SKC host St. Louis City; home teams dominated series in 2023

Maybe someone can earn a result.

St. Louis City SC renews its rivalry with host Sporting Kansas City on Saturday night, and the two sides enter with more draws than wins and losses combined.

St. Louis is coming off a 1-0 home victory over Austin, while Sporting KC is trying to bounce back from a 3-2 home loss to Inter Miami.

Joao Klauss scored the lone goal as St. Louis (2-1-5, 11 points) snapped a five-match winless streak in beating Austin. The low goal output was an aberration from the two sides' first three MLS matches, which saw a combined 18 goals. Austin did not even register a shot on goal.

"He's a selfless teammate, he does everything for the team, and you could see what (the goal) meant for him, his family, for his teammates," St. Louis coach Bradley Carnell said of Klauss, who netted his second goal of the season and first that was not on a penalty kick. "That's been weighing on his shoulders. You haven't really seen it visually through training or through anything, (but) you could see when the ball went over the line, it was for sure a relief for him."

Sporting Kansas City (2-2-4, 10 points) fell at home -- though not their typical home -- to Inter Miami on April 13. The match was moved to Arrowhead Stadium, the home of the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs, because Miami's roster includes international superstar Lionel Messi. The crowd of 72,610 broke the all-time attendance record for a soccer game in Kansas City and the state of Missouri.

The star for SKC was Erik Thommy, who scored both of the club's goals.

"Erik was a machine today," coach Peter Vermes said. "His first goal was fantastic. The second one was a world-class goal."

St. Louis City will be making the first of two regular-season trips to Children's Mercy Park this season. Last season, the teams played twice in St. Louis and once in Kansas City, with the home team winning each match. In the MLS Cup playoffs, SKC swept the two matches to advance to the Western Conference semifinals.