Sporting Kansas City fell just short of coming back from a big first-half deficit their last time out. They hope for a better fate on Saturday night as they face New York City FC in Kansas City, Kan.

Kansas City (6-11-5, 23 points) trailed the Seattle Sounders 3-0 at halftime, but despite converting a pair of second-half penalties, it fell 3-2 as its three-match unbeaten streak (2-0-1) came to an end.

SKC interim head coach Kerry Zavagnin is hoping Saturday’s match sees his team show a more consistent performance throughout the night.

“We have lost control at times in the first half. I don’t think it’s energy. I don’t think it’s mentality. I think it’s an awareness of the group that the game is 90 minutes, and you have to work your way into the game while maintaining control of it,” Zavagnin said.

Sporting Kansas City hope that Dejan Joveljic (13 goals) can continue his hot streak of eight goals in nine matches as they look to move up the table. With 12 matches remaining, Kansas City is six points behind the San Jose Earthquakes for the ninth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference with two teams between them in the standings.

New York City FC (10-8-4, 34 points) took down Orlando City in dramatic fashion on Wednesday, forcing an own goal in the 87th minute before a match-winner from Alonso Martinez in the first minute of second-half stoppage time to win 2-1.

Martinez had a chance at what looked to be a sure goal in the 63rd minute, but instead hit the far post despite Orlando goalkeeper Pedro Gallese being out of position.

But his stoppage-time winner, his ninth goal of the season, could be what he needed to get through what’s been a “tough time” trying to match his 16-goal output of last year, New York City head coach Pascal Jansen noted.

“Sometimes he looks a little tired from all the games he’s playing. He’s a number nine. He lives off his goals. And like you saw (Wednesday), he missed a huge opportunity, but we kept him in the game,” Jansen said. “As long as we have his back, he’ll be OK and get back to his normal level.”

New York City, currently in seventh in the Eastern Conference standings, has split the first two matches of a four-match away stretch. It is 2-5-4 away from home.

–Field Level Media

Tai Baribo looks to heat up again on Saturday as the Philadelphia Union take a two-match winning streak into Houston to face the Dynamo.

Baribo scored his 14th goal of the season in Philadelphia’s 2-1 victory over CF Montreal on Wednesday. He had been kept without a tally in four matches after erupting for six in his previous four contests.

Baribo is three goals shy of Nashville SC star Sam Surridge in the race for the Golden Boot Award and is two behind Lionel Messi of Inter Miami.

Defender Olwethu Makhanya scored his first career MLS goal for the Union (14-5-4, 46 points), who remain one point ahead of FC Cincinnati in the bid for the Supporters’ Shield.

“If you follow the pathway of this system, whether it’s 2018 or 2023 or whether it’s now, I think you can see just the overall contribution of togetherness. Everyone has a role to play,” Philadelphia head coach Bradley Carnell said. “Everyone contributes and you see that with this group.”

The Dynamo (7-11-5, 26 points) have been shut out on back-to-back occasions and fell three points behind ninth-place San Jose in the Western Conference.

“There’s no excuse for how we performed today,” Houston coach Ben Olsen said after his team’s 3-0 setback to the Vancouver Whitecaps on Wednesday. “And we have a team coming up in Philadelphia that’s going to try and do the same thing Vancouver did today. So it’s up to us to respond.”

Jack McGlynn, who spent the previous four seasons with Philadelphia, was denied in his bid to put the Dynamo on the scoreboard in the 67th minute. Houston mustered just two shots on goal in the entire match.

“It’ll be a fun game, and good to see everyone,” McGlynn said of his upcoming reunion, per the Houston Chronicle. “But once we step on the field, they’ll be just like any other opponent.”

The Union have allowed the fewest goals in the league at 22.

–Field Level Media

Inter Miami need to regroup fast, and the host New York Red Bulls want to keep rolling as they square off on Saturday night in Harrison, N.J.

Inter Miami (11-4-5, 38 points) are coming off a lopsided 3-0 loss at Cincinnati on Wednesday, which snapped a five-game winning streak and six-game unbeaten stretch in league action.

Lionel Messi, who is expected to play against the Red Bulls (9-8-6, 33 points), saw the end of his MLS-record streak of five matches scoring multiple goals.

Inter Miami, who will play their ninth match in a span of 36 days on Saturday, also announced on Friday that starting goalkeeper Oscar Ustari will not play against the Red Bulls.

Ustari exited Wednesday’s game in the 25th minute with what looked like an injury to his left side. Rocco Rios Novo replaced him and surrendered a pair of second-half goals.

It’s unclear how long Ustari will be out, but coach Javier Mascherano hinted it could be at least a few days.

“I wouldn’t be able to say how long he’ll be out. The doctors can probably say better as the next few days play themselves out,” Mascherano said. “Hopefully, it’s not a long absence.”

New York wrestled away three points from the New England Revolution on Wednesday with an impressive second-half comeback. The Red Bulls scored five goals between the 56th and 88th minutes to erase an early 2-0 deficit and prevail 5-3.

“I mean, five goals in the second half is crazy, something that doesn’t happen for us often,” said Daniel Edelman, who scored the first of those goals. “It was good to see that we wanted more. We wanted to get that third, fourth, fifth.”

Emil Forsberg and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting followed Edelman’s goal by scoring two apiece to fuel the comeback.

The Red Bulls, who lost 4-1 to Inter Miami in their first meeting in South Florida on May 3, are on a seven-game unbeaten streak at home stretching back to a loss to D.C. United on April 19. Cameron Harper (knee), Lewis Morgan (thigh) and Serge Ngoma (thigh) aren’t likely to play against Miami, which figures to be without Ian Fray (adductor), Baltasar Rodriguez (hamstring) and goalkeeper Drake Callender (hernia).

The Red Bulls sit in eighth place in the Eastern Conference.

–Field Level Media

Both Orlando City and the New England Revolution will attempt to rebound from devastating defeats when they meet on Saturday night in Foxborough, Mass.

For Orlando (9-6-8, 35 points), it was a late collapse in the form of two goals conceded after the 87th minute in a 2-1 home loss to New York City FC on Wednesday night.

The result marred what had been an extremely promising performance for the first hour, with the Lions outshooting their opponents 14-3 overall and 4-0 in efforts on target before halftime.

But the inability to find a second goal to add to Robin Jansson’s late-first-half tally resulted in the extension of a winless run to four matches, with three of those played in Central Florida.

“There is a consciousness within the group of the need to win games, especially at home,” manager Oscar Pareja said of the team mood after the latest defeat. “But at the same time, we cannot lose the confidence that we have to keep doing what has brought us here and execute much better the actions that is going to put us in a better position.”

Marco Pasalic and Martin Ojeda alone combined for 11 shots without being able to add to their respective 10-goal MLS totals. And the night reflected the reality that Orlando’s attack has run hot and cold, with 24 of their 41 MLS goals scored across seven matches.

The sixth-place Lions still enter Saturday’s clash in a considerably better position than the Revolution (6-9-7, 25 points), who enter in 11th and seven points out of the ninth and final East playoff place.

And despite Leonardo Campana’s third and fourth goals, the Revs conceded five times between the 56th and 88th minutes to see a two-goal lead turn into a 5-3 defeat at the New York Red Bulls on Wednesday.

Manager Caleb Porter’s side has won only once in its last 12 and is running out of time to avoid a second consecutive postseason absence.

“I feel like we have to put together a complete performance,” Porter said. “Because we have games where we defend really well but we don’t finish, and we have games where we attack really well but then in that second half, we don’t defend well.”

–Field Level Media