Match Preview - Sporting Kansas City
Game Info
Kickoff: 7:40pm CT
Watch: Apple TV
Location: Sporting Park - Kansas City, KS
All-Time H2H Record
Austin FC has a 7W-1D-4L all-time record against Sporting Kansas City.
These two teams met for the first time this season back in May, a 2-1 loss for Austin FC at Q2 Stadium that led to the dismissal of head coach Nico Estévez and sporting director Rodolfo Borrell.
Sporting KC Recent Form
As I highlighted on Episode 344 previewing this match, Austin is much more similar to Sporting Kansas City than any of us may care to admit.
Simply put, it’s been a difficult season for Sporting right from the opening kick of the first game. They lost their first match of the year against San Jose Earthquakes by a 3-0 scoreline. Since that opening night loss, SKC has only obtained a result in 10 of their subsequent 29 matches, coming in the form of six wins and four draws. That’s good for just 22 points on the year. While that number is rough enough in and of itself, the underlying figures paint a picture of a team that is quite obviously not good enough to compete at the MLS level at the moment.
SKC’s 36 goals for and 75 against are putrid, and unsurprisingly come in as last in both statistical categories league-wide. That -39 goal differential is not only worst in the league, it’s on pace to be the worst mark for any MLS team since FC Cincinnati posted a -44 in the 2019 season.
Despite that, Sporting hasn’t clinched their spot as the league’s worst quite yet. If you’re a North End listener you know ZG was hammering home the point that Austin FC is still just as much alive for the wooden spoon as they are for the playoffs in the midweek. But the Verde and Black, luckily, aren’t the next closest team to SKC. That honor goes to CF Montreal, who have a three point buffer with their 25 points at the moment as the Eastern Conference’s worst team.
After this clash with the Verde and Black, SKC will travel to Minnesota United and host FC Dallas, before concluding their season with a trip out west to take on San Diego FC. If Sporting want to avoid the spoon, this match against 14th place Austin FC feels like a must win.
Quick trivia question before we move on, do you know which of the 10 original clubs in MLS has NEVER won the Wooden Spoon? If you said the club once known as the KC Wiz, then ding ding ding, you’re a winner!
Here are the major statistical categories where SKC ranks dead last in MLS in 2026:
Points
Goals For
Goals Against
Goal Differential
Clean Sheets
Set Piece Goals
Here are the major statistical categories SKC would also be dead last in if not for Austin FC:
xG
xG Differential
Big Chances Created
Which brings me back to the theme that this Sporting KC side is much closer to Austin FC than Austin FC is to Colorado Rapids, who currently occupy the final postseason spot in the Western Conference.
Similar to ATX, Sporting is looking towards the future. And that future starts with a Brazilian attacking player who has taken MLS by storm since his arrival this summer.
We gushed about Andre Luiz on Episode 344, but it might not have fully done him justice. Acquired from Olympiacos in Greece for a club record $18M fee (also good for the third highest incoming transfer fee in MLS history) two months back, he’s been worth every cent thus far.
Luiz has played just 610 minutes across his nine appearances, but already has seven goals and two assists to his name. While the sample size is small, the pace is blistering. It’s also not just the total contributions Luiz has bagged, it’s the manner in which he has manufactured them. Seriously, go watch the highlights from Sporting’s game against Philadelphia Union on September 19, when Luiz got his first full 90 minutes of run in his new colors.
Another pillar for the future is a name that Austin FC fans are mighty familiar with, Owen Wolff. Wolff was acquired in a cash-for-player trade that netted Austin FC $4.5M guaranteed with a potential for $3.1M in performance based incentives. It was a monster deal that sent shockwaves throughout the Austin FC fan base. It was also a heartbreaking moment for a lot of Verde fans who watched Owen grow and develop right before their eyes.
“Lobito” made his debut for ATX when he was just 16 years old on November 3, 2021, against…Sporting Kansas City. His ascension from that moment was fun to watch. He developed into a quality MLS player with real potential to move to a larger league as he continues his career. Owen’s success in Austin was constantly marred by misplaced anger fans had towards the club’s former head coach, who also happened to be his father, Josh.
It’s clear that Sporting is taking it very easy with Owen, who has logged just 38 minutes since being cleared to play. He was nursing an ankle injury at the time of the trade, which kept him from making his debut with SKC for a few weeks. Now, he’s on the shelf once again dealing with a quad injury.
While the future looks bright at the top of the Sporting KC roster with Luiz and Lobito in the fold, the reality of the present is that SKC is desperate to win this game and avoid being left holding their first ever Wooden Spoon in three weeks time.
Austin FC Recent Form
Well, the “Week of Brutality” (sponsored by FotMob), is over, and the results were about as brutal as they could have been, with Austin picking up zero points from their three matches across eight days against Nashville SC, LAFC, and Vancouver Whitecaps.
Not only was Austin unable to find a result, they were outclassed in essentially every facet of the game on both sides of the ball across that sample. When the dust settled, the aggregate scoreline was nine to three. But even that 3:1 goal ratio doesn’t fully encapsulate the scope of the brutalization.
Austin allowed 10.19 xG while only generating 2.5 xG, with the majority of that difference coming in the first two games against Nashville and LAFC. It was that pair of games that caused Austin to drop beneath Sporting in some of those underlying metrics we discussed above.
Though the players and staff would tell you otherwise, there was no real pressure on Austin FC to win any of those games in the grand scheme of things. With the way the club’s depth chart looks as it begins to build itself back up this coming off season, it was unreasonable to think Austin would come away with more surprising results, extending the club-record unbeaten streak of eight games that ended against Nashville.
On the other hand, for a group of individuals and their adoring fans that sure would like to make the playoffs, some unreasonable results sure would have helped the cause!
Now comes a Sporting KC team looking to avoid winning their first ever Wooden Spoon in their 31 seasons. Given where SKC is sitting, the expectation has to be for Austin to take all three points here, but that won’t be as easy as it may seem at first glance.
One bright spot of late has been the resurgence of Brandon Vazquez. After receiving copious amounts of E Magic post-match last month in Frisco, BV9 scored in three consecutive games and has really found his stride. The confidence is back and on display, but what excites me most is what Vazquez is doing with that confidence.
I highlighted on plenty of episodes this season that it was clear Brandon was not getting the lift he needed to be a true aerial threat, but that concern appears to be a thing of the past, as Vazquez has had some stellar plays in the air. On top of that, some of that burst and physicality Austin fans had grown to expect from BV in the first half of the 2025 season appears to have returned as well. All great things for our much maligned DP striker.
Getting Vazquez to find his form again was a priority for the club, and I for one love to see the joy and emotion he’s been playing with as well. With four games remaining and sitting eight points below the playoff line, Austin will more than likely need to win out and get some help from the other lesser Western Conference teams to have any shot at sniffing a wild-card spot at the conclusion of Decision Day.
Injury Report
ATX:
Žan Kolmanič (Out - Hamstring)
Jon Bell (Out - Lower Abdomen)
SKC:
Owen Wolff (Questionable - Quad)
Lasse Berg Johnsen (Questionable - Hamstring)
Seymour Reid (Questionable - Hamstring)
Justin Reynolds (Oout - Quad)
Moises Mosquera (Out - Hamstring)
Or Blorian (Out - Chest)
Diego Borges (Out - Adductor)
Sporting KC Players to Watch
Andre Luiz - You simply cannot stop me from saying good things about Andre Luiz, you cannot do it! Matter of fact, skip this section and instead go watch his highlights. You’ll get it.
Austin FC Keys to the Game
Step One - If Austin is going to find a way to make the playoffs, then the mission is clear: win the four remaining games. To say it’s unlikely might be an understatement, but it isn’t impossible. The schedule is about as favorable as you could ask for in terms of opponent toughness and with some good fortune along the way, it’s not crazy to think a four-game winning streak is out of the picture, especially if the team is able to recapture the momentum it built during the eight-game unbeaten run. But a potential strong finish to the regular season starts with this game. Sporting KC was able to come into Q2 Stadium and dominate an Austin FC side that looked lifeless and lost back in May. While you may be thinking it’s been lifeless of late, nothing that’s occurred over the second half of the season was as embarrassing as what the Verde and Black did in the first leg of this regular season series. Let’s take step one with a dub this Saturday, then reassess heading into the final double game week of the season.
Predictions
ZG - 3-2 Austin FC
E - 2-2 Draw
