRECTIONS
Sporting Kansas City will look to take the positives from Wednesday night’s 4-3 loss to Real Salt Lake at Children’s Mercy Park as the club prepares for another tough outing this weekend with a visit to reigning MLS Cup champions the Columbus Crew at Lower.com Field on Saturday night.
Columbus currently resides sixth in the Eastern Conference but much of their early season has been focused on their Concacaf Champions Cup exploits, where the team fell to Liga MX side Pachuca in the final. On Wednesday, Columbus fell 2-1 at Inter Miami CF which snapped a four-game winning run for the Crew with all four coming on the road.
Sporting once again scored multiple goals on Wednesday night and has now done so in 12 of the club’s 21 matches across all competitions this season while the team has been shutout just twice all season. Sporting currently ranks fifth in MLS with 1.63 non-penalty goals per game and ninth in MLS with 1.63 goals per match - fourth most during the club’s 14-year Sporting KC era dating back to 2011. However, Sporting has gone 16 straight regular season matches without a shutout, tying the longest single-season streak in club history set in 2022.
Sporting is in the midst of a stretch of season that sees the team navigate midweek matches in three of the next four weeks heading into Leagues Cup 2024 in mid-July.
2. HEADING TO THE REIGNING CHAMPS
Sporting Kansas City is back on the road this weekend with a trip east to take on reigning MLS Cup champions the Columbus Crew at Lower.com Field on Saturday night. The match marks Sporting’s first visit to Columbus since the summer of 2019 and the club’s first-ever game at Lower.com Field which opened in 2021.
Sporting and Columbus last met on April 23, 2022 in a rainy, weather-delayed match at Children’s Mercy Park. Despite getting more than three-quarters of the game in, the match was stopped due to inclement weather with 15 minutes remaining and the score locked at 0-0. After a 47-minute delay, the two sides saw out the remainder of the game to claim a share of the spoils.
In Sporting’s last visit to Columbus - almost five years ago to the day on June 23, 2019 - the visitors grabbed a 1-0 victory and returned to Kansas City with all three points. Following a scoreless first half, Gerso Fernandes set up Felipe Gutierrez to head home the only goal of the game early in the second half and Sporting saw off the Crew’s advances for the remainder of the match.
Sporting leads the all-time series with Columbus 26-22-9, including a 12-13-5 mark on the road in Columbus. Sporting is unbeaten in their last five against the Crew (2-0-3) since a 3-2 loss at Historic Crew Stadium on Aug. 22, 2015.
3. AFRIFA SCORES IN BACK-TO-BACK GAMES
Sporting Kansas City forward Stephen Afrifa continued his breakout summer with another goal in the club’s 4-3 defeat to conference leaders Real Salt Lake at Children’s Mercy Park on Wednesday night.
Making just the third start of his MLS career, Afrifa began the match on the left wing after scoring his first MLS goal as a sub over the weekend in LA. It took the Canadian forward little time to make his mark yet again, receiving a pass from Nemanja Radoja and finding the bottom corner from the edge of the area to make the score 1-1 in the 28th minute.
Afrifa, Sporting’s first-round pick in the 2023 MLS SuperDraft, has now scored three goals in his last five appearances for SKC in all competitions - having also bagged a goal and an assist in the team’s 4-0 victory over FC Tulsa in the Open Cup on May 21.
4. AGADA SCORES BRACE, NAMED TO TEAM OF THE MATCHDAY
Sporting Kansas City forward Willy Agada was named to the MLS Team of the Matchday on Thursday as one of the top 20 players in Major League Soccer for Matchday 21 of the regular season.
The 24-year-old Nigerian bagged a brace with a pair of goals in Sporting’s 4-3 loss against Real Salt Lake on Wednesday at Children’s Mercy Park. Agada twice pulled Sporting within a goal of the Western Conference leaders, first in the 70th minute with a composed finish into the top corner and again in second half stoppage time as he headed home a set piece served in by Memo Rodriguez.
Agada leads all Sporting players with seven goal contributions this season with a team-high five goals to go along with two assists. Wednesday was the fifth multi-goal game of his MLS regular season career, tying him for sixth most in club history.
Since arriving in Kansas City, Agada has contributed 17 goals and five assists in 49 appearances across all competitions - highlighted by 14 goals in 15 regular season home starts at Children’s Mercy Park.
5. COPA AMERICA COMING TO CHILDREN’S MERCY PARK
Copa America USA 2024 is coming to Kansas City over the next two weeks, with a pair of matches taking place either side of the state line at Children’s Mercy Park and GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
Children’s Mercy Park will host two-time Copa America champions Peru facing off against Canada on Tuesday, June 25. Six days later, the U.S. Men’s National Team will take on Uruguay at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on Monday, July 1.
The oldest national team tournament in the world, Copa America 2024 will be played across 14 cities in the United States from June 20 to July 14. The competition’s 48th edition includes 32 matches played over 25 days with 16 participating teams: 10 from CONMEBOL and six from Concacaf, as guests.
The Group Stage will be played from June 20 to July 2, followed by the Quarterfinals from July 4 to 6, the Semifinals on July 9 and 10, the Third Place Match on July 13, and the Final in Miami on July 14.
