Sporting Kansas City vs. Vancouver Whitecaps FC
2025 MLS Regular Season | Match 31
Saturday, Sept. 20 | 7:30 p.m. CT (7:40 kickoff)
Children's Mercy Park | Kansas City, Kansas
Watch: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV | Pub Partners
Listen: 94.5 FM or 1510 AM | SKC App
More: Know Before You Go | 5 Things | By the Numbers | Game Notes
Sporting Kansas City will host the Vancouver Whitecaps FC at 7:30 p.m. CT on Saturday at Children's Mercy Park as the club celebrates National Hispanic Heritage Month.
Tickets for the Western Conference match-up are available on SeatGeek, including the Hispanic Heritage Night Ticket Pack which comes with a limited-edition t-shirt and the choice of a Corona or Coca-Cola product. SportingStyle has also released the team’s new Siempre Sporting scarf for fans and ticket holders can enjoy discounts on Aztec Margaritas as well as 24-ounce Modelos and Coronas.
Sporting Kansas City will take on a Vancouver Whitecaps side that finished runners-up in the 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup in June and arrives in Kansas City coming off a pair of emphatic results. The Whitecaps beat Supporters' Shield leaders Philadelphia by a 7-0 scoreline last Saturday to clinch a spot in the MLS Cup Playoffs and then continued their quest for a fourth straight Canadian Championship title with a 4-0 win over Canadian Premier League frontrunners Forge FC on Tuesday to advance to the final.
The visitors had four players -- goalkeeper Yohei Takaoka, defender Tristan Blackmon, midfielder Sebastian Berhalter and forward Brian White -- feature in the 2025 MLS All-Star Game this summer, however Blackmon suffered a knee injury in the team's last match and White, who leads Vancouver with 20 goals this season across all competitions, has been sidelined the past two games with a hamstring injury. Their absences come after season-ending injuries to Sam Adekugbe (Achilles) and Ranko Veselinovic (knee) for a resilient Vancouver squad that has also missed Designated Player Ryan Gauld (knee) and Joedrick Pupe (hamstring) since the spring.
Defensively, the Whitecaps are anchored by Takaoka in net with a league-leading 12 shutouts this season - including a 3-0 win over Sporting on July 26 -- while the team's attack has been bolstered by the arrival of German World Cup winner Thomas Muller. The club captain recorded a hat trick on his 36th birthday in the 7-0 win over Philadelphia last weekend and was named MLS Player of the Matchday.
After four straight home games, Vancouver travels to Kansas City for a match-up featuring two of the top rookies in Major League Soccer as Sporting centerback Jansen Miller and Vancouver defender Tate Johnson go head to head. The duo have played the most minutes of any 2025 MLS SuperDraft picks this season as Johnson -- the son of former Kansas City Wizards midfielder Brian Johnson (1997-2001) -- has logged 1,443 minutes and Miller has recorded 2,209 minutes.
Saturday's showdown, which pits the team with the fewest losses and fewest goals conceded in MLS against the team with the most losses and most goals conceded this season, has Sporting Kansas City at risk of mathematical elimination from playoff contention for the first time this season. While a win will keep the club's postseason hopes alive for another week, dropping points could officially rule SKC out of the playoff picture if any of the following three scenarios take place on MLS Matchday 35:
- SKC loss vs. VAN +
DAL win vs. COL
- SKC loss/tie vs. VAN + SJ win vs. STL
- SKC loss/tie vs. VAN + RSL win vs. LAFC
SKCvVAN will be available to watch in English (Nate Bukaty and Devon Kerr) and Spanish (Diego Pessolano and Daniel Chapela) on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV with local radio coverage on 94.5 FM and 1510 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 KC Power & Light district featuring $4 domestic drafts, $5 wells and 50% off nachos for fans in SKC gear starting at 5:30 p.m.​​​​​​ on Saturday.
