KC Reporter

Sporting Kansas City will face LA Galaxy at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California, on Saturday at 9:30 p.m. CT. The match will be broadcast through MLS Season Pass or Apple TV+, with local radio coverage on Sports Radio 810 WHB and 103.7 FM.

The fixture brings Sporting striker Dejan Joveljic back to his former club, where he scored 21 goals during the Galaxy's title-winning campaign last year. Joveljic has registered 17 goals for Sporting this season and is tied for fourth most in Major League Soccer (MLS). He is also third in Sporting's single-season history behind Preki (18 in 1996) and Dom Dwyer (22 in 2014).

Both teams are already eliminated from playoff contention and are playing for pride. Sporting Kansas City was officially knocked out of the postseason after a recent home loss to Vancouver Whitecaps FC, marking their second consecutive year missing the playoffs—something that had not happened since the 2009 and 2010 seasons.

Sporting won their last meeting against LA Galaxy on May 4 with a scoreline of 1-0 at Children’s Mercy Park. This match was notable as Sporting became the first team in MLS history to win a game without taking a shot; an own goal by Maya Yoshida gave them victory despite being outshot 11-0.

In regular season head-to-heads since October 2015, Sporting holds an 8-4-7 record against LA Galaxy over their last nineteen meetings. In total, there have been seventy-three regular season matches between these two clubs dating back to 1996, with LA holding a slight edge at 28 wins compared to Sporting’s twenty-seven.

Goalkeeper John Pulskamp has played every minute for Sporting this season across all competitions and leads the club with three shutouts against his former academy side, LA Galaxy. He ranks third in MLS this year with a career-high of one hundred six saves and is the first goalkeeper in club history with multiple assists during an MLS campaign.

Other key contributors for Sporting include Daniel Salloi, who has reached double-digit goal contributions for the fourth time in five seasons, defender Jansen Miller who leads all SuperDraft selections in minutes played this year, and midfielder Jacob Bartlett who is currently the youngest player league-wide to appear in at least twenty-seven matches this season.

LA Galaxy enters Saturday’s match sitting last place in both the Western Conference and Supporters’ Shield standings after winning MLS Cup just one year ago. The club began its campaign with an MLS record sixteen-game winless streak but has shown improvement recently by earning four wins from its past fourteen league games. However, they still hold only four victories overall—the lowest tally among all teams this season—and have yet to secure a road win.

Galaxy forward Joseph Paintsil leads his team with six goals while Marco Reus tops their charts for total goal contributions (fourteen) and assists (nine). Midfielder Diego Fagundeez has made more appearances than any other teammate so far this regular season.

"By The Numbers presented by Compass Minerals" continues its tradition of providing statistical insights ahead of each fixture throughout Sporting’s campaign.

Several individual milestones may be reached during Saturday’s game: Khiry Shelton is nearing ten thousand career minutes played for Sporting; Memo Rodriguez could make his fiftieth appearance; Andrew Brody is close to one hundred career starts; Tim Leibold approaches five thousand minutes played; Manu Garcia could reach fifty professional assists; while Daniel Salloi aims to climb higher among the club’s all-time scorers list.