Houston Dynamo FC hit the road to face Sporting Kansas City for the third time this year, with kickoff scheduled for 7:30 p.m. CT at Children’s Mercy Park.
Houston enters Saturday’s match after defeating Vancouver Whitecaps FC 4-1 at Shell Energy Stadium on Wednesday evening. Captain Hector Herrera opened the scoring in the 13th minute after his free kick attempt from just outside the penalty box deflected into the back of the net off the Vancouver wall. Defender Griffin Dorsey doubled Houston’s lead in the 44th minute, charging into the box from the right side, threading a strike between defenders into the top far corner of the net. Houston sealed the result in the second half with a diving header from forward Ivan Franco in the 73rd minute and a tap-in goal inside the six-yard box from forward Aliyu Ibrahim in the 84th minute. Notably, defender Teenage Hadebe made his first league appearance for the Dynamo since April 22 after recovering from a leg injury.
Houston is now undefeated in its last seven league matches since July 15, reaching that milestone for the first time since August 2012. The Dynamo currently sit fourth in the Western Conference standings, the first time the Club has been inside the conference’s top-five through at least 25 games since 2017.
Kansas City enter Saturday’s match three points outside of the playoff line, sitting 11th in the Western Conference. Sporting’s most recent result saw them fall 3-0 at home to Leagues Cup finalists Nashville SC after Fafa Picault, Hany Mukhtar and Jack Maher scored for the visitors.
In the storied history between the two clubs, the Dynamo hold a 20-18-17 (WLD) record over Sporting in all competitions. The teams have already met twice at Shell Energy Stadium this year. In the first match, Houston defeating Kansas City 1-0 in the U.S. Open Cup Round of 32 despite going down to 10 men in the 35th minute. The second match ended in a 2-2 draw thanks to a stoppage time equalizer from Franco.
The Dynamo next travel to South Florida to take on Lionel Messi and Inter Miami CF in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup final on Wednesday, Sept. 27, with kickoff scheduled for 7:30 p.m. CT.
