When: Friday, August 8 at 6:40 p.m.
Where: Lower.Com Field, Columbus, Ohio
How to Watch: MLS Season Pass (FREE!)

Last Result:
SKC: 2-1 Loss vs Toluca
COL: 4-1 Win vs Aston Villa (Club Friendlies)

Preview:

Sporting Kansas City continue their Leagues Cup campaign in the round of 32 and pay a visit to reigning MLS Cup Champions Columbus Crew.

SKC are coming off a 2-1 loss at home to Toluca in group stage play with Stephen Afrifa scoring for the home side at the stroke of half time.

Due to being MLS Cup champs, the Crew avoided group stage play and will begin their hunt for the Leagues Cup trophy against Sporting.

In the regular season, the clubs met on June 22 at Lower.com Field where Columbus dominated Kansas City in a 4-0 thrashing, led by a hat-trick from Cucho Hernandez. That 4-0 score line is SKC’s worst margin of defeat this season. Peter Vermes took the blame in that loss for rolling out a new formation with little time to implement it during a busy stretch of the season.

Since then, however, Sporting is 5-3-1 in all competitions. A turnaround compared to the earlier part of the regular season for Kansas City.

Sporting KC entered the match against Toluca with an empty injury report but will be without Nemanja Radoja in the midfield on Saturday and possibly Memo Rodriguez.

Columbus boasts a roster with five MLS All-Stars including Hernandez, Diego Rossi, Darlington Nagbe, Rudy Camacho and Steve Moreira.

The Crew have allowed a regular season league-best 22 goals, while their offense is top 10 in the league in goals scored (47). Meanwhile, Sporting KC have not posted a shutout in eight matches, though they have also not been shutout in that same stretch.

It won’t be easy for SKC, but a win would continue their push for hardware in 2024. Later in August, Kansas City will continue their U.S. Open Cup campaign against Indy Eleven, followed by the final stretch of the season.

The winner of Friday’s match will host the winner between Inter Miami and Toronto FC on Friday.