Sporting KC vs. St. Louis City Match Preview | OneFootball

Wednesday’s MLS fixtures feature a derby between two teams going in completely opposite directions. St. Louis City visit rivals Sporting Kansas City in an attempt to win at Sporting Park for the first time. This is the best chance they’ll have, with SKC languishing at the bottom of MLS while St. Louis are on a remarkable run of form.

Match Details

Who: Sporting Kansas City vs. St. Louis CityWhat: MLS Regular SeasonWhere: Sporting Park, Kansas City, KansasWhen: Wednesday August 19, 8:00 PM ET / 5:00 PM PTWatch: FS1, Apple TV

Sporting KC In Goal Drought

It’s been a rough year for Sporting Kansas City. After finishing bottom of the Western Conference last season, Raphaël Wicky was brought in to be the new manager. He was dealt a pretty bad hand. SKC had a depleted squad and neglected to fill most of their needs until the summer. As expected, the first half of the season wasn’t great. 

Their recent form hasn’t been either. Sporting came back from the World Cup break to a 3-2 loss against this same St. Louis side. A win over Minnesota was a good result but they couldn’t build on it. Their last three matches have been one way traffic. SKC has been outscored 8-0 in those games, not only failing to secure any points but not managing to find the back of the net either.

Sporting’s way of fixing the attacking woes just arrived by way of Greece. Exciting winger André Luiz joined from Olympiacos for a fee that could rise to $22 million with add-ons, one of the biggest signings in MLS history. The problem is, Luiz has really only had one productive season in his whole career. He only joined the Greek giants in January and departs after just 10 appearances without a single goal contribution. It’s certainly a gamble for Sporting, but a much needed gamble considering how lackluster the wing play has been. Wicky will hope that Luiz can create more chances for star striker Dejan Joveljić to score.

St. Louis City Hope To Ride Momentum To Historic Derby Win

Similar to their rivals, St. Louis City had a disappointing first half of 2026. They amassed just 16 points in 14 games, only five more than Sporting KC did. In fact, the only reason St. Louis had that many is because they earned 10 points in their final four MLS games before the World Cup break. 

St. Louis picked up right where they left off when MLS returned. As mentioned earlier, they started the second half of the season with a 3-2 win over rivals SKC. City then beat LA Galaxy and Colorado Rapids before drawing with Real Salt Lake. Then on Saturday they went into San Jose and took down the Earthquakes. That means if St. Louis avoid defeat in Wednesday’s derby, they will have gone unbeaten for 10 league games in a row. Kind of incredible considering their first 10 games of the season resulted in a whopping six points.

Now they face a new challenge: winning at Sporting Park for the first time. They’ll also have to do it without their best player. Marcel Hartel was sold to German second division club Hannover 96 just a few days after he scored the only St. Louis goal in a 1-1 draw with Real Salt Lake. It’s a huge blow to Yoann Damet’s men as Hartel scored nine goals and provided three assists for the club this season. Fellow German Eduard Löwen and Korean winger Sang-Bin Jeong will have to step up to replace Hartel’s production. 

Match Prediction

Although Sporting KC will undoubtedly get better with the addition of André Luiz, he might not be ready in time to feature against St. Louis. Even though the visitors will miss Marcel Hartel in the long run, his absence wasn’t a problem last weekend as they beat San Jose. I back City to win the derby to get their first victory in Kansas.

Prediction: Sporting Kansas City 0-2 St. Louis City