Sporting Kansas City must learn from the mistakes that allowed Los Angeles FC to tear their defence apart in last week's 4-0 defeat, Raphael Wicky has acknowledged.

Sporting KC suffered a thumping loss last time out, keeping them rooted to the bottom of the Western Conference despite beating Minnesota United 2-1 in their previous game.

Kansas City go up against the Houston Dynamo, who sit fifth in the standings, next time out at Sporting Park.

And Wicky is clear on where his team must improve. 

"It's about the whole team. We have to learn from that. We have to learn that in certain moments we cannot do certain things or force plays," he told reporters.

"LAFC are obviously an extreme example, with extreme quality, but in MLS, when you force things, a lot of teams in MLS have fast strikers, fast wingers and they try to counter-attack. 

"We also do that in moments. Everyone has to learn. For this game especially, we said, 'let's not force things and let's not get tired of keeping the ball.' 

"And unfortunately, in the first half, we had these few moments where we forced it and then they punished us."

Houston are unbeaten since returning from the World Cup break, having drawn 1-1 with D.C. United before beating Texas rivals Austin FC 3-0 last weekend.

Mateusz Bogusz struck twice and was joined on the scoresheet by Guilherme, with all of the Dynamo's goals coming in the opening 32 minutes.

Despite the dominant nature of that victory, head coach Ben Olsen chose to remain grounded with his post-game comments.

"We're still a work in progress, but when we all show up and play in the manner that we did here, I think we can go places," Olsen said.

"This is a project. We started with a brand-new team this year and we've had some movement, some trades and things, and it's going to continue to evolve." 

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Sporting Kansas City – Dejan Joveljic

Joveljic scored his team-leading eighth goal of the season in Sporting Kansas City's last home match, on July 22 against Minnesota. 

Five of his eight goals have come at home this year, and Sporting are unbeaten at home (W2 D2) when he has scored in 2026. 

In the four home matches where Joveljic has not scored, Sporting KC have a 100% losing record. 

Houston Dynamo – Guilherme

In last week's 3–0 win over Austin, Guilherme had his second game this season with three goal contributions (also versus FC Dallas in March). 

The 2026 All-Star is the first Houston player to record multiple matches with three or more goal contributions in the same season since Alberth Elis did so three times in 2019.

MATCH PREDICTION – HOUSTON DYNAMO WIN

The last time Sporting Kansas City and Houston squared off was on Decision Day 2025, when they played a scoreless draw – the 17th draw in their all-time regular-season series. 

Four of those draws have come in their eight regular-season meetings since 2022, after only having one draw in 11 league matches between 2018 and 2021.

Sporting have won two of their last three home games (L1) after earning just one win in their previous 13 home matches (D5 L7). They are looking to win consecutive home games in all competitions for the first time since a three-match streak in August and September 2024.

But Houston are the Opta supercomputer's favourites, as they enter Saturday's contest on a four-game unbeaten run (W2 D2) in regular-season play, their longest since May 2025. 

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

Sporting Kansas City – 30.3%

Houston Dynamo – 44.8%

Draw – 24.9%