Saturday will mark the 75th time that FC Dallas and Sporting Kansas City will meet on the pitch in a regular season MLS match.

Sporting comes into this weekend's match winless through five games (0-4-1). Their lone draw came on the road two weeks ago against Minnesota when Sporting came from three goals down to tie the Loons.

Let's dive into Saturday's opponent a bit to see what SKC brings to the match and how FC Dallas could come away with some points as they look to end a two-game home losing streak.

Key Player: Dejan Joveljic

The former LA Galaxy striker came over in the offseason on one of the league's first cash trades. Joveljic has two goals to his record so far this season and will be the key guy for their attack.

Key Matchup: Erik Thommy vs Marco Farfan

Sportings DP winger currently leads the team in shots this season. Farfan will need to find ways to lock down the German winger from being able to get into the penalty area. Limiting his chances will also go a long way in limiting what Joveljic is able to do off a rebounded shot.

Availability Report1:

Suspended: none
Out: Andrew Brody (quad),
Questionable: Joaquin Fernández (back), Dany Rosero (Ankle)
On Loan: none
International duty: none

Quick Notes:

Last season against FCD: The two sides met twice in the regular season and once in the US Open Cup. Sporting was able to get the best of FC Dallas in the two meetings at Children's Mercy Park (oddly enough in the same week). FC Dallas returned the favor in the lone Toyota Stadium meeting at the end of the season when both teams were eliminated from playoff contention.

Recent run against FCD: Since 2020, SKC is 4-6-3 in all regular season meetings against FC Dallas. Their last wins in Frisco were back-to-back results in 2021.

Potential Lineup:

Vermes hasn't been hit with a big injury bug yet this season but his team has struggled pretty badly through five games this year. He still likes to use a 4-3-3 that sometimes morphs into a 3-2-5 or a 2-3-5 in more sustained attacking sequences.

Pulskamp; Shelton, Rosero, Fernandez, Ndenbe; Garcia, Davis, Radoja; Salloi, Joveljic, Thommy

Keys To Three Points over SKC

  1. Handle the press: A Peter Vermes club always like to press up the field and force mistakes in the back. Dallas has already played a couple of high-pressing teams this season and had some mixed results. If they can remain composed in the back with the build up play and work the ball through the midfield like they did in Salt Lake last week, they'll be able to put the pressure on SKC instead.
  2. Connect with Musa: Musa hasn't scored since the draw in Colorado earlier this season. We need to see him more in and around the penalty area where he is the most dangerous. Either it be feeding him balls from the wings or through the middle with Lucho Acosta, Musa has to be put in better spots to score goals in this game.
  3. Dominate the middle: The formation shift last week in Salt Lake seemed to show this group's best look. Part of that was how well the club played through the middle portion of the field for a change. By having guys like Sebastian Lletget and Patrickson Delgado as linking midfielders between Ramiro and Acosta, the flow of the attack was much better and it resulted in more chances on goal. Sporting is leaky in their defense, so finding ways to get more chances on goal should come through the middle of the field.
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1 Note: MLS has a new injury report deadline that doesn’t hit until the day before each game. I will put last week’s report in these scouting reports and update where I can ahead of the weekly release from the league.