Sporting Kansas City at St. Louis CITY SC
2026 MLS Regular Season | Game 15
Thursday, July 16 | 7:30 p.m. CT (7:45 kickoff)
Energizer Park | St. Louis, Missouri
Watch: Apple TV | Watch Party | Pub Partners
Listen: 810 AM | 1340 AM | SKC App
More: 5 Things | Game Notes
Sporting Kansas City will resume the 2026 Major League Soccer season against rivals St. Louis CITY SC at 7:30 p.m. CT on Thursday at Energizer Park.
After more than a seven-week break for FIFA World Cup 26, the clash between Sporting Blue and CITY Red will be available to watch in English (Nate Bukaty and Devon Kerr) and Spanish (Diego Pessolano and Daniel Chapela) on Apple TV in addition to local radio coverage on Sports Radio 810 WHB (Blake Aerni) and La Grande 1340 AM (Josue Orantes and Diego Gutierrez).
STLvSKC will also be shown in pub partners across the Sporting Pub Network and Sporting Kansas City will host a Blue Hell watch party in the Budweiser Brew House at Sporting Park. Gates will open at 6 p.m. CT on Thursday and fans can enjoy their first two drinks on the club in addition to complimentary food. Sporting Style will also be offering a free FIFA mini ball or water bottle with the purchase of an SKC jersey.
In addition, fans traveling the 250 miles from Kansas City to St. Louis for the Western Conference match-up are inivted to join the club for a gameday happy hour at 5 p.m. at The Pitch (2 South 20th Street) across from Energizer Park.
Building on a history of soccer competition between teams from Kansas City and St. Louis that spans more than 100 years -- including seven straight decades of match-ups at the professional level dating back to the North American Soccer League in the 1960's -- Sporting Kansas City and St. Louis CITY SC will meet for a 11th time. SKC leads the all-time series with a 4-3-3 record, highlighted by Sporting's postseason sweep of top-seeded St. Louis in 2023 to end their expansion season.
Most recently, Sporting won the season series in 2025 with a 2-0 victory in Kansas City and a 2-2 draw in St. Louis. The cross-state rivals last met more than a year ago on May 14, 2025 in a memorable comeback that saw Dejan Joveljic score a late equalizer to rally from a 2-0 halftime deficit. The Serbian striker leads SKC with six goals this season and Joveljic has four goals in his last four games against St. Louis CITY SC.
Defensively, Sporting Kansas City has bolstered the club's backline with three new additions this summer with the arrival of Israeli international Or Blorian along with left back Emir Karic and center back Moises Mosquera via transfer. Major League Soccer's secondary transfer window officially opened on Monday and will close on September 2nd.
Conversely, St. Louis restarts the season without two of the team's top paid players as Sergio Cordova (end of loan) and Cedric Teuchert (end of contract) each departed while midfielder Chris Durkin will serve a one-game suspension for caution accumulation on Thursday. Led by first-year head coach Yoann Damet, St. Louis CITY SC's roster is headlined by the Designated Player duo of captain Roman Burki and vice captain Marcel Hartel along with playmaker Eduard Lowen.
St. Louis CITY SC went unbeaten in the team's final five games prior to the World Cup break across all competitions (3-0-2) in a stretch that included a first-ever berth in the U.S. Open Cup semifinals - to be played in September -- following a penalty shootout against the Houston Dynamo in May.
St. Louis and Kansas City have scored the fewest goals in the Western Conference and both sides have ground to gain in the final 20 games of the regular season to reach the postseason. The hosts sit four points below the playoff line while Sporting is nine points back of the ninth and final playoff position entering Thursday's fixture -- which will feature two-time MLS Referee of the Year Allen Chapman -- with the two teams set to meet again on Aug. 19 at Sporting Park.
