Sporting KC vs FC Dallas: Matchday 18 Preview

When: Saturday, June 11th, 2025, at 7:30 PM CT 

Where: Children’s Mercy Park 

How to Watch/Stream: Apple MLS Season Pass 

Sporting Kansas City returns home with three points on a two-game road trip that closed May and opened June. On their two-week road trip, Sporting KC found themselves leaving Houston with three points and falling just short in Los Angeles with a 3-1 loss to LAFC.

As for FC Dallas, they will come to KC on 14 days rest, having not played since their 0-0 draw to the Philadelphia Union, which saw Lalas Abubakar sent off in the 39th minute. 

Even though SKC fell short against LAFC, they come in with some momentum as Dejan Joveljic has four goals in his last three games, the last one coming off an assist from Manu Garcia in LA.  

Matchup History 

In the year 2004, this matchup would have seen the Kansas City Wizards vs Dallas Burn in Arrowhead Stadium, but after both clubs rebranded, Dallas following the 2004 campaign, and KC in November of 2010, when the Wizards became known as Sporting KC. These two original MLS teams may have rebranded over the years, but they still have the same goal: to win the MLS Cup. 

While a lot has changed since 2004, Sporting KC and FC Dallas are preparing for another matchup in the year 2025. Last time these two teams went head-to-head Sporting KC fell to FC Dallas 2-1 at Toyota Stadium. Just two days later, Kerry Zavagnin found himself at the helm of SKC as Interim Head Coach, after SKC moved on from club legend Peter Vermes.  

Now these two teams both sit outside the playoffs in 11th and 12th, with Dallas three points ahead of SKC, and just three points out of the playoffs. Meaning another high-stake matchup between Lamar Hunts former clubs, as a swing of three points could be the momentum SKC needs to make a late push for the playoffs.  

What Will it Take for a SKC Win? 

A lot has changed since March 29th in Dallas, Texas when Dallas put the nail on the coffin of Peter Vermes time with Sporting Kansas City. So, what will it take this time? It will take SKC continuing their run of form and putting another close to if not complete performance together. But this time they also have Dejan Joveljic who has found his footing in an SKC jersey.  

“We got the player we thought we were going to get……When you look at the goals he scored in the last year and half, he might be the most underrated striker in the league,” said Kerry Zavagnin.  

With Sporting KC’s form, it safe to say this time it won’t be as much of an uphill battle as the last time, but it is still going to take SKC finally putting a full 90 minutes together to get a win over Dallas. The biggest question marks around SKC are who will be hurt come Saturday and how rested FC Dallas is with 14 days off. 

But it is still going to take more than one goal, even with the improvements to the SKC backline, FC Dallas attacking options might still be too strong for Sporting to hold them off for 90 minutes. Even with that, the absence of a center back for Dallas may allow Dejan space to find himself in good positions to make it five goals in his last four games. 

Lineup and Predictions  

With Sporting KC back to basically full strength with Jake Davis returning on the weekend and Thommy being back in training this week, the injury bug may be pausing for SKC. Also, it is noteworthy that SKC will have Zorhan Bassong back from International Duty where he got the start against Ukraine in the backline for Canada.  

Here is my line-up prediction for SKC: John Pulskamp in goal, a center back pairing of Jansen Miller and Joaquin Fernandez, Jake Davis at right back, and Logan Ndenbe at left back. For the midfield it will be Jacob Bartlett at the 6, Zorhan Bassong at the 8 and Manu Garcia rounding out the midfield at a 10. The front three for SKC will be Daniel Salloi, Shapi, and Dejan Joveljic at 9.  

As for FC Dallas, they come off 14 days of rest and are without Lalas Abubakar in central defense. For them it will be Paes in goal, Urhoghide and Ibeagha as the center back pairing. Along with Moore at right back and Farfan as the left back, with a midfield trio of Ramiro, De Silva Ferreira and who else but Lucho Acosta. With the front three of Kamungo, Julio and Musa as the 9. 

When looking at the two line-ups the players to watch will be the 10s as Manu and Acosta, two DP 10s go head-to-head, and my prediction is that Manu gets the better of this match-up. 

Game Prediction: SKC 2 – FC Dallas 1, goals provided by Dejan and Manu for SKC and Lucho Acosta for FC Dallas.