KC Reporter

Sporting Kansas City is set to face the Colorado Rapids at Children's Mercy Park on Saturday, with kickoff scheduled for 7:30 p.m. CT. The match will be available for streaming on MLS Season Pass via Apple TV and broadcast locally on Sports Radio 810 WHB. Tickets are available through SeatGeek.

Last weekend, Mason Toye scored for Sporting in a loss against Seattle Sounders FC, a match where Sporting created offensive chances but struggled defensively. The Rapids come into this fixture after a three-goal defeat to LA Galaxy and are just above the playoff line in the Western Conference.

The two teams last met on July 4 at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, where Dejan Joveljic and Erik Thommy scored to secure a 2-1 win for Kansas City. This marked Sporting's first road victory over Colorado since 2014, ending an 11-game winless streak at that venue. When Sporting last hosted Colorado on September 18, 2024, both Thommy and Alan Pulido scored twice each in a 4-1 home win.

Sporting and Colorado have played each other 91 times across all competitions, making the Rapids Kansas City's most frequent opponent. Sporting leads the series with 37 wins, compared to Colorado's 32 wins and 22 draws. In regular season play, Sporting has won 31 matches against Colorado—their highest total against any opponent—and holds a strong home record of 24-7-6 versus the Rapids.

Daniel Salloi has contributed eight goals or assists in his eleven regular season games against Colorado—all of them coming at home—while Erik Thommy has five goal contributions in five appearances against the Rapids.

Sporting enters Saturday’s game with a record of six wins, fifteen losses, and six draws (24 points), ranking thirteenth in the Western Conference. At home this season they have three wins from thirteen matches. The team is currently playing nine consecutive games against opponents above the playoff line.

This year, nearly half of Sporting’s goals have come after the sixty-minute mark—eighteen out of thirty-nine—which ranks sixth highest in MLS for late goals. The team has gained eleven points from losing positions during regular season play and remains undefeated when leading at halftime.

Dejan Joveljic leads Sporting with fourteen goals this season—tied for seventh most in MLS—and his total since joining Kansas City is second only to Lionel Messi league-wide since early last year. Goalkeeper John Pulskamp ranks second in MLS with ninety-two saves and is notable as the first goalkeeper in club history to register multiple assists within one season.

Daniel Salloi has reached double-digit goal contributions for the fourth time in five seasons with six goals and four assists so far this year. Young players Jacob Bartlett and Jansen Miller have also made significant impacts; Bartlett is among just two teenagers league-wide to make at least twenty-three appearances this year while Miller leads all SuperDraft selections in minutes played.

On the visiting side, Colorado sits seventh in the West with ten wins, twelve losses, and six draws (36 points). Their away record stands at three wins from fourteen matches. Rafael Navarro leads their scoring charts with eleven goals and fifteen total goal contributions this season; Darren Yapi follows with seven goals—four of which have come recently.

Colorado struggles statistically despite their position: they rank near or at the bottom of MLS for passing accuracy (80.3%), average possession (44.4%), shots faced per game (15.5), and shots faced on target per game (5.7). They are notably less effective when conceding first or trailing at halftime but hold strong records when scoring first or leading midway through matches.

Several milestones could be reached during Saturday’s match:

- Sporting is one win away from their three-hundredth home victory across all competitions.

- Dejan Joveljic needs one more goal to reach one hundred career club goals.

- Daniel Salloi is close to tying Dom Dwyer and Johnny Russell for second place on Sporting’s all-time scoring chart.

- John Pulskamp approaches five thousand minutes played in regular-season MLS action.

- Manu Garcia nears fifty professional club assists.

- Andrew Brody is poised for his hundredth career MLS start.

- Memo Rodriguez could make his fiftieth appearance for Sporting.

Salloi also stands one appearance shy of two hundred fifty across all MLS competitions; he trails interim head coach Kerry Zavagnin by just one appearance among club leaders.