September 27, 2024 – Major League Soccer (MLS)
Sporting Kansas City News Release
After knocking St. Louis CITY SC out of the playoffs in their inaugural season last year, Sporting Kansas City can eliminate St. Louis from playoff contention this year with a win or draw when the cross-state clubs meet at 7:30 p.m. CT on Saturday at CITYPARK in Major League Soccer’s newest rivalry.
Sporting Kansas City will reach the end of a stretch of five matches in 14 days on Saturday and the Western Conference clash comes just three days after SKC played 120 minutes in the U.S. Open Cup Final in Los Angeles. Erik Thommy scored in the 3-1 loss to LAFC and now has three goals in his last three matches, all assisted by Daniel Salloi who is set to make his 250th appearance for Sporting in all competitions on Saturday.
Salloi has 103 goal contributions (60, 43 assists) for Sporting in all competitions – fourth most in club history — with six of those goal contributions (two goals, four assists) coming in his seven appearances against St. Louis. Notably, the Sporting KC Academy product contributed a goal and an assist in each of the two playoff matches during the best-of-three series last year as SKC upset top-seeded St. Louis with a 4-1 away win in Game 1 and a 2-1 victory at home in Game 2.
Sporting now returns to CITYPARK for the first time since that momentous road result for the third and final match-up this year following a 3-3 draw at home in April and a 1-1 draw at home in July. Kansas City holds a narrow advantage in the all-time series with a 3-2-2 record against St. Louis and the two sides are level on 31 points in the Western Conference standings with only three weeks remaining in the regular season campaign.
St. Louis added nine players during the summer transfer window, headlined by Bundesliga veterans Cedric Teuchert, Marcel Hartel and Jannes Horn. Teuchert, who debuted against SKC on July 20 and is questionable for Saturday’s match with a knee injury, has five goal contributions (four goals and one assist) in six MLS matches, while Hartel has seven goal contributions (two goals, five assists) in his first five MLS matches.
The duo both scored in St. Louis’ 2-1 win at San Jose last weekend and are joined in the attack by Designated Player Joao Klauss (five goals, three assists) and Eduard Lowen (four goals, four assists) who lead the team with eight regular season goal contributions. Defensively, St. Louis is anchored by reigning MLS Goalkeeper of the Year and…
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