Match Preview

Preview: Sporting KC travels to Texas to take on Austin FC on Saturday

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Sporting Kansas City at Austin FC
2026 MLS Regular Season | Game 13
Saturday, May 16 | 7:30 p.m. CT (7:40 kickoff)
Q2 Stadium | Austin, Texas

Sporting Kansas City will play the club's third game in eight days this weekend as the team travels to the Texas capital city to take on Austin FC at 7:30 p.m. CT on Saturday at Q2 Stadium in the club's final road trip before the World Cup.

The Western Conference match-up will be available to watch in English (Nate Bukaty and Devon Kerr) and Spanish (Raul Guzman) on Apple TV and and all of the action will also be shown in pub partners across the Sporting Pub Network, including a watch party at No Other Pub in the Kansas City Power & Light District featuring food/drink specials and exclusive giveaways for fans in SKC gear.. In addition, local radio coverage will air on Sports Radio 810 WHB (Blake Aerni and Jon Kempin) and La Grande 1340 AM (Josue Orantes and Diego Gutierrez) with audio streams in the SKC mobile app.

Sporting Kansas City is coming off a 3-1 win over the LA Galaxy on Wednesday at Sporting Park that completed a season sweep of the six-time MLS Cup champions and snapped an eight-game winless skid across all competitions in the process. Calvin Harris played a part in each of the team's season-high three goals, setting up Capita Capemba and Dejan Joveljic before tallying his first goal in Sporting Blue to earn a spot on the MLS Team of the Matchday.

After scoring a team-high 18 goals last season, Joveljic has continued to lead Sporting's attack in 2026 with six goals and two assists in the club's first 12 games. The Serbian striker is the only player in MLS with six or more regular season goals in each of the past five seasons and the Designated Player has historically enjoyed success against Austin with eight goal contributions (five goals, three assists) in eight career appearances against the Verde & Black.

Sporting will be looking for the team's first result at Q2 Stadium -- suffering losses in five previous trips -- as SKC visits a venue that hosted the MLS All-Star Game, Concecaf Gold Cup and U.S. Open Cup Final in 2025. Austin FC has sold out all 92 MLS home matches at Q2 Stadium since its opening in 2021 which stands as the longest active sellout streak in Major League Soccer.

Led by head coach Nico Estévez, Austin FC features a pair of familiar faces with strong ties to Sporting KC. Assistant coach Davy Arnaud spent 10 seasons in Kansas City from 2002-2011 and was inducted as a Sporting Legend in 2022 while club captain Ilie Sanchez played his first five MLS seasons for Sporting KC from 2017-2021 and is now poised to make his 250th career regular season start on Saturday.

On the opposite side, Sporting Kansas City acquired goalkeeper Stefan Cleveland in a trade with Austin FC in December. The 31-year-old veteran has started three straight matches, making seven saves during a 1-1 draw with Seattle in his club debut and recording six saves in the victory over the Galaxy on Wednesday.

Cleveland will face an Austin FC attack headlined by the Designated Player duo of Facundo Torres - whose five primary assists are second most in the Western Conference -- and Myrto Uzuni, who leads the team with nine goal contributions (five goals, four assists). Torres, a Uruguay international, is one of two Austin FC players that could feature in the World Cup this summer along with Canadian attacker Jayden Nelson.

Defensively, Austin FC is anchored by goalkeeper Brad Stuver. The 35-year-old MLS All-Star has tallied the most saves (68) in MLS after leading the league in the category in 2021, 2023 and 2024 before finishing one save shy of the top spot in 2025. Stuver has started in 127 consecutive regular season games dating back to July 2022, a streak that began against SKC and currently stands as the third longest in Major League Soccer history behind Luis Robles (183 from 2012-2018) and Chris Klein (141 from 2005-2009).

Both sides in ATXvSKC have struggled defensively at the start of the 2026 season, giving up the most expected goals against in MLS and the most goals conceded in the Western Conference. The hosts will be looking to bounce back from a 5-0 defeat at San Diego mid-week - the team's most lopsided loss in club history -- while the visitors have been outscored 14-0 in the last month away from home with a 6-0 loss in Portland, a 5-0 defeat in Chicago and a 3-0 setback in Vancouver.