MATCHUP QUICK FACTS

·     Minnesota United’s last game was a 1-0 loss to the Seattle Sounders at Lumen Field.

·     While Seattle’s João Paolo leads the Sounders with eight assists, he only has two goals on the year, both of which came against MNUFC. The first opened the scoring in the season opener and the second was the gamewinner in the most recent game.

·     Following yellow cards for both Osvaldo Alonso and Chase Gasper in that game, neither player will be available for selection against Sporting Kansas City due to yellow card accumulation.

·     In the all-time regular season series between MNUFC and Sporting KC, the Loons have never taken a point at Children’s Mercy Park and have scored only one goal. That lone goal was scored by defender Tyrone Mears — his only goal for MNUFC.

·     In the postseason, Minnesota and SKC have played one game, a 3-0 win for MNUFC at Children’s Mercy Park on December 3, 2020.

·     In the all-time series, eight of the 27 total goals — almost a third — have come in the final 15 minutes of games.

·     Kansas City’s Andreu Fontas is tied for third in MLS in minutes with 2070. Luis Martins is right behind him with 2067.

·     Dániel Sallói is tied for third in the Golden Boot race with 12 goals on the year.

·     Sallói is also tied for second with five game-winning goals. Minnesota’s Robin Lod is in third with four so far.

·     As a team, Sporting Kansas City have the second-most goals in MLS with 39.

·     SKC trail only the New England Revolution in multi-goal games with 12.

·     Minnesota United have the lowest shots-on-goal percentage in the league, with only 27.6% of their efforts finding the frame. SKC are ninth at 35.8%.

·     SKC and MNUFC are third and fourth in shots with 358 and 340, respectively.

·     Sporting KC lead the league in corner kicks with 153.

·     Emanuel Reynoso is fourth in corner kicks with 89.

·     Tyler Miller is second in goals against average, allowing just 0.83 goals per game and posting seven shutouts, good for fourth in the league.

MINNESOTA CONNECTIONS

·     Franco Fragapane and José Mauri were both members of Talleres in Argentina from 2019–2021 before coming to MLS.

·     Although they did not overlap, defender Nicolas Isimat-Marin and forward Adrien Hunou both came up through the renowned academy Clairefontaine and the Rennes youth system.

·     Peter Vermes and Manny Lagos were teammates on the New York/New Jersey MetroStars for the inaugural MLS season in 1996. Lagos played the 1997 season on the MetroStars with current Sporting KC Assistant Coach Kerry Zavagnin.

·     Graham Smith and Hassani Dotson both played for Oregon State in 2015.