Sporting Kansas City travels to the Pacific Northwest this week to take on reigning Leagues Cup champions Seattle Sounders FC at 8:30 p.m. CT on Thursday on the Emerald Queen Casino Pitch at Lumen Field. The Western Conference match-up will be available to watch in English and Spanish on Apple TV in addition to local radio coverage on Sports Radio 810 WHB and La Grande 1340 AM with audio streams in the SKC mobile app.Â
1. ANDRE & HARRIS SCORE IN WIN
Sporting Kansas City earned a 2-0 victory over the Houston Dynamo at Shell Energy Stadium 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.
Andre opened the scoring in the 27th minute with his fourth goal in his first four starts – becoming only the third player in club history to do so along with Willy Agada (2022) and Felipe Gutierrez (2018) – before also adding an assist to give the Brazilian Designated Player five goal contributions (four goals, one assist) in his first five games for the club.
Harris doubled Sporting’s lead in the 45th minute to continue a career year for the Wake Forest product. The 26-year-old now has a team-high 10 goal contributions this year with four goals and six assists since joining SKC as a free agent after five seasons in MLS split between FC Cincinnati (2021-2022) and the Colorado Rapids (2023-2025).
2. SPORTING SNAPS STREAKS
Sporting Kansas City travels to Seattle after snapping a pair of streaks on Saturday with a 2-0 win at the Houston Dynamo.
The victory was the club’s first clean sheet during the 2026 campaign as SKC goalkeeper Stefan Cleveland produced five saves. The run of 25 games without a shutout goes down as the fourth longest such streak in a single season in MLS regular season history and equals the 1999 San Jose Clash for the most games to start a season without a clean sheet.
Saturday’s road result also 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 the 37 goals conceded away from home are second most in a single season in club history, one shy of the 38 road goals conceded in 2025.
Over the past three seasons, the Pacific Northwest has been particularly unpleasant for Sporting Kansas City with no points to show from the team’s last eight trips to Seattle, Portland and Vancouver from 2024-2026 while being outscored 24-4.
3. CLEVELAND RETURNS TO SEATTLE
Coming off a clean sheet in the club’s 2-0 win at Houston on Saturday, Sporting Kansas City goalkeeper Stefan Cleveland is poised to play at Lumen Field for the first time on Thursday since spending four seasons with the Sounders from 2020-2023. Cleveland made 29 appearances across all competitions for Seattle, helping the Sounders reach the Leagues Cup final in 2021 with a shutout against Mexican side Tigres UANL in the quarterfinals.
Cleveland also played a notable role in helping the Sounders qualify for the 2022 Concacaf Champions Cup – which the Sounders won to become the first MLS team to participate in a FIFA Club World Cup – as he made 15 appearances during the 2021 MLS regular season. Seattle finished third overall in the Supporters’ Shield standings -- two points above Sporting Kansas City in fourth -- to earn the Concacaf Champions Cup berth originally slated for the U.S. Open Cup champion but ultimately given to the highest-ranked U.S. based Division I club that had not already qualified after the U.S. Open Cup was cancelled in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Cleveland made his Sporting Kansas City debut against the Sounders on May 2, 2026 with a season-high seven saves in a 1-1 draw at Sporting Park. The 32-year-old has played every minute since – starting each of Sporting Kansas City’s past 17 games -- with 59 saves in net to move into 10th on Sporting Kansas City’s all-time chart.
4. SKC KICKS OFF BUSY OCTOBER
After playing only two regular season matches in the month of October for each of the past four years, Sporting Kansas City travels to Seattle to play the team’s first of seven regular season fixtures from Oct. 1 to Oct. 31 this year. This marks only the third time in the past 20 seasons that Sporting will play seven regular season matches in a single month: May 2014 (schedule impacted by World Cup), October 2020 (schedule impacted by Covid) and October 2026 (schedule impacted by World Cup).
This month is also only the second time in club history that Sporting Kansas City will play regular season games on the first day (Oct. 1 at Seattle) and final day (Oct. 31 versus FC Dallas) of the same month. The only other such occasion also featured a road match against the Seattle Sounders at Lumen Field back on Sept. 1, 2018 before SKC finished the month playing at Sporting Park on Sept. 30, 2018 en route to finishing in first place in the Western Conference.
Notably, Thursday’s match-up between Sporting KC and Seattle was originally scheduled for Sept. 9 and was rescheduled to Oct. 1 after the NFL announced the reigning Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks would host the opening game of the 2026 season on Sept. 9 at Lumen Field.
Sporting Kansas City has historically found success in the month of October (34-24-20), which has the team’s highest winning percentage (.564) of any month in the club’s regular season history.
5. RAMOS ON INTERNATIONAL DUTY
Sporting Kansas City forward Ruben Ramos Jr. joined the United States Under-20 Men's National Team this week for a nine-day international training camp in San Pedro Del Pinatar, Spain until Oct. 5.
Led by head coach Gonzalo Segares, the United States Under-20 Men’s National Team is continuing to prepare for the 2027 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan. The training camp will feature matches against Brazil (Oct. 1) and Denmark (Oct. 4) at the Pinatar Arena.
Ramos joined Sporting Kansas City on Sept. 3 via loan from the LA Galaxy with 17 goals and seven assists in his professional career. The 19-year-old forward has previously represented the United States at the U-15, U-16, U-17, U-19 and U-20 levels, including appearances at two Concacaf U-20 Championships in 2024 and 2026.
FIFA introduced a new 16-day international window from Sept. 21-Oct. 6. Seattle will be without midfielder Snyder Brunell (U.S. Under-20’s) and forward Dejan Joveljic (Serbia). In addition, Sounders midfielder Hassani Dotson will miss SEAvSKC while serving a one-game suspension for caution accumulation.
