Saturday, July 25 | 7:30 p.m. PT
presented by Toyota
🏟 | BMO Stadium - Los Angeles, CA
🖥 | WATCH: Apple TV | Coupang Play (Korea), SpoTV (Korea), Local Bar Partners
📻 | LISTEN: 710 AM ESPN, ESPN LA App, SiriusXM FC 157 KFWB 980 AM La Mera Mera (Spanish), & KYPA 1230 AM (Korean)
Seeking its third straight MLS regular-season win following the FIFA World Cup break, LAFC welcomes Sporting Kansas City to BMO Stadium for a Saturday night matchup presented by Toyota.
The third-place Black & Gold handed fourth-place Real Salt Lake a 3-1 defeat at midweek, receiving a goal apiece for the second straight match from attacking stars Son Heung-Min and Denis Bouanga. Now LAFC (9W-5L-3D) faces 15th-place SKC (4W-10L-2D) in both clubs’ last match before next week’s MLS All Star Game, and LAFC’s second-to-last match before Phase One of Leagues Cup begins on August 5.
“There are areas that we have to improve,” head coach Marc Dos Santos said after the RSL win. “The positive that I saw was when I went to the locker room to speak with the guys after the game, we were [critical]. ‘OK, we won, but we could be better.’ I think this is what builds a winning mentality – inside the wins you're also able to evaluate and you want to improve as a team still.”
THESE TWO AGAIN
Since returning from the World Cup, LAFC has defeated two teams in the Top 9 of the Western Conference – beating the Galaxy 3-0 on the road and RSL 3-1 at home. Bouanga and Son were dangerous throughout both matches, with Son – LAFC’s only representative at next week’s All Star Game in Charlotte – scoring two blistering goals from the top of the penalty area that recalled his Puskás-winning Premier League days in England. Son leads all MLS players in assists, with 10, but his transition strikes against the Galaxy and RSL were his first two goals in league play in 2026 and earned him MLS Team of the Matchday recognition. Watching their most globally famous teammate finally dent the net sent positive vibes rippling across the team.
“It's good for the team because Sonny is very important for us,” Bouanga said. “When Sonny has a good feeling, he is good for the team because he helps a lot. He has scored now. I think it's not the same Sonny [as] before the World Cup. Because now he's fresh … you saw this tonight, and I think it's [just] the beginning.”
THE SERIES
LAFC leads the all-time series against Sporting KC with a regular-season record of 9W-4L-2D and a 30-16 advantage in goals scored – not counting LAFC’s 3-1 victory in the 2024 U.S. Open Cup Final.
LAFC has won four straight over SKC and is unbeaten in its last 10 outings against the Kansans in all competitions, outscoring them 23-5 over that span. Sporting’s most recent win in the series came five years ago: a 4-0 result in August 2021, LAFC’s first and only non-playoff season. SKC’s last win at BMO Stadium came earlier that same year, by a 2-1 score. SKC has not scored more than one goal against LAFC in the ten meetings since, and has been shut out five times in that span. In their 16 all-time meetings, SKC has scored more than one goal against LAFC only three times.
The last time these two met was June 8, 2025, a 3-1 LAFC win at BMO Stadium in the Black & Gold’s final game before departing for the FIFA 2025 Club World Cup. Striker Dejan Joveljic, a thorn in LAFC’s side during his career with the Galaxy, opened the scoring in the 39th minute. LAFC defender Eddie Segura headed home a corner kick from Bouanga to equalize, then Bouanga added a 59th-minute penalty kick and notched his second assist of the night, feeding striker Olivier Giroud at the 90’+3 mark.
Despite LAFC’s dominance in the series, Bouanga – LAFC’s all-time leading scorer with 113 goals across all competitions – has only scored twice against SKC since joining the Black & Gold in the summer of 2022. Bouanga’s most recent goal in the series came on May 17, 2023, when LAFC and SKC drew 1-1 in Los Angeles.
SKC REPORT
Sporting got off to a rough start this year, with a season-opening run of 1W-8L-1D during which the club parted ways with longtime head coach Peter Vermees. More recently, SKC has won three of its last five matches -- gathering nine of the 14 points that head coach Raphael Wicky’s squad has on the season.
SKC has played twice since the World Cup break, a hard-fought, 3-2 derby loss on the road to St. Louis City, and a 2-1 home win over Minnesota United on Wednesday. In the victory over MNUFC, Designated Players Joveljic and Manu Garcia scored in each half to secure the club’s second home win of the season, despite giving Minnesota more of the ball (58%-42%), and losing the xG battle (2.0-1.3).
Earlier this year, Sporting acquired Angolan attacker Capita Capemba from Poland’s top flight. Lately, Capemba has come alive, scoring against STL and assisting Jovelic against MNUFC.
Said Wicky, the new manager: "We're growing. We had a very bad period in April, which was very, very bad and very hard for various reasons, but I feel we came back from that before the World Cup and we grew. Now we keep building. We keep integrating new players. Like I mentioned already a few times, I'm very happy that [centerback] Or (Blorian), [left back] Emir (Karic) and [centerback] Moises (Mosquera) are now with us. They will help this team massively.”
SKC CAN WIN IF
Joveljic gets loose. The Serbian striker (above right), who turns 27 next month, is a master of movement off the ball, of altering his runs and changing speeds mid-gallop in order to lose his marker. Eddie Segura and Aaron Long faced Joveljic last year after his move from the Galaxy, but LAFC’s other two central defenders, Nkosi Tafari (three minutes vs. SKC in 2025) and Ryan Porteous (zero minutes), aren’t as familiar.
With eight goals and two assists so far this season, Joveljic has recorded 10 goal contributions in each of the last five seasons; only two other MLS players are in that club (Cristian Espinoza, Hany Mukhtar).
LAFC WILL WIN IF
Its makeshift midfield continues to shine. With defensive midfielders Igor Jesus (knee) and Stephen Eustáquio (expired loan) unavailable, and with attacking midfielder Timmy Tillman temporarily sidelined (leg), LAFC has played its last two games with Mark Delgado, Mathieu Choinière, and interim number-six Eddie Segura on the pitch for 510 of a possible 540 minutes against the Galaxy and Real Salt Lake. The results have been impressive, with Delgado and Choinière providing assists and Segura stepping in to anchor the midfield’s back end. “It doesn't look perfect,” Dos Santos said of his current midfield shuffle, “but our job is to find ways to win games, because it's hard in this league to win games.
“Timmy [Tillman] is very, very close and hopefully he could get minutes against Kansas City,” Dos Santos added.
