Sporting KC Travels to Seattle for Showdown with Sounders
June 24, 2022 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
Sporting Kansas City News Release
Two of the most successful clubs in the past decade of American soccer will meet on Saturday in a nationally-televised Western Conference clash when Sporting Kansas City (4-9-4, 16 points) takes on 2022 Concacaf Champions League winners Seattle Sounders FC (6-6-2, 20 points). Saturday's match will kick off at 2 p.m. CT on ABC and ESPN Deportes.
Local radio coverage will air on Sports Radio 810 WHB and La Grande 1340 AM. In addition, Sporting KC pub partners across the Midwest will be showing the match including an enhanced watch party at Bar K (501 Berkley Pkwy., Kansas City, MO) at Berkley Riverfront.
Sporting Kansas City enters the showdown with Seattle coming off back-to-back wins for the first time this season. Sporting snapped Nashville's 25-match home unbeaten streak with a 2-1 road win last Sunday and followed the performance with a 6-0 triumph -- matching the club record for largest margin of victory -- over Union Omaha in the U.S. Open Cup Quarterfinals on Wednesday at Children's Mercy Park.
Daniel Salloi scored twice for Sporting in the mid-week match -- becoming the team's all-time leading scorer in the U.S. Open Cup -- and now has six goals in all competitions this season, one behind Johnny Russell for the team lead. Russell has six goals in seven career appearances against the Sounders, which stands as the most Sporting's captain has scored against any MLS opponent.
While Sporting KC are navigating the team's third match in seven days during a stretch of the schedule in which SKC plays five of six MLS matches away from home, Seattle are currently in the midst of a five-match homestand at Lumen Field. The Sounders' home field was selected last week as a FIFA World Cup 2026 host venue and was filled with 68,741 fans last month as Seattle lifted the Concacaf Champions League trophy.
The last time Sporting KC played a reigning Concacaf champion was nearly 20 years ago in Aug. 2002 when the then-Wizards faced the 2000 Concacaf Champions Cup winners LA Galaxy. Current Sounders assistant coach Preki scored for KC on the day and now works alongside Seattle's General Manager and President of Soccer Garth Lagerwey, who began his MLS career as a teammate with Preki in Kansas City for the league's inaugural season in 1996.
The Sounders, now poised to become the first MLS team to participate in the FIFA Club World Cup, joined Major League Soccer in 2009 and have become a perennial championship contender alongside Sporting in the Western Conference. The two sides lead all American MLS clubs with four major domestic trophies in the past decade and are the only two Western Conference teams with 10 or more playoff appearances since 2011.
Seattle narrowly leads the all-time regular season series with a 10-9-4 record. The Sounders went 7-1-1 in the first nine meetings from 2009-2014, however Sporting has gone 8-3-3 since with wins in four of the last five match-ups and victories in each of the team's past three trips to Lumen Field.
Sporting Kansas City goalkeeper Tim Melia has an 8-3-2 record with five shutouts and a 1.08 goals against average in 13 regular season appearances against Seattle. Since joining SKC in 2015, Melia's 63 regular season shutouts are most in MLS with Sounders goalkeeper Stefan Frei a close second having compiled 60 clean sheets in the past eight seasons. Frei ranks third in MLS history in both goalkeeping wins (141) and shutouts (88), and his next appearance will be his 300th in all competitions for the Sounders.
Seattle's roster, which features a pair of former SKC teammates in defender Jimmy Medranda and midfielder Kelyn Rowe, is headlined by six 2021 MLS All-Stars - Alex Roldan, Cristian Roldan, Nouhou, Yeimar, Joao Paulo and Raul Ruidiaz - as well as 2020 MLS MVP finalists Nicolas Lodeiro and Jordan Morris. Lodeiro leads the team with eight goals in all competitions this year and Cristian Roldan has a team-best eight assists, however Paulo and Ruidiaz are among four Seattle starters sidelined due to injury along with Obed Vargas and Xavier Arreaga.
Manager Peter Vermes will also be without four players on Saturday as Gadi Kinda, Alan Pulido, Nikola Vujnovic and Ozzie Cisneros continue to recover from injuries. Defender Kortne Ford, who scored for Sporting on Wednesday before exiting the match prior to halftime, is listed as questionable on the team's player availability report.
¬â¹ ¬â¹ ¬â¹Following Saturday's match, The Final Whistle postgame show will air live on Sports Radio 810 WHB with hosts Chad Reynolds and Dave Borchardt. Listeners can tune in via the Sporting KC mobile app or online at 810WHB.com.
Sporting Kansas City at Seattle Sounders FC
2022 MLS Regular Season | Match 18
Saturday, June 25 | 2 p.m. CT (2:08 kickoff)
Lumen Field | Seattle, WA
Broadcast Schedule:
English TV | ABC
Spanish TV | ESPN Deportes
Streaming | ESPN.com, ESPN App
English Radio | Sports Radio 810 WHB
Spanish Radio | La Grande 1340 AM
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