Sporting Kansas City vs. St. Louis CITY SC
Audi 2023 MLS Cup Playoffs
Round One Best-of-3 series | Game 2
Sunday, Nov. 5 | 4 p.m. CT (4:09 kickoff)
Children's Mercy Park | Kansas City, Kansas
Broadcast Schedule:
Apple TV | MLS Season Pass
English Radio | Sports Radio 810 WHB
Spanish Radio | La Grande 1340 AM
Satellite Radio | SiriusXM FC
Tickets | 5 Things | By the Numbers | Tune In | Pub Partners | @SKCMatchday | SKC App | MatchCenter
No. 8 seed Sporting Kansas City will host No. 1 seed St. Louis CITY SC at 4 p.m. CT on Sunday at Children's Mercy Park in Game 2 of the highly-anticipated Round One Best-of-3 series.
Sporting earned a 4-1 victory at St. Louis in Game 1 -- a road result that gives SKC the distinction as the only team to win away from home in the Audi 2023 MLS Cup Playoffs to date - and the series now moves 250 miles to the west for Game 2 in Kansas City.
SKCvSTL Round One Best-of-3 Series
Game 1: Sporting KC 4, St. Louis CITY SC 1
Game 2: Sunday, Nov. 5 in Kansas City
Game 3: Saturday, Nov. 11 in St. Louis (if necessary)
Tickets for Sunday's match are available online at SeatGeek, including standing room only tickets, and fans are encouraged to arrive early to enjoy pre-match festivities on the Mazuma Plaza. Parking lots will open at 12 p.m. and gates to the stadium will open at 2 p.m with all fans in attendance receiving a Sporting KC mini scarf. In addition, SportingStyle will have a collection of Paint the Wall and Claim the Cup apparel for fans to purchase.
Sunday's showdown will be broadcast in English and Spanish on Apple TV for MLS Season Pass subscribers. Live coverage will also air locally on Sports Radio 810 WHB and La Grande 1340 AM with streams in the Sporting KC app as well as a simulcast on SiriusXM FC. All of the action will also be shown by the club's pub partners in the Sporting Pub Network highlighted by a watch party at No Other Pub (1370 Grand Blvd.) in the Kansas City Power & Light District.
In the playoffs for an 11th time since 2011 and 20th postseason overall in club history, Sporting Kansas City's improbable run in 2023 -- from winless through the first 10 matches with only three goals scored at the end of April to leading the Western Conference in points (41), wins (12) and goals per game (1.88) since the start of May -- has seen Sporting become the most unlikely playoff team in MLS history.
Against the odds, Sporting Kansas City stunned St. Louis CITY SC last Sunday with a 4-1 victory courtesy of goals from Logan Ndenbe, Remi Walter, Gadi Kinda and Daniel Salloi. The performance tied the club record for the most goals scored in a playoff match and tied St. Louis' club record for most goals conceded.
The Game 2 rematch, which will be officiated by two-time MLS Referee of the Year Ismail Elfath, will be the fifth meeting between Sporting KC and St. Louis in 2023 with each team winning twice. Sporting prevailed in the only previous match at Children's Mercy Park as Alan Pulido struck twice in a 2-1 come-from-behind win on Labor Day weekend.
Building on a century of soccer competition between teams from Kansas City and St. Louis, the professional soccer history between the two cities dates back 55 years to the debut of the North American Soccer League in 1968 when the Kansas City Spurs finished first in a four-team division that also included the St. Louis Stars.
The inaugural season of Major League Soccer's newest rivalry has now culminated with a scintillating Best-of-3 playoff series, which sets the stage for a postseason game in KC between MLB, MLS, NBA, NFL or NHL teams from Kansas City and St. Louis for the first time since the Royals' 11-0 win over the Cardinals in Game 7 of the 1985 World Series.
Should Sunday's scoreline end in a tie after 90 minutes, the winner will be decided by a penalty shootout. Sporting Kansas City has prevailed in all five of the club's penalty shootouts at Children's Mercy Park -- including the 2013 MLS Cup final and this year's Western Conference Wild Card match - and goalkeeper Tim Melia is a perfect seven for seven in penalty shootouts in his professional career.
The winner of the Round One Best-of-3 series between Sporting Kansas City and St. Louis CITY SC will advance to the Western Conference Semifinals to face either Houston Dynamo FC or Real Salt Lake in a single-elimination match to be played on Nov. 25 or Nov. 26. Sporting Kansas City has reached the conference semifinals three times in the previous five seasons and a berth this year would tie SKC for the most conference semifinal appearances in MLS since 2018.
