Sporting KC Hosts Seattle Sounders on Saturday
March 24, 2023 – Major League Soccer (MLS) – Press release from Sporting Kansas City
Sporting Kansas City host reigning Concacaf Champions League winners Seattle Sounders FC at Children’s Mercy Park on Saturday at 7:30 pm CT. Tickets are available online from game sponsor SeatGeek, including general admission tickets.
The Western Conference clash begins at 7:39 p.m. CT and will be streamed live on Apple TV in both English and Spanish for MLS Season Pass subscribers, with pre-game programming beginning at 7:10 p.m. CT. MLS Season Pass subscription will include every MLS game in 2023 and fans can access billions of devices across Apple devices, smart TVs, streaming devices, set-top boxes and gaming consoles, and across the web via the Apple TV app watch at tv.apple.com.
Saturday’s showdown will be shown in each of the club’s affiliated pubs on the Sporting Pub Network and radio coverage will also be broadcast locally in English on ESPN 94.5 FM and 1510 AM and in Spanish on La Grande 1340 AM, with streams available in the Sporting KC app.
Two of the most successful clubs of American football’s last decade, each with four major domestic trophies, Sporting and Seattle are each hoping for a postseason return in 2023 after missing the playoffs a year ago. Sporting eliminated the Sounders in a 1-0 win at Children’s Mercy Park last October, when Willy Agada scored his eighth goal of the year and John Pulskamp kept a clean sheet in the club’s home final.
Sporting have won five of their last seven meetings with the Sounders of 2019, but the club are without a five-game win since last beating Seattle and will be looking for the team’s first win of the 2023 season on Saturday. Daniel Salloi – who shares the MLS lead with Agada this year with 25 touches inside the penalty area – scored Sporting’s first goal of the season in a 2-1 loss at FC Dallas last weekend, while SKC continue to lead the MLS in shots (69th-69th). ) and shots on goal (29).
While Sporting went on a 283-minute streak at the start of the season last week, Seattle comes to Kansas City with a 212-minute streak – the longest active streak in MLS – despite leading the league in expected goals (8, 79). The Sounders have lost five games in a row and are winless in a total of 10 consecutive away games (0-9-1), the longest such streak in the club’s MLS history, with all nine losses during the stretch coming from a single goal.
Sporting, meanwhile, are currently on a seven-game unbeaten run at home (6-0-1) in which SKC have outplayed their opponents 17-4 and have conceded just one goal in their last five games at Children’s Mercy Park. Manager Peter Vermes is without five players – Kortne Ford (Achilles), Logan Ndenbe (hamstring), Kayden Pierre (hamstring), Gadi Kinda (knee) and Marinos Tzionis (national player) – while three other players on the club’s player are in question Notification of availability: new signing Tim Leibold, club captain Johnny Russell and designated player Alan Pulido.
Russell has scored six goals against Seattle in eight regular-season games of his career, but the team’s 2022 MVP has been sidelined since the preseason. Pulido missed all of 2022 with knee surgery after recording 15 goals and eight assists in 36 games in all competitions and the World Cup veteran has recently returned to full training for Sporting.
The Sounders will also be short-handed on Saturday with six players on international duty, including starting striker Raul Ruidiaz, full-backs Nouhou and Alex Roldan in the starting XI and FIFA World Cup 2022 representative Xavier Arreaga. Brazilian forward Heber started and scored in Seattle’s first two games in 2023. However, the 31-year-old has missed the Sounders’ last two games due to a thigh strain.
Seattle’s roster, which also includes former SKC midfielder Kelyn Rowe, is led by a plethora of MLS All-Stars in Nicolas Lodeiro, Jordan Morris, Cristian Roldan, Yeimar and Joao Paulo. Roldan and Morris were both members of the USA men’s national team at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, and Morris is second in MLS with three goals back in 2023.
At the other end of the field, the Sounders have conceded just once in their first four regular season games. That’s a previous league low in 2023 and the team’s best defensive performance at this stage of a season since its maiden MLS season in 2009.
The 2009 season was also the first of a record 15 MLS seasons for Graham Zusi at Sporting Kansas City. The seven-time MLS All-Star and World Cup veteran is now ready to make his 400th career appearance for Sporting on Saturday. Zusi, the club’s all-time leader, has the most assists (73) of any active player in Major League Soccer and his 345 regular-season appearances are the most for any club in MLS history.
Sporting Kansas City vs. Seattle Sounders
2023 MLS regular season | game 5
Saturday March 25 | 7:30 p.m. CT (7:39 kick-off)
Children’s Mercy Park | Kansas City, Kan.
Broadcast schedule:
Apple TV | MLS Season Pass
English Radio | ESPN 94.5 FM and 1510 AM
Spanish Radio | La Grande 1340h
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