Sporting KC Hits the Road for First Match at Nashville SC

June 18, 2022 – Major League Soccer (MLS) – Sporting Kansas City News Release

Sporting Kansas City (3-9-4, 13 points) reaches the mid point of the 2022 MLS regular season with match 17 of 34 set for this Sunday at Nashville SC (6-4-5, 23 points).

Sunday’s match will kick off at 5:25 p.m. CT from GEODIS Park, the nation’s newest and largest soccer-specific stadium which opened last month with a capacity crowd of 30,109, as Sporting plays away to Nashville SC for the first time.

The Western Conference clash will be nationally televised on FS1 and FOX Deportes with Sporting play-by-play voice Nate Bukaty on the FS1 call. Local radio coverage will also 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 International Tap House (403 E. 18th St., Kansas City, MO), featuring food and drink specials as well as Sporting KC ticket giveaways.

Both clubs will be wearing jerseys featuring Juneteenth-inspired numbers as part of a league-wide initiative in partnership with Black Players for Change. The game-worn and player-signed jerseys, presented in commemorative boxes, will be available to fans via an online auction from June 20 – July 5 and proceeds from the auction will benefit Kansas City G.I.F.T. among other organizations supporting and uplifting black communities.

After three straight home matches, Sporting returns to the road in the Music City as the club embarks on a stretch of the schedule which features five of the team’s next six MLS matches away from home. Sporting has struggled on the road this season (0-6-2) – conceding a league-high 20 goals in road matches – and will be looking to snap a 10-game road winless streak with the team’s first away win since October 2021.

Meanwhile, Nashville SC is unbeaten in 25 consecutive home matches across all competitions. The team has just two losses in 35 competitive home matches (16-2-17) since debuting in Major League Soccer as an expansion club in 2020, including a 2-0-3 record in their new home at GEODIS Park.

Since the start of 2021, Nashville’s eight regular season losses are the fewest in MLS. The team’s recipe for success has been a stout defense – anchored by U.S. Men’s National Team centerback Walker Zimmerman, who was named MLS Defender of the Year in 2020 and 2021, and goalkeeper Joe Willis, who leads MLS in clean sheets since the start of 2020 – and a dynamic attack led by Hany Mukhtar….