KC Reporter

Sporting Kansas City is set to conclude its 2025 Major League Soccer season by hosting Houston Dynamo FC on Saturday at Children's Mercy Park. The match, scheduled for 8 p.m. CT, will also serve as Fan Appreciation Night, offering attendees various discounts and promotions, including half-price adidas products and scarves, free popcorn, and reduced concession prices. Tickets are available through SeatGeek, and the game will be broadcast on MLS Season Pass via Apple TV.

This final match of the season comes after a challenging run for Sporting Kansas City. The team currently sits in 14th place in the Western Conference with a record of 7-20-6 and has lost its last five matches. Despite these struggles, Sporting has shown resilience throughout the year by earning 14 points from losing positions—tied for fifth most in MLS—and maintaining a perfect record when leading at halftime.

The previous meeting between these teams occurred on May 31 at Shell Energy Stadium in Houston, where Sporting won 3-1 after overcoming an early deficit. Dejan Joveljic scored twice, while Santi Munoz added a late goal. When they last played at Children’s Mercy Park on May 11, 2024, Houston won 2-1.

Historically, matches between Sporting KC and Houston Dynamo have been closely contested. Sporting holds a slight advantage in regular season play with a record of 15 wins, 14 losses, and 16 draws across their encounters. At home against Houston during the regular season, Sporting has achieved nine wins out of twenty-two games.

Several individual performances have stood out this season for Sporting Kansas City. Forward Dejan Joveljic leads the team with eighteen goals—tied for fourth in MLS—and was named both team MVP and Offensive Player of the Year last week. His total ties him for second-most goals scored by any player in a single regular season in club history and equals Preki’s mark from 1996 for most goals by a newcomer to the club.

Joveljic’s impact extends beyond this year; since joining MLS at the start of the previous season he has netted thirty-nine league goals (including playoffs), trailing only Lionel Messi and Denis Bouanga over that period. He is also noted as being "the first player in MLS history with back-to-back 18-goal seasons (including playoffs) with different clubs," following his performance with LA Galaxy last year.

Goalkeeper John Pulskamp was recognized as Defensive Player of the Year and ranks third among all MLS goalkeepers this season with a career-high one hundred fourteen saves.

Other key contributors include Daniel Salloi—with seven goals and four assists this year—who now stands tied for second-most career goals (sixty-seven) in all competitions for Sporting KC alongside Dom Dwyer and Johnny Russell. Midfielder Manu Garcia leads the team with nine assists but has missed several recent matches due to injury.

Houston Dynamo enters Saturday’s fixture eliminated from playoff contention despite having reached postseason play each of the past two years—a change from their prior five-year absence from playoff qualification spanning 2018–2022. Their current record is nine wins, fifteen losses, and nine draws; they are twelfth in the Western Conference standings.

For Houston this season, forward Ezequiel Ponce leads both fouls committed (seventy) across MLS and his team’s scoring chart (ten goals). Midfielder Jack McGlynn tops his squad’s assist tally (eight) while contributing eighty-nine key passes—fifth most league-wide.

Both teams have players nearing personal milestones: Manu Garcia is one assist away from reaching fifty professional club assists; Daniel Salloi needs one more appearance to reach two hundred career starts across all MLS competitions; goalkeeper John Pulskamp could become just the fifth player in club history to play every minute of a thirty-four-game regular season if he starts on Saturday.

Saturday's matchup will mark another chapter in what has become one of Major League Soccer's longest-running rivalries since their first meeting over a decade ago.