The Seattle Sounders look to keep defending their home fortress when they host the Los Angeles Galaxy on Saturday.

The Sounders (7-1-3, 24 points) are unbeaten in their last 22 home matches (16-0-6) across all competitions, including a 4-0-1 mark during the 2026 regular season. Beyond just their home form, the Sounders enter Saturday with a 6-0-3 record in their last nine MLS matches.

Scoring efficiency could be the only flaw within this great start, as only six teams have scored fewer than Seattle’s 17 goals. Despite outshooting opponents 78-37 over their last three matches, the Sounders came away with two 1-1 draws and a 3-2 victory over the San Jose Earthquakes.

“We’ve put a lot of balls inside the box. I think we’ve done a good job in transition moments,” Seattle coach Brian Schmetzer said. “I think our possession has been pretty good. … It’s just we had two kind of sour results (the two draws) that I don’t think should poison the well.”

The Galaxy (4-5-4, 16 points) have scored at least once in each of their last 23 regular-season games, but translating the offense into consistent results has been the larger challenge. Wednesday’s 3-1 loss to Sporting Kansas City was LA’s second loss this season to Sporting KC, who sit at the bottom of the Western Conference.

“I thought we were low on the intensity level. … I felt like we couldn’t get out of our hotel rooms,” LA coach Greg Vanney said on Wednesday, in a reference to the Galaxy’s schedule.

The stretch of three road matches in eight days saw the Galaxy travel from Atlanta to Kansas City to Seattle.

“Time on airplanes, time zone shifts left and right. … I think you’re trying to make the best of a difficult situation when it comes to the travel part of this week,” Vanney said.

Marco Reus and Gabriel Pec (each with four goals and four assists) share the Galaxy’s team lead with eight goal contributions. Joao Klauss leads Los Angeles with five goals, but is out until at least August 1 due to foot surgery.

Paul Rothrock leads the Sounders with four goals. Albert Rusnak (three goals, four assists) and Jesus Ferreira (two goals, five assists) share the team lead with seven goal contributions.

–Field Level Media

Austin FC looks to lean on their recent success at home to rebound from a definitive midweek loss when they host cellar-dwelling Sporting Kansas City on Saturday in a Western Conference match between teams well below the playoff line.

The teams each have two matches remaining before MLS’s two-month break for the World Cup and hope to finish the first half of the season with some momentum

The Verde (3-5-5, 14 points) return home after a 5-0 walloping at San Diego on Wednesday, as the team’s most lopsided in club history snapped Austin’s three-match unbeaten streak (2-0-1). The Verde have produced shutout wins in the two most recent home games, over Houston and St. Louis, respectively, and look to channel that solid play and a 2-2 road draw against Minnesota on Sunday to respond from its subpar showing on the West Coast.

“We know exactly what we didn’t do well (with Wednesday’s match) and what didn’t work, and we move forward, for what is coming,” Austin coach Nico Estevez said Friday. “Sadly, what you did in the past you cannot change it. Right now, Kansas City is the most important thing that we have in front of us.

“Is it easier said than done to move on? It is good that you have this game so quickly that you can’t really even think about Wednesday.”

Myrto Uzuni leads Austin with five goals this season, with Christian Ramirez second with four tallies. Facundo Torres has distributed a team-best six assists, and Uzuni has recorded four.

Sporting (2-8-2, 8 points) head into the weekend with the fewest points in the West, the fewest goals (11) in MLS and the largest points differential in the league (minus-22). Kansas City travels to Austin after beating the Los Angeles Galaxy 3-1 at home on Wednesday behind a goal and two assists from Calvin Harris.

The win was a solid bounce back after a 6-0 loss at Portland on May 9 and snapped a seven-match winless stretch (0-6-1) dating back to a 2-1 victory on the road over the Galaxy on March 14.

“It’s been too long to sit here without a win,” Sporting coach Raphael Wicky said Wednesday. “I’m very proud of the team and the way we reacted after the loss in Portland. I would be lying to you to say that I was expecting that exactly, but you never really know what you are going to get. I just wanted them to go out there with energy.

“The team stayed focused, concentrated. And that is very important for these guys.”

Kansas City is led by striker Dejan Joveljic’s six goals. He is the only Sporting player with more than one tally this year.

Austin has never lost to Sporting Kansas City at home, winning all five matches.

–Field Level Media

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — It was too little and far too late for Bryson DeChambeau to get it going at the end of his Friday round at the PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club.

DeChambeau made just one birdie Thursday and one birdie through his first 15 holes Friday — both came at the mild, par-5 ninth — before he rolled in birdies at Nos. 16, 17 and 18 to finish his round and his tournament.

The two-time major winner shot a 71 but missed the cut by three strokes at 7 over, after his 6-over 76 in the first round put him too far behind the 8-ball.

DeChambeau has now missed the cut at three of the past four majors, and while he sits second in the LIV Golf season standings, he is not close to his best self at these stringent tests of golf. He opened the Masters with a 76 en route to missing the cut, and his first-round 76 this week was his worst score at a PGA Championship in his career.

On an Aronimink setup with pin locations Scottie Scheffler described as “absurd,” DeChambeau ranked 153rd out of 156 golfers in strokes gained around the green. At the 11th hole in the first round, he tapped a putt from just off the green and watched it roll all the way down to 57 feet away, 27 feet further than where he started. At the 10th on Friday, he had a chip not make it onto the shelf of the green and roll back down toward him — though he managed to chip in for par on the next swing.

DeChambeau did not meet with the media either before the tournament or after either of his rounds.

Garrick Higgo of South Africa will be kicking himself after missing the cut by one shot.

Higgo made headlines Thursday when he was less than a minute late to his first-round tee time and incurred a two-stroke penalty. He still managed to shoot a 1-under 69, which would have been a 67 and tied him for the lead had he avoided the penalty.

But on Friday, Higgo made his tee time but crashed back down in a 6-over 76. He needed to make an eagle putt at the par-5 ninth, his final hole, to make the cut on the number but missed it narrowly to his left.

Had Higgo not been penalized, he would be at 3 over and preparing for the weekend; instead, he’s 5 over and packing his things.

The best player in terms of world ranking to miss the cut was Englishman Tommy Fleetwood, whose Friday round of 73 included a messy double bogey at the par-3 14th.

Fleetwood was joined at 5 over by Wyndham Clark, Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre, South Korea’s Sungjae Im and PGA professional Michael Block, who became a fan favorite at the 2023 PGA Championship where he tied for 15th. Block opened this week with a 70 but stumbled to a 75 Friday.

U.S. Open champion J.J. Spaun (6 over) has missed the first two major cuts of the year. Also heading home are Keegan Bradley (6 over), Norway’s Viktor Hovland (6 over), England’s Tyrrell Hatton (6 over) and Max Homa (12 over).

Rory McIlroy was in the danger zone after an opening 74 that he described simply as “s–.” But the six-time major winner from Northern Ireland rebounded in style with a bogey-free 67 to move up to 1 over, just five back of leaders Maverick McNealy and Alex Smalley and well inside the cut line.

“It’s been hard to make birdies out there because obviously, one, the wind the last couple days, but also where they have put these hole locations, I feel like they have really tried to protect the course the first couple of days,” McIlroy said. “So it seems like they have used up a lot of the really hard ones.”

McIlroy’s driving accuracy was only slightly better Friday, as he made 8 of 14 fairways in regulation rather than 5 of 14, but he stayed away from trouble while making a 12 1/2-foot birdie putt at the second, a 7-footer at the fourth and a 10-footer at the 12th.

“At five back I do feel like I’m right in the tournament,” he said, “and that’s really what I wanted to do today was to just get myself back in it, and I feel like I’ve done that.”

–Adam Zielonka, Field Level Media