Sporting Kansas City at LA Galaxy
2025 MLS Regular Season | Match 32
Saturday, Sept. 27 | 9:30 p.m. CT (9:40 kickoff)
Dignity Health Sports Park | Carson, California
Watch: Apple TV+ or MLS Season Pass | Pub Partners
Listen: 810 AM or 103.7 FM | SKC App
More: 5 Things | By the Numbers | Game Notes
Sporting Kansas City will travel to the West Coast to take on reigning MLS Cup champions LA Galaxy at 9:30 p.m. CT on Saturday at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, Calif.
The Western Conference match-up will be available to watch in English (Mark Rogondino and Heath Pearce) and Spanish (Rodolfo Landeros and Martin Zuniga) with an MLS Season Pass or Apple TV+ subscription with local radio coverage on 103.7 FM and 810 AM (Blake Aerni and Jon Kempin). Pub partners in the Sporting Pub Network will also show all of the action, including a watch party at No Other Pub in the Kansas City Power & Light district featuring $4 domestic drafts, $5 wells and 50% off nachos for fans in SKC gear starting at 7:30 p.m.āāāāāā on Saturday.
A pair of MLS charter clubs, Saturday's showdown will bring together familiar faces on both sides of the match-up. Sporting KC interim head coach Kerry Zavagnin and LA Galaxy head coach Greg Vanney were teammates on the U.S. Men's National Team from 2000-2005, including Zavagnin's international debut on Oct. 25, 2000 in a 2-0 win over Mexico just weeks after Zavagnin and Vanney squared off as KC and LA met in the conference finals of the 2000 MLS Cup Playoffs.
Vanney will serve a one-game suspension, as will midfielder Isaiah Parente, on Saturday while Sporting striker Dejan Joveljic is set to face off against his former club after moving from Los Angeles to Kansas City in the first cash-for-player trade in MLS history in February. The Designated Player spent four seasons with the Galaxy, tallying 45 goals and 18 assists while leading the team to the 2024 MLS Cup title with the winning goal in the final. This year, Joveljic has scored 17 goals -- third most in a single regular season in club history -- to become the second player in MLS history with back-to-back 16-goal seasons in MLS play (regular season and playoffs) with different clubs.
Sporting goalkeeper John Pulskamp - who ranks third in MLS with 106 saves this season --developed in the Galaxy Academy from 2017-2019 and has gone unbeaten (3-0-2) with three shutouts and a 0.8 goals against average in five previous regular season match-ups with LA. In addition, midfielder Memo Rodriguez spent the first half of the 2023 campaign with the Galaxy.
On the opposite side, Galaxy midfielder Tucker Lepley is a Sporting KC Academy product who also represented SKC II in 2019 and LA defender Chris Rindov was drafted by Sporting in the 2023 MLS SuperDraft and played his first two professional seasons in Kansas City.
Historically, LA (21) and KC (20) lead all Western Conference teams in playoff appearances however both teams have been eliminated from postseason contention with defenses that have conceded the most goals in MLS in 2025. After winning a record sixth league title last December, the last-place Galaxy have suffered eight regular season home losses this season - the most in a single season by a defending champion in league history -- while SKC has allowed multiple goals in eight straight games for the first time in club history.
The Galaxy, who qualified for the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup with a third-place finish in the 2025 Leagues Cup this summer, will have a chance to add another piece of hardware to the club's trophy case when they play Deportivo Toluca FC in Campeones Cup on Wednesday.
The hosts boast a roster that includes Designated Players Joseph Paintsil, Gabriel Pec and Riqui Puig, however Puig -- the team's highest paid player -- has been sidelined since last November with a knee injury on top of recent injuries to Emiro Garces, Matheus Nascimento, Marco Reus, Lucas Sanabria and Christian Ramirez. Paintsil, a Ghanaian international with a goal contribution in four straight games, scored his team-leading sixth goal of the season last weekend while Pec is second on the team in both goals (five) and assists (six).
The MLS Matchday 37 fixture is the second meeting of the season between SKC and LA. Sporting won the previous match-up by a 1-0 scoreline on May 4 at Childrenās Mercy Park, becoming the first team in MLS history to win a match despite not taking a shot courtesy of a Maya Yoshida own goal.
