- Colorado Rapids are in the best form with three wins and two defeats from their last five MLS 2026 matches.
- Sporting Kansas City have lost four of their last five matches, winning once, and now look very fragile.
- Colorado Rapids were 4-1 winners at Sporting Kansas City in MLS 2026's previous meeting four months ago.
Wells has Rapids marching
Colorado Rapids have a terrific opportunity to maintain their solid form this weekend when the 20th-placed club play host to 29th-placed Sporting Kansas City at Dick's Sporting Goods Park, USA. Matt Wells took charge on 23 December 2025 and has set the Rapids up to play a high-intensity, high-pressing style of football with which they have been winning the ball back quickly and then attacking vertically.
The club have 22 points from their 18 MLS 2026 games and have won three and lost two of their last five, keeping the momentum going in a solid run that has seen Colorado Rapids show they are a very tough nut to crack in Denver.
Sporting Kansas City are eight points worse off with just 14 from the same 18 matches and SKC's confidence must be pretty low ahead of this contest. Raphaël Wicky took over on 5 January 2026 and has worked to set his team up to dominate possession and build from the back, but they also have an aggressive counter-press to go with their possession game.
Visitors look vulnerable
Their most recent three results have been a 2-0 home win, a 4-0 away defeat to Los Angeles FC and a 0-2 home loss to Houston Dynamo FC with SKC's wheels wobbling again after a bright spot.
Dejan Joveljic leads their scoring charts for MLS 2026 with eight goals from 18 appearances, but he has also hit two of their five goals in their last five so the striker is their most dangerous player.
Rafael Navarro is Rapids' most prolific player with seven goals from 18 games and has scored two of his side's five goals across the last five so he is the team's sharpest edge in the box.
Home side favourites for a win
Colorado Rapids are odds-on favourites for this match at 1.49 with Sporting KC at 5.5 and the draw at 4.6. The odds on the hosts look fair enough as they have won 3 of their last 4 at home, while SKC have won just 2 and lost 7 of their 9 MLS 2026 away games.
The away side average just 0.78 goals per game on the road so the attack is very blunt and that will count against them on Sunday. Our first pick for the game is Colorado Rapids to win and we're taking Over 2.5 goals at 1.48 and both teams to score at 1.57 as our secondary option.
Colorado's last two games were a 1-0 away loss to St. Louis City SC and a 1-0 win at home to Austin FC, which was a good bounce-back after the narrow defeat. The head-to-head is locked at one win apiece with no draws in the last two MLS 2026 meetings, but the home meetings average 1.5 goals for Rapids and 1.5 goals for Sporting KC so we're expecting a feisty match.
This is very much a press-versus-possession battle and if Colorado's press lands cleanly, the home side could rattle SKC out of their build-up flow. The Rapids' vertical game should be able to get a few chances while the visitors will always be a danger from possession, so both teams to score makes sense in this match.
