Preview: Sporting continues preseason Saturday vs. Colorado Rapids in Arizona

Sporting Kansas City vs. Colorado Rapids
2021 Preseason presented by Children’s Mercy
Saturday, March 20 | 5 p.m. CT
Kino North Complex | Tucson, Arizona
Live Updates: @SKCMatchday on Twitter

A showdown between MLS originals will take place Saturday as Sporting Kansas City battles the Colorado Rapids in the second match of the club’s 2021 preseason, presented by Children’s Mercy. Kickoff is slated for 5 p.m. CT at Kino North Complex in Tucson, Arizona, with live updates available via Twitter at @SKCMatchday.

With just four weeks remaining until the start of the MLS regular season, Manager Peter Vermes’ men look to be rounding into form. Sporting strolled to a 4-0 friendly win over Phoenix Rising FC last weekend in Arizona, thanks in large part to brilliant performances from Sporting KC Academy products Wilson Harris and Gianluca Busio. Harris sizzled his way to a hat trick by the 33rd minute, while Busio also found the back of the net. Sporting KC II midfielder and fellow Academy graduate Jake Davis tallied an assist in the contest and Kayden Pierre, a current Academy standout who has yet to sign a professional contract, impressed as an outside back.

Harris, Busio, Davis and Pierre are four of 12 Sporting KC Academy products on Vermes’ 34-player preseason roster. A dozen current or former Academy players featured in the victory over Phoenix—a promising indication of Sporting’s professional pathway bearing plentiful fruit.

Sporting stars Alan Pulido and Roger Espinoza and French newcomers Remi Walter and Nicolas Isimat-Mirin didn’t participate in last weekend’s friendly. Pulido, Espinoza and Walter were nursing minor knocks and could feature against Colorado on Saturday, while Isimat-Mirin has yet to begin training. Vermes said during a Thursday press conference that the newly signed French center back could arrive in Arizona as early as today to begin a quarantine period before joining the side in training.

The Rapids will be four days removed from a productive Tuesday that saw the club post a pair of 2-0 victories in split-squad action. Colorado’s first-choice squad beat the Portland Timbers behind first-half goals from Kellyn Acosta and newly acquired midfielder Michael Barrios. The other game also produced two first-half strikes as Homegrown Players Oliver Larrez and Matt Hundley bundled home against Rising FC.

Sporting and Colorado both enjoyed strong 2020 campaigns. Vermes’ side, of course, finished first in the Western Conference table, four spots ahead of a fifth-place Rapids team led by third-year head coach Robin Fraser. Minnesota United FC dashed both teams’ postseason dreams, ousting Colorado in the conference quarterfinals and Sporting in the conference semifinals last November.

Sporting got the better of Colorado in the 2020 regular season series, taking a 3-2 win at the MLS is Back Tournament last July and a 4-0 beatdown on Oct. 24 at Children’s Mercy Park. The sides also scrapped to a 1-1 stalemate on Sept. 27 in Colorado.

Sporting KC 2021 Preseason Schedule
(subject to change)

Sporting KC 2021 Preseason Roster

* Sporting KC II player
* Sporting KC Academy player
** Unsigned MLS Super Draft pick