Sporting Kansas City at Austin FC
2024 MLS Regular Season | Match 13
Saturday, May 18 | 7:30 p.m. CT (7:40 kickoff)
Q2 Stadium | Austin, Texas
Broadcast Schedule:
Apple TV | MLS Season Pass
English Radio | Sports Radio 810 WHB
Spanish Radio | La Grande 1340 AM
5 Things | By the Numbers | Tune In on Apple TV | Pub Partners | SKC App | MatchCenter
Sporting Kansas City will return to the road to face Austin FC at 7:30 p.m. CT on Saturday at Q2 Stadium in the Texas capital city.
The Western Conference clash will be available to watch on Apple TV for MLS Season Pass subscribers and radio coverage will air locally on Sports Radio 810 WHB and La Grande 1340 AM with live audio streams available in the Sporting KC App. Pub partners in the Sporting Pub Network will also show all of the action, including the club's official watch party at Brooksider Sportsbar and Grill (6330 Brookside Plaza) in Kansas City, Missouri featuring drink specials and a raffle for attendees.
Saturday's showdown will feature two teams amidst contrasting runs of form. Sporting KC has lost three straight regular season contests and is winless in the team's last six matches in league play entering the match-up with an Austin FC side that has won four consecutive home games and is unbeaten in the club's past six matches at Q2 Stadium. The venue, which will host Copa America matches this summer and the MLS All-Star Game in 2025, has sold out every regular season match since opening in 2021 and boasts the longest active sellout streak in Major League Soccer.
Sporting, which is 0-3-0 in the team's three previous trips to Q2 Stadium, fell 2-1 to Houston last Saturday, while Austin FC is coming off a 1-0 win over the Dynamo on Wednesday. Brad Stuver, who leads MLS with 65 saves this season, kept a clean sheet for a fourth time in the last five matches and Austin improved to 5-2-1 in the team's last eight MLS matches after opening the season winless in five (0-2-3).
Club captain Sebastian Driussi scored the game-winning goal for Austin FC in the 87th minute on Wednesday and the Argentina now has goals in back-to-back games. The 2022 MLS MVP finalist leads Austin FC with four goals this season and has scored in four of his five appearances against Sporting Kansas City.
Sporting KC forward Daniel Salloi scored his first goal of the season in last week's loss - on an assist from Memo Rodriguez, who made nine appearances for Austin FC last season -- and Salloi now has 59 goals in 227 career appearances for the club, fourth most on the team's all-time chart. The Sporting KC Academy product is one of the top scoring Homegrown Players in MLS history - a list led by Austin FC forward Gyasi Zardes -- and Salloi has appeared in 64 straight regular season matches since June 2022.
Longest SKC Appearance Streaks
(field players, MLS regular season)
1. Chris Brown 80
2. Mark Chung 74
3. Davy Arnaud 67
4. Daniel Salloi 64
4. Ilie Sanchez 64
On the opposite wing, Sporting KC forward Johnny Russell ranks third in club history with 62 goals across all competitions but has not scored since last October. Only two MLS players have scored six or more goals in each of the last six regular season campaigns (2018-2023): Russell and Zardes, who will go head-to-head on Saturday.
Defensively, Sporting KC has allowed the fewest road goals in MLS this year and will be up against an opponent that ranks last in MLS in shots and shots on goal this season. Goalkeeper Tim Melia is also poised to play the 250th regular season match of his 15-year MLS career on Saturday, a milestone that only 13 total goalkeepers - including four currently active in MLS - have reached in league history.
Austin FC is led by a pair of Sporting Legends with head coach Josh Wolff, who played seven seasons in Kansas City, and assistant coach Davy Arnaud, who played 10 seasons in Kansas City, on the team’s technical staff. In addition, Austin FC forward Diego Rubio spent three seasons in Kansas City from 2016-2018 with 20 goals and 10 assists in all competitions.
