After a brief trip north of the border, Sporting Kansas City (2-4-0, 6 points) is back at Children’s Mercy Park for a match with Nashville SC (2-2-1, 7 points) this Saturday, April 9 with kickoff set for 7:30 p.m. CT.
Tickets for the match are still available at SeatGeek.com and TV coverage of the match will begin on 38 The Spot with the Sporting KC Pregame Show 30-minutes prior to kickoff.
Sporting will meet up with Nashville one other time in the 2022 MLS regular season at Nashville’s brand-new, soccer-specific stadium in June. Here are five storylines to have in the back of your head for the match on Saturday.
We meet again
For just the second time ever, Sporting KC and Nashville SC will take the pitch against one another. Nashville, played their first two seasons in the Eastern Conference, joining the west ahead of the 2022 MLS season. Sporting KC and Nashville have locked horns one time, during Nashville's inaugural season in 2020.
On Oct. 11, 2020, Nashville marched into Children’s Mercy Park for the first time in their very brief history. They jumped out to an early lead off the head of U.S. Men’s National Team center back Walker Zimmerman in the 14th minute. Sporting came out of the halftime locker room and leveled the score in the 53rd with a Gerso Fernandes goal off a Johnny Russell assist. Sporting KC would find a winner, with a man advantage, off an immaculate Erik Hurtado volley in the 79th.
Home Field Advantage
Sporting KC comes into Saturday as one of only two MLS teams with a perfect home record still intact this season. Sporting's early home success in the 2022 MLS season comes off of back-to-back 1-0 home victories. First, Sporting triumphed over the Houston Dynamo in early March and then got the better of Real Salt Lake two weeks later. This is the first time the club has posted consecutive home shutouts to open the regular season since 2013 when the eventual MLS Cup winners posted a home shutout three times in a row to begin the campaign.
Star Power on Display
The stars will be out and about on Saturday night as Nashville comes to Kansas City with a lineup littered with big names. Including Zimmerman at center back, Nashville had two players make the 2021 MLS Best XI team as midfielder Hany Mukhtar received the nod to the squad. Mukhtar was also a 2021 Landon Donovan MLS MVP finalist, as he led the league with 28 goal contributions (16 goals, 12 assists) in the previous regular season. Nashville’s roster also includes former Sporting KC forwards Teal Bunbury and C.J. Sapong who both played a major role in Sporting’s 2013 MLS Cup title.
Nashville does not have a monopoly over the star power in Saturday's showdown. Sporting KC comes into the match with stars aplenty. The duo of Johnny Russell and Daniel Salloi is an imminent threat to opposing defenses at all times. A 2021 MLS MVP finalist, Salloi led Sporting KC in goals (16) and added eight assists, while Russell also accumulated eight assists and set the all-time record for goals in MLS by a Scottish-born player (41). On the defensive side, center back Andreu Fontas was a 2021 MLS Best XI defensive, snub. Fontas set single-season records in touches (3,071), passes (2725) and successful passes (2,437).
Similar Starts
Last season, Sporting KC and Nashville met similar ends in their respective conference semifinals and have been on a comparable trajectory to start 2022. So far this season, both Sporting and Nashville have two wins and have scored four goals. Neither side has a player with multiple goals as both teams share the love and have four different players with one goal this season. Saturday pits perennial Western Conference contenders, Sporting KC against Western Conference newcomers Nashville SC, as both sides look to notch their third win of the season.
Eight Straight Road Trips
As Nashville prepares to move into GEOD Park on May 1, 2022, the MLS season marches on. Nashville is making their sixth stop on an eight-leg road trip across the country. Seven of the eight matches come against Western Conference foes as they make rounds across their new conference. Nashville’s eight straight road matches to open the season is the second-longest road trip to open a season since Sporting’s 10-match road stretch in 2011 before the opening of Children’s Mercy Park. After Saturday, Nashville will make its way to California for the final two matches of the long trek when they face the San Jose Earthquakes and LA Galaxy before their inaugural match at GEODIS Park in May.
