Sporting Kansas City at Seattle Sounders
2026 MLS Regular Season | Game 27
Thursday, Oct. 1 | 8:30 p.m. CT (8:40 kickoff)
Lumen Field | Seattle, Washington
Watch: Apple TV | Pub Partners
Listen: 1510 AM or 94.5 FM | 1340 AM | SKC App
More: 5 Things | Game Notes | Player Status Report
Sporting Kansas City will take on reigning Leagues Cup champions Seattle Sounders FC at 8:30 p.m. CT on Thursday at the Emerald Queen Casino Pitch at Lumen Field.
The Western Conference match-up will be available to watch in English (Chris Wittyngham and Lori Lindsey) and Spanish (Nacho Garcia) on Apple TV in addition to local radio coverage on ESPN Kansas City 1510 AM and 94.5 FM (Blake Aerni and Jon Kempin) as well as La Grande 1340 AM (Josue Orantes and Diego Gutierrez) with audio streams in the SKC mobile app. All of the action will also be shown in pub partners across the Sporting Pub Network, including No Other Pub (1370 Grand Boulevard) in the KC Power and Light District in downtown Kansas City.
Sporting Kansas City is coming off a 2-0 victory over the Houston Dynamo on Saturday courtesy of first-half goals from the team’s joint top scorers – Andre Luiz and Calvin Harris – who each struck for their fourth goals of the season.
Acquired in a club-record transfer from Olympiacos FC this summer, Andre is now the third player in club history to score four goals in his first four regular season starts for the club. The Brazilian Designated Player also added his first MLS assist in the win over Houston, giving the 24-year-old five goal contributions in his first five games for the club and earning Team of the Matchday honors for a third straight week.
Harris is amidst a career year since joining Sporting Kansas City as a free agent after five seasons with Cincinnati and Colorado. The 26-year-old, who has the eighth most fouls won (52) and the eighth fastest top speed (22.37 mph) in MLS this year, has recorded a team-high 10 goal contributions in 2026 with four goals and six assists.
Stefan Cleveland produced five saves in the victory as Sporting secured the team’s first shutout of the season. The 32-year-old goalkeeper – who made his SKC debut against the Sounders in May with a season-high seven saves – is poised to play at Lumen Field for the first time since spending four seasons with the Seattle Sounders from 2020-2023, making 29 appearances across all competitions.
Saturday’s result ended a five-game road losing streak – the longest in MLS this season – since the World Cup break. Sporting has suffered the most road losses (10) of any team this season and will now look to win back-to-back regular season road fixtures for the first time in five years. Over the past three seasons, the Pacific Northwest has been particularly unpleasant for Sporting KC with no points to show from any of the last eight trips to Seattle, Portland and Vancouver while being outscored 24-4.
Thursday’s tilt – rescheduled from Sept. 9 to accommodate the reigning Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks hosting the opening game of the 2026 NFL Season at Lumen Field that night – will see Sporting play the first of a record seven regular season matches in the month of October. Historically, SKC has the highest winning percentage (.564) of any month in October with a 34-24-20 regular season record all-time between October 1 and October 31st.
Kansas City and Seattle played to a 1-1 draw in the previous meeting this season on May 2 at Sporting Park as Sounders midfielder Paul Rothrock scored one of his team-high five goals this season. Dejan Joveljic equalized for Sporting Kansas City, however the Designated Player is now a member of the Seattle Sounders after a cash-for-player trade in August.
Joveljic will miss Thursday’s match while on international duty with Serbia as will Sounders midfielder Snyder Brunell – who had played all 26 games for Seattle this season – and Sporting KC forward Ruben Ramos Jr. as both are currently with the United States Under-20 Men’s National Team for a training camp in Spain. In addition, Sounders midfielder Hassani Dotson will serve a one-game suspension on Thursday for caution accumulation.
Led by head coach Brian Schmetzer, who became one of nine coaches in MLS history to earn 150 regular season wins with the Sounders 3-1 victory against Minnesota on Saturday, Seattle is unbeaten in their last seven games (2-0-5) after enduring an eight-game losing streak and a 13-game winless run – both of which are the longest suck streaks in MLS this season.
Seattle’s attack – which leads MLS with 10 goals by substitutes and six goals on counters – is orchestrated by Albert Rusnak, who has an MLS-high 11 primary assists and a team-best 16 goal contributions (four goals, 12 assists) including a goal and four assists in his last three matches. In addition, Designated Player Jordan Morris has 93 career goals in all competitions for Seattle – the most in Sounders history – including nine career goals against Sporting Kansas City, the most of any player in the SEAvSKC series and his most against any opponent. In fact, no active MLS players have scored more regular season goals against SKC than the Seattle trio of Morris (9), Jesus Ferreira (7) and Danny Musovski (5).
With eight games remaining, Sporting sits last in the Supporters’ Shield standings while the Sounders currently occupy the ninth and final playoff position in the Western Conference. The Sounders have qualified for the playoffs in 16 of their 17 seasons – the most postseason appearances of any MLS team since 2009 – while accumulating the most points in the league since their expansion campaign and collecting the most trophies (nine) of any American MLS team during that span.
