KC Reporter

Sporting Kansas City will travel to face the LA Galaxy on Saturday for their second-to-last away match of the 2025 Major League Soccer regular season. The game, scheduled at Dignity Health Sports Park, will kick off at 9:30 p.m. CT and can be streamed on Apple TV+ and MLS Season Pass, with local radio coverage available on Sports Radio 810 WHB.

Last weekend, Sporting Kansas City was officially eliminated from playoff contention after a 2-0 loss to the Vancouver Whitecaps at Children’s Mercy Park. This result marks the third time in four years that Sporting has missed the postseason and is the first instance since 2009 and 2010 that they have failed to qualify in consecutive seasons.

Despite missing out on the playoffs, Sporting Kansas City demonstrated resilience during the season by earning 14 points from losing positions—three wins and five draws—which ties them for fifth most in MLS this year. Additionally, substitutes contributed nine goals for Sporting, ranking them third in this category across the league.

Saturday's match will see Sporting face an LA Galaxy side that also finds itself at the bottom of the Western Conference standings after winning last year's MLS Cup. The Galaxy are likewise eliminated from playoff contention. When these teams met earlier this season on May 4 at Children’s Mercy Park, Sporting won 1-0 despite not recording a single shot—a first in MLS history.

In their last visit to Los Angeles on June 15, 2024, Sporting lost 4-2 against an aggressive Galaxy team. Historically, Sporting trails slightly in head-to-head regular-season meetings with a record of 27 wins, 28 losses, and 18 draws against LA; however, they have only lost twice in their last eight away games against the Galaxy since 2015.

Sporting forward Dejan Joveljic will return to play against his former club this weekend. Joveljic previously spent three-and-a-half years with LA Galaxy and scored a team-high 21 goals during their championship run last season. He joined Sporting Kansas City via Major League Soccer's first-ever cash-for-player trade and currently has scored a career-best 17 goals this regular season—the third highest single-season total in club history. Since early last year, Joveljic’s tally of 38 league goals is surpassed only by Lionel Messi (45) and Denis Bouanga (43).

Midfielder Erik Thommy made his first start since July after recovering from a hip injury that sidelined him for six matches between July and August. Thommy played all ninety minutes against Vancouver last week and has contributed four goals and four assists so far this season—ranking fourth among his teammates for combined goal contributions.

Defender Ian James continues his progression as one of Sporting’s promising young players. The academy product started again versus Vancouver at age seventeen, completing eighty-four percent of his passes while making key defensive interventions throughout the match. James has appeared seven times across all competitions since signing with the senior squad ahead of this season and recently participated in a U.S. U-17 Men’s National Team training camp held in the Netherlands.