- Houston are the slight favourites for Sunday's visit to Kansas at 97/100, but the hosts will have confidence after a win in their last home game.
- Sporting Kansas City are 28th in MLS 2026 with 14 points from 16 games while Houston are 9th with 26 points from 16.
- Both teams have been involved in some goal-fests in recent weeks with Over 2.5 goals and both teams to score.
Home comforts for Sporting Kansas City
Houston Dynamo head to Sporting Kansas City as narrow favourites to extend the gap between these two MLS sides on Sunday, but the home side have a home record of 2 wins, 2 draws and 4 losses.
The head-to-head record is tightly poised with both sides winning one and drawing one of their three meetings, but Sporting Kansas City failed to win either of their home games against Houston in that season, which ended 0-0.
Raphael Wicky has been at the helm of Sporting KC since 5th January 2026 and he has a more flexible, structure-first approach that bends to the personnel. He prefers to build with structure but then be flexible to the personnel on the pitch, which should make this an interesting match.
Houston look to be the sharper of the two
They will try to slow the rhythm of the game and will dominate possession but Houston are a much more attack-minded team in terms of their personnel and structure under Ben Olsen, who has been the coach since November 2022.
That could make for a chess match with Sporting trying to slow down and control while Houston will press high and try to force turnovers that can become transition attacks in a game that could be a track meet.
Houston's away record of 2 wins, 1 draw and 4 defeats in MLS 2026 is far from impressive and doesn't really reflect their league standing, but they are the better side so far and should have enough about them to nick a result.
Goals more likely than a cagey clash
Sporting KC have been much improved in recent matches so will have belief that they can get something from this, which makes the draw a possible outcome in the 3-way market.
Houston have been in steady, if not spectacular form of late with 2 wins, 2 draws and 1 defeat in their last 5 matches, but they followed a 1-1 draw away to LA Galaxy and 1-1 home draw with D.C. United by thrashing Austin FC 3-0 earlier today.
A home win for Sporting KC would be a shock but it is within their reach given they responded to a 3-2 away defeat to St. Louis City with a 2-0 win over their next opponent just 3 days later. So, we're keeping the upset potential alive by taking Over 2.5 goals and BTTS Yes at the short odds of 1/2 and 9/20, respectively.
Dejan Joveljic has been on fire
Sporting score an average of 1.38 goals per game at home in MLS 2026 and concede an average of 1.88, so we can expect plenty of chances to be created in what should be a relatively open game.
Dejan Joveljic is Sporting's danger man with eight goals in 16 appearances so far in MLS 2026 and he has been in particularly good form of late, hitting three of Sporting's 10 goals across the last five matches.
Manu Garcia has also been in fine form, providing three assists in the same five matches, while Guilherme Augusto leads Houston's scoring charts with eight in 15 appearances, with three of those eight coming in their last five games.
Houston have scored 11 goals in their seven away games in MLS 2026 so they have enough firepower to nick goals away from home, even if Sporting control the game for long periods.
